Devil Hunter Yohko

Original Title: 魔物ハンター妖子
Romanized: Mamono Hantaa Yohko
Literal: Devil Hunter Yohko

Plot Synopsis

Yohko is pretty much your average, run of the mill high school student; she's got a crush on the school stud, the school loser has a crush on her, her oversexed mom and ninja grandma routinely get into brawls at the breakfast table, and she's the latest in a long line of Devil hunters. Ok, make that average, run of the mill anime high school student. In any case, the principle at her school has some unusual extracurricular activities planned, namely summoning up the minions of the demon world to overrun the earth. And, of course, Yohko (as soon as she gets over the shock of having her friends possessed and finding out about the whole Devil Hunter thing) is going to have to take on the bad people and save the world.

Quick Review

Rating: 1.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2005-03-20

Devil Hunter Yohko is a short and entirely unoriginal shot at light erotic-action-horror, attempting to cover all the "dumb fun" basics: Amusing characters, exposed skin, some action, and a dash of humor. Sadly, the things that stand out most are the choppy story, weak directing, cheap animation, and forced sleaze. High points are limited to a nice sword fight, an amusing sports-equipment duel between two family elders, and Yohko's snazzy costume and wild hairdo. The end theme is also the first of many decent spunk-with-an-edge songs in the series sung by Aya Hisakawa, who also voices Yohko effectively.

Though Devil Hunter Yohko spawned several sequels and holds something of a "classic" label as the first release of ADV, it's recommended only for those into not entirely serious horror-action, or if you're not picky and are looking for some demon-fightin' fun.

US DVD Review

There are a few different sets that include this on DVD, but they all have pretty much the same thing--a disc with both the subtitled (only) original version and the dubbed (only) special edition, which adds a few seconds here and there. The subtitled version also has a sort of commentary track, but it's as much reminiscing about the early days of ADV as the movie itself. The subtitles (a full subtitle track on the original version and a track with some onscreen text in the special edition) are all DVD-subtitles, not hard subtitles, and the 2-channel audio is acceptable. The video looks a little rough, but that's the fault of the source material, not the DVD transfer. Extras on this disc in the set include ADVs trailers for the film, the music video of the end theme, and some assorted artwork from the series.

Content Guide

Some fairly mature themes bring it into the 17-up range ADV suggests.

Violence: 2 - Surprisingly low gore.

Nudity: 3 - One scene, and assorted other bits including one of those classic transformation sequences.

Sex/Mature Themes: 3 - One moderately explicit possessed boyfriend scene and assorted bits of sleaze.

Language: 2 - Enough strong language to notice.

Notes and Trivia

The "special edition" version--available only as a dub, since the original dialogue wasn't done for it--has only the smallest additions, amounting to 15 seconds of extra bits added to the ends of a few shots. The end theme also has a music video included along with the video (all the way back to ADV's first VHS tape) series as a whole has quite a bit of music associated with it, and what I've heard is pretty good (it is Hisakawa Aya singing after all).

Availability

Available in the US from ADV as part of two different Devil Hunter Yohko hybrid DVD collections, one with half the series and the other with everything in one set. Was previously available on subtitled VHS or an "extended director's cut" dubbed VHS.

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