Devil Lady #1 ADV 125 minutes English/Japanese English Subtitles Released: 07/04/2004 Reviewed: 11/01/2004

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A couple weeks back ADV had a delicious sale, one where some items were discounted as high as 75%. Now, there wasn't a whole lot included in this massive fire sale that was actually worth picking up, but lucky for you, dear reader, that buying things that aren't worth picking it seems to be my "raison de etre". After about $100-some dollars spent I have quite a bit of anime-fueled rage to unleash upon the World Wide Interwebbing. This was basically my thought process while I placed the order for Devil Lady (or Devilman Lady, as I originally knew it) for the modest price of approximately $13. I couldn't quite you an exact amount, but suffice it to say it's sizably less than $1/episode. Even if the show was absolute crap, which I expected it to be with every fiber of my being, then I could show no fear in purchasing it! I've spent disproportionately more than that on transient pleasures like alcohol and gigantic deli sandwiches comprising no less than four different types of meat. Those pleasures, while certainly fulfilling, are much more transient than the ire a bad anime can stoke in a man like me. Imagine that I have another appendage in my body that most humanoids do not possess, a second stomach if you will. And this second stomach is not to be filled by any pedestrian means. Its hunger can only be sated by the most basest of human emotions: hatred. If you can imagine that, then you have a fairly good idea of what's going on with me right now.

Suffice it to say, I was a little disappointed when Devil Lady didn't turn out to suck total balls right out of the gate. Jun Fudo is a nice lady. She's a pretty model who's always willing to... do something... for someone. We're really only told that she's a pretty model before a butch blonde comes to her door looking all off center and perturbed. This blonde, named Lan (who I'm guessing is actually Ran and just suffering from a bad case of poor transliteration), commands Jun around like any good sassy dominatrix would. And, much like those sassy dominatrixes, Lan/Ran leads poor Jun to a darkened warehouse for all manner of unspeakable acts. But the viewer may be disappointed! Since this is not a pornographic movie, these acts have very little to do with nudity and are much more about giant werewolves freaking out and cutting young model-types to ribbons. Alone in the warehouse, Jun stumbles upon a man in chains who quickly turns into said werewolf and commences with the cutting-to-ribbons.

Just when all hope seems lost, Jun experiences the burst of adrenaline to end all bursts of adrenaline. She turns into a beast herself and counters the werewolf's frenzied ribbon-cutting with a bit of her own mojo. At the end of fifteen rounds she's looking a very non-sexy perturbed and off center too! Turns out she's one of these monster things too and Lan/Ran's organization wants her around to keep the badguys in check. Jun is not going to be given any respite. Just-like-that the werewolf decides that he ain't done yet and turns like twenty stories tall. Jun is not to be outdone and rises to a similarly impressive stature. Then they kung-fu fight all over town with all of the requisite falling power lines and building destruction that would make any Sentai programme proud. Jun's understandably exhausted when all's said and done... and the poor girl's still got 26 episodes of this stuff left!

Frankly, there isn't enough horror fiction in anime. I'm not saying that I'm some crazy horror-buff or anything, I don't dress up in Jason masks and attend conventions on the material. I don't go out of my way to buy every crapass made-for-TV iteration of the Hellraiser serious like a certain Jonathan Q. Skabla, but it's a genre that anime could certainly put through its paces. The show isn't exactly material as quality as The Exorcist -- scary isn't something that really enters into the picture during these 5 episodes of Devil Lady -- but it works its little heart out trying to be! And I'm not too proud to admit that "monster of the week" is sometimes a deliciously guilty pleasure of mine. I should learn to have more faith in the franchises of Mr. Go Nagai, but it's just hard for me to get more than a moderate boner up for anything of his that doesn't at least have a tertiary relationship to Getter Robo, and giant robots in general. There are aspects of Cutey Honey that appeal to me, certainly, but the general air of naked preteens in giant robot suits is something that kind of turns me off. Call me crazy, you'd be well within your rights to do so, but the man is insane, and I have to guess that the men who pick up his franchises are similarly off their rockers. Whatever "crazy" they're representing it works. Devil Lady does make a few faux pas with the inclusion of giant shark lesbians, but other than that... you could do a lot worse!