AKA: Shin Megami Tensei: Tokyo Mokushiroku

Genre: Horror

Length: OAV, 60 minutes

Distributor: R1 DVD and VHS from Manga Entertainment

Content Rating: 16+ (violence, brief nudity,

Related Series: Digital Devil Story (Shin Megami Tensei), Shin Megami Tensei Debichiru

Also Recommended: Demon City Shinjuku, Wicked City

Notes: Based on the long-running "Shin Megami Tensei" video game series, which has been made into anime form several times since the 80s (Digital Devil Story) as well as made into several live-action films with the same general theme of technological occultism.

Rating:

Tokyo Revelation

Synopsis

A commercial flight bound for Tokyo explodes in a ball of fire when it is sacrificed to the forces of hell through a computer program. A week later, Souma Kojiro finds that his old friend Akito has joined his school. While happy about it at first, he later comes to suspect that his friend has ulterior motives.

Review

This is a fairly interesting OAV, and it's nice that the forces of Hell are in with the times, what with the inclusion of computer programs for rituals and summoning purposes. ^_^

Granted, it's a fairly low-key release, and one I bought purely on chance at that. Perhaps it can be accused of taking shortcuts as far as writing is concerned, but I'm not gonna call it bad on any accounts.

The animation is fairly decent, though nothing to break into applauses about or anything. Charather designs are quite good, however. The dub, as I remember it, was .... decent. This being a UK Manga release, the chance of the US dub being different is there. The music was pretty fogettable fare, however. Like I said, it was a fairly low-key release.

Being a single-shot OAV release, the character loses out some in the development area. Mainly because most character doesn't get more than a ten minute time frame anyway, so you might say most of them are just there to serve some sort of purpose for a scene anyway. At least the main characters are somewhat interesting.

It should probably be mentioned that Akito's interest in Kojiro borders on the homoerotic, as we're made quite clear on in a rooftop scene in school. This shouldn't really bother anyone but the very homophobic ones, though.

No, the only real problem I had with this too short title is that nothing is really explored in it. After Akito's main plan is put into motion, things play out way too fast and is resolved even faster. It pretty much has you go "Hey, wait a second here...." as the credit rolls. I know; it's just an hour, but that's the problem, see? I can't even begin explaining a single scene at the last half without giving away major plot elements. You might call it predictable, but the briefness of it will surprise you nonetheless.

I'm not saying it isn't worth the watch, but you might want to reserve this title for an evening's rental. It's too short for a purchase unless it's a bargain bin title. Keep this in mind if you should even come upon it.

A decent, but far too short OAV. — Stig Høgset

Recommended Audience: Hmm. I'd relay this one to the late teens and above. Apart from some semi-explicit violence, there are minor scenes of nudity and of course, plenty scenes of "Satanic rituals." Not for the young'ins.