Search - Devil Hunter Yohko Complete Collection on DVD

The guilty pleasures of Duckman, part 3. 62%

Duckman | Drifting in the Cosmic Sea | 12/18/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I stumbled upon Devil Hunter Yokho last fall when I bought this online after getting really drunk. When it arrived at my house about a week later, I just put it behind the rest of my anime DVDs and forgot all about it until a few days ago. After finding this, I got really skeptical of Yokho' due to its combination of violence, nudity, magical girl theme, and teen comedy since the former two are geared towards male audiences while the latter two are geared towards female audiences (like mixing oil and water if moderation isn't used for any of them). Due to my past experiences with awful anime like Steel Angel Kurumi and Elfen Lied (these two desperately tried to mix ideas that simply didn't go together), I was expecting Yokho' to be a disaster but boy was I surprised.

A lot of people have compared Devil Hunter Yokho to Buffy the Vampire Slayer; I'm sure most of them are talking about the TV series but since I haven't seen the show, I actually think of the campy 1992 film of the same name since both aren't meant to be taken seriously and are fun to watch. Officially, there's six episodes in this OVA, but I say there's five since "Devil Hunter Yokho 4Ever" is a compilation of j-pop music videos using footage from the first three DHY episodes (except for one that has chibi versions of Yokho and Azusa).

Each episode in DHY is a stand alone, so that means each episode has its own plot. This opens the door for repetition and depending on who you are and how you choose to see Yokho', can be a good or bad thing. Basically, the plot of each episode is that demons find a way to break into the human world and Yokho (and later, her apprentice Azusa) have to kill them; the main difference is the demons being slain and sometimes, the settings. I can see why some people wouldn't like this, but since this OVA wasn't meant to be on the same level of anime masterpieces like Grave of the Fireflies and Perfect Blue (and doesn't try to be), I don't really mind this since overall, seeing Yokho and Azusa killing demons is fun. The only episode in this OVA I didn't care for was the last one since it was tremendously mediocre and not a good way to end it. Fortunately, since there aren't any overarching plots in this OVA, it's not necessary to get the whole DHY experience.

I'm not going to bother describing each episode because as stated before, many of them are interchangeable with the plot sequences. However, I will describe some of the characters.

The characters aren't exactly works of art, but they fit in perfectly for this type of anime. Yokho Mano is a good lead character since she does act like a teenage girl and as a heroine, isn't perfect (any decent character has flaws). Yeah, she's obsessed with winning a pretty boy's heart, but fortunately this isn't overdone (except for the sixth episode). I also like how despite being a really tough fighter, she isn't an unstoppable fighting machine; she takes considerable amounts of pain in several episodes. She can be a hoot at times like in DHY episode three, when she's transported into an alternate reality and meets a prince in that dimension, she explodes with joy and says something like "I can finally kiss this cursed virginity goodbye!!" (not quoted verbatim) which got me cracking up a bit. Azusa Kanzaki is Yokho's apprentice in devil hunting and is one of my favorite characters in DHY (along with Yokho) since she's as cute as a lamb and has an admirable spirit to be an expert at her desired trade. Chikako Ogawa (Chi for short) is pretty funny as Yokho's best friend as she feeds Yokho information about the "hot boys" in school and of demons for her to kill.

The animation and artwork is good for a lower budget anime from the early 90's, and since the whole OVA spans about five years (1990-95, I believe), the animation tends to improve as each installment progresses.

At the end of the day, watching Devil Hunter Yokho is like eating a funnel cake or deep fried Snickers bar. It doesn't contain any nutritional value, and it's not supposed to. If you want to see two sexy teen girls kill demons, then DHY will be your cup of tea."