Violence Jack Harlem Bomber - 1986

Violence Jack Harlem Bomber was originally released in 1986 as a one shot OVA, based loosely on Go Nagai's longest running manga series. A manga series so succesful it was revived twice after it's original run of 1973-1974. It would run for another year between 1977-1978 before being picked up a for a massive run of 7 years between 1983-1990. This was also Go Nagai's most controversial manga series as it was extremely graphic in violence, contained alot of hentai, drugs and other mature themes. It's rumoured Go Nagai was urged by many to end the manga series early on a number of occasions in fear of prosecution for his extreme style of works.

The first OVA was released in 1986 as Violence Jack Vol 1 Harlem Bomber :and was planned to be an OVA series but for whatever reason failed as the later OVA's would be produced by different production companies. This is unfortunate because I would have loved to have seen more of Violence Jack in this style. The later OVA's produced in 1988 and another in 1990, lacked the compelling story telling found in the first. In the original OVA, Violence Jack is portrayed as an enigma, an anti-hero that wants to free the world from the destruction. In the latter OVA's, Violence Jack is just portrayed as a ruthless killer. None of the OVA's have any continuity between them. All use different voice actors, animators and directors. Each new OVA got more progressively graphic than the last, although saying that, OVA 2 is the most controversial as it deals in themes of cannabilism, rape and and necrophila. But OVA's 2and 3 fall well short in my opinion, even if they are supposed to contain components that follow the manga series more closely. Still, they are worthy as curiosity pieces.

All 3 OVA episodes have been released for Violence Jack on VHS in the USA. First, in 1994 by Manga Entertainment, in a strictly dubbed and edited form. 25 seconds of footage was cut from OVA 1, around 4 minutes from OVA 2 and a whopping 7 minutes from OVA 3. Manga Entertainment also changed the order they released the OVA's. They released OVA 2 as Volume 1, OVA 3 as Volume 2 and OVA 1 as Volume 3. This was probaly done to release Violence Jack in order of controversy and graphic content, making a splash with the fans and media, resultingly boosting sales. This can be further supported by the addition of profanity to their English dubs, not found in the original Japanese scripts. In 1996, Rightstuf offered Manga Entertainment money to release these OVA's uncut under their hentai label Critical Mass. Manga Entertainment accepted and Rightstuf released the show subtitled for the first time. They also released the same dubbed version Manga Entertainment released but uncut. Unfortunately Rightstuf pressed only a small number of copies on VHS making the uncut version rare when it went out of print and for a lot of fans just a myth.

Manga Entertainment retained the rights until around 2005 and for whatever reason didn't release the show on DVD. However fans should not dismay, for I suspect it may see a release eventually. A boutique company called Discotek recently released the Fist of the North Star movies and the Crying Freeman OVA series, both graphically violent and have of the same nature as Violence Jack. Violence Jack would be a good seller considering fans have been clamouring to get uncut copies of it for years. Only recently have fansubs based around the uncut Japanese Region 2 release finally surfaced out on the internet.

Violene Jack Harlem Bomber is set in a post apocalyptic world. Rather than the standard Nuclear War that made up alot of 80's stories, Earth has been destoryed by the impact of a large meteor. Society has been destoryed and the world is now tossed into a dystopia where powerful gangs control the cities surrounded by baron wastelands of sand and starving people. This story focuses on an evil overlord known as Slum King who rules and controls an area within one of the last decaying syscapers. However one shadowy figure threatens to put an end to his tyranny and that man is Violence Jack who is seen at the beginning of the OVA, rising through a mountain of skulls.

The OVA then quickly throws us a dramatic showdown between Jack and the Slum King but is aruptly ended and Jack's whereabout is ambigious. Slum King then order's his vast array of henchman to locate Jack. One of the best is a tall, beastly woman who uses her whip to neautralise her targets. Her objective is to capture woman and make them into slaves for the empire. All the sub characters play an important role in the story but none more important than a woman called Mari who longs to be reunited with her lover. It's a sort of Romeo and Juliet love affair that gives the story alot more depth. Infact you could even say that Mari is the main character in this since she gets more runtime than Jack. However I won't give much more away since there are alot of twists and turns in this one.

The animation is excellent, boasting strong production values, fluid animation and detailed backgrounds. The charcater designs are one of my favourites with vibrant colours for the characters but lots of blues and blacks for backgrounds. Objects are drawn with thick lines and roughly shaded textures for that comic book style effect. The animation is instantly identifiable as there are few shows that looks anything close to this. Big kudos as well for the excellent drawing and inclusion of use of heavy armoured tanks, helicopters and bikes. Something often overlook in other post apocalyptic style anime.

The soundtrack is very catchy and consist of three main tracks, one high tempo for battle scenes, another for flashback moments and one slow tempo for the ending. There are no vocal tracks in this but the show is the better for it. Vocalised bubblegum themes would just be out of place in a sombre show like this.

In conclusion, Violenece Jack is not for the faint hearted. It's easily one of the darkest, daring and most extreme shows produced in anime history. While this doesn't go as far as it's sequels, viewer discretion is advised. For anyone who likes a bit of graphic content in their anime, Violence Jack will certainly deliver a thrilling ride.

Download Here - Violence Jack Harlem Bomber

Overall Grade/Rating: A-
Commercial Availability: VHS (Japan, USA), Laserdisc (Japan), DVD (Japan)