Search - Demon Prince Enma, Vol. 2 on DVD

WHERE HAVE ALL THE DEMONS GONE?

Sesho | Pasadena, TX USA | 07/12/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"By episode 3 of Demon Prince Enma, it seems like demon sightings by Enma, Yukihime, and Kapaeru have become a rather rare occurrence. When they DO encounter one, it's usually a weakling compared to demons they've faced in the past and goes meekly back to the Underworld without a fight. Frankly, Enma is getting rather bored. Kapaeru has even begun chatting up a young girl on the internet, a girl with big problems. She thinks her mother wants to kill her. But is there a demon behind her mother's psychotic behaviors? In Episode 4, a group of people comprising of two college students, a police inspector, a teacher, and a journalist all find themselves in a mysterious house that they can find no escape from. Within it, they are forced to relive the most horrible moments of their life. And they were all led there by a mysterious woman in white that strongly resembles Yukihime.

This second dvd is actually the end of the road for the series Demon Prince Enma since only 4 episodes were made in Japan. I thoroughly enjoyed the show, even though both dvds are extremely overpriced at 40$ a pop for about 70 minutes of material. The high price point will scare lots of potential buyers away and is a move that could sabotage Bandai's profits in America. I felt that this was the weaker of the two volumes of Enma, mainly because he appears very little in the 4th episode. That episode focuses almost exclusively on the people in the house instead of the main characters of the anime. In fact, Enma, Yukihime, and Kapaeru have seemed like supporting characters at times. The focus of the writers seemed more on the effects the demons were having on the humans they possessed. This actually added to the mysterious nature of Enma and pals and gave over most of the episodes to Ringu-like horror. The animation and design of the show were extraordinary and beautiful and continued to convey tragedy, regret, and eroticism and no especial order. Lacking from these last two episodes was the dark humor of the first two, which I missed a bit. A really good show."

The second and final volume of the "Demon Prince ENMA" OAV s

Dennis A. Amith (kndy) | California | 08/08/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I really enjoyed the first volume of "Demon Prince ENMA" because it had a good balance of comedy and a good balance of creepy, horror and the characters of Enma, Yukihime, Kappa and Grandpa Chapeauji solving mysteries was very fun to watch.

The series has its roots ala "Dororon Enma" back in 1973 when the group were much younger and Enma and Yukihime were children and more of an anime targeted towards children back in the day.

With the first volume, Go Nagai's dark and humorous style is very evident and with volume 2, things take a crazy shift and becomes more like an American horror film ala "SAW" and "FINAL DESTINATION"

Not only are people getting killed by the monsters but a major character is killed as well.

In episode 3 titled "Karuma: Misery Swirling Demon", a demon has made it's move, killing some familiar faces from the first volume and also a major character. Five individuals are brought together and end up in a mansion. The inescapable mansion has no windows, keeps changing each time and its quite evident, there is a monster that feeds on their darkness and is out to kill them.

In episode 4 titled "Enma", the surviving members of the inescapable mansion try to fight to stay alive and Enma makes his move against the demon.

VIDEO:

In the first volume, there were a lot of outdoor scenery but in the final two volumes, everything is taking place in a mansion. The mansion is shown quite a bit ala CG but I really enjoyed the first volume because it takes place in a variety of areas but nevertheless, the final volume is quite creepy and full of violence. A lot of darkness, blood, etc. The video features a 1.78:1 transfer and is anamorphic 16:9LB with the special features in 4:3.

AUDIO:

As usual, Bandai Visual continues their audiophile treatment with a 448 kbps encoding for the 2.0 and 5.1 mix. The voice acting by the actors are very done, definitely showcasing the emotions of fear throughout the two episodes. But that creepy ambiance via audio is still done quite well!

EXTRAS:

Special features include voice actor interviews wtih S. Sato who plays Kapaeru and M. Yamamoto who plays Sat-chan), Cho who plays Grandpa Chapeauji and S. Kobayashi who plays Yuri. This was a blast to watch and to hear the characters talk about their scenes of the final volume.

Included with the first volume DVD is a 16-page booklet which feature character profiles, settings and even short manga pages of by Nagai and short story by Hayasaka Ritsuko and others.

I really enjoyed this anime. Nagai is just a master in creating mecha, cute girl and dark anime storylines and with "Demon Prince ENMA", it's definitely an interesting twist to the "detective agency" style of anime of ghostbuster type of teams.

Enma and team are not there to save the world or humanity, they just want to retrieve their demons and bring them back to the underworld and if they resist, well they get destroyed.

So, for those who are expecting the victims to find solace by a typical feel-good happy ending which you tend to see from anime with a hero or heroes coming to save the day, then prepare for the Nagai twist because what you think is probably not what you're going to expect.

Volume 1 was exciting and humorous because it featured more monster hunting and the main characters of Enma, Yukihime and Kapaeru much more.

This volume focuses more on the characters we met from the first volume and how five of them must fight from being killed by a demon in a creepy mansion.

Volume 2 by no means is a weak story. If anything, the storyline gets more creepy, darker and more violent and less humorous.

I was also surprised by the death of one of the main characters. And speaking of the main characters, I admit that I was a bit surprised to see less of the main characters but its understandable why it was done and it was part of the strategy to capture/destroy the demon.

The final ending was a bit of a surprise though. I don't want to say it was a let-down but it's one of those endings where its left interpreted by the viewer and looking online to see how others view the final minutes, it seems they are also perplexed by the final moments.

Nevertheless, I got what I expected from a Nagai horror anime series. The first volume was truly exciting and a great balance of horror and humor but the second volume becomes focused on more of the creepy, horror and violence and I suppose, missing that humor was a wee bit of a letdown since the first two episodes had so much of it.

I guess it felt like an another American horror film cliche of a group of people together and everyone tries not to get murdered.

Nontheless, the final volume was still enjoyable to watch. It was definitely creepy!"