Retrospect in Retrograde: Beast Fighter: The Apocalypse

As mentioned in the previous review, Ken Ishikawa's apocalyptic sci-fi manga Majuu Sensen/The Demonic Beast Front only managed to run for a single year between 1975 & 1976 before the magazine it ran in, Futabasha's Weekly Shonen Action, got canned & beyond a three-episode OVA adaptation in late 1990 (which provided its own ending) there wasn't really anything else to be seen from this series for a long time. On August 19, 2002, Akita Shoten debuted Champion RED magazine, an monthly offshoot of its long-running Weekly Shonen Champion that aimed for a "high-teen" audience, & original Editor-in-Chief Takafumi Suwa (who was previously the editor for Keisuke Itagaki's Grappler Baki, & would later become Weekly Champion's 9th Editor-in-Chief from 2005 to 2017) decided to give RED a focus on being the home of various sequels & remakes of old classics, as well as a penchant for violence.

One of the manga to appear in Champion RED's debut October issue (monthly magazine issues tend to be two months ahead of their actual release dates) was Ken Ishikawa's Shinsetsu Majuu Sensen/True Theory Demonic Beast Front, the sequel to his manga from the 70s... that is NOT the subject of this re-review, however!

No eyecatch for this show, but the post-ED
AT-X website promo was kept for each episode!

Still, the subject of this re-review likely wouldn't exist if this sequel manga never happened, so let's just quickly bring it up for a moment. Shinsetsu Majuu Sensen took place an entire decade after where the original manga left off, with the world now devastated by an "Ikusagami/War God" named Eve Adam (again, Ishikawa had no subtlety when it came to the biblical references) & its "13 Apostles" (i.e. Dr. Genzou Kuruma & his buddies), with Shinichi having been revived to deal with them once & for all, as well as a force known only as "Jitenkuu"; like "Jikuu/Spacetime", only with "Ten/Heaven" smushed in between. Ishikawa would serialize this sequel in Champion RED for almost two full years before ending it in the August 2004 issue (a little over two years before his death in 2006) & totaling four volumes, finally bringing a finale to the series he started nearly 30 years prior. However, while the sequel was being serialized it was decided that Majuu Sensen would be also part of something anime-related, something that's been covered once in a while on this blog: The AT-X Famous Writer Series.

In other words... Akira Tsuburaya's Retro-Modern Anime Club Band!

Oh Me, Oh My, OVA! δ: Dog Eat Dog Eat Dog Eat Dog

There are certain words that have a wide variety of interpretations, depending on the usage, context, & intention, & "dog" might just be one of the most varied. In a literal sense it can refer to "Man's Best Friend", the long-trusted Canis familiaris that hunter-gatherers domesticated over 15,000 years ago from the wild wolf. In a metaphorical sense it can refer to people or things that showcase aspects of the dog, whether that be steadfast dedication to another, the stubbornness in not wanting to back down, the wild & bushy physical visage, etc. Naturally, the Japanese language has its own word for "dog", "犬/inu", which means that if the English word itself is used in Japanese via katakana then it's being done in a purely figurative sense, as rare as it is. In fact, from what I can tell, there are literally only four OVAs that feature the word "Dog" in their titles in some form, all of which using the katakana "ドッグ" form specifically; naturally, there are anime out there that use the word "inu" in their titles. That makes for a perfect excuse for Oh Me, Oh My, OVA! to return, so let's check out these four standalone, short-form OVAs in chronological order & see if any of these mangy mutts deserve being rescued from the dog pound, or if we should just make Leopaldon happy & "Kill DOG as a Sacrifice to DOG".

I can't promise that this is the end of the dog puns.

"Inu-hei: Kako no Kage"

Up first is something that could have potentially fit another theme I have in the wings for an eventual OM, OM, OVA!: Infamous OVAs. Originally starting out as an assistant to both Shinji Hiramatsu & Hiroshi Motomiya, Tetsuya Saruwatari got his start in Weekly Shonen Jump with titles like 1982's Umi no Senshi & 1984's Mr. Whitey, but neither really saw any success & it didn't take long for Saruwatari to move over to making seinen manga over in Young Jump. His first truly successful manga would be 1986's Dog Soldier, which eventually got moved over to Business Jump & ran until 1991 across 12 volumes; during this time Saruwatari also made the Riki-Oh manga in the same magazine, earning himself even more notoriety. In late 1989 a 45-minute OVA adaptation, Dog Soldier: Shadows of the Past (the title is 100% English, even in Japan), would see release in Japan, being a co-production between Animate-Film/MOVIC, J.C. Staff, & Sony Music Entertainment... the precursor to Aniplex. Central Park Media would license the Dog Soldier OVA (likely around the same time CPM licensed other Sony Music titles, like Crystal Triangle, Wanna-Be's, & Judge), initially releasing it sub-only on VHS & LD in 1992 or 1993 before re-releasing it dubbed on VHS in 1996; this never saw a DVD release containing both the dub & sub. For a certain generation of English-speaking anime fandom, the Dog Soldier OVA is one that is often ridiculed & derided as absolute dreck, but I came into anime from a (slightly) later generation of fandom, so let me see for myself.

Majuu Sensen (OVA): Who Needs "The Father, The Son, & The Holy Spirit" When You've Got "The Bear, The Lion, & The Eagle"?!

Born on June 28, 1948 in Karasuyama, Nasu, Tochigi (now Nasukarasuyama, since merging with Minaminasu in 2005), Kenichi "Ken" Ishikawa would join Dynamic Pro in 1969 after graduating from high school, becoming an assistant to Go Nagai on manga like Harenchi Gakuen & The Abashiri Family, before making his debut as co-creator alongside Nagai with late 1969's Gakuen Bangaichi. Nagai himself has even stated that he never looked at Ishikawa as an "assistant", instead thinking of him as his greatest friend & ally, and that if Ishikawa had managed to join him prior to Harenchi Gakuen's debut (which marked Nagai's "professional" debut) then the two would have likely become like Fujiko Fujio, i.e. two men working under a shared pen name. Ken Ishikawa would then make his solo debut in 1970 with Sore Ike! Combat-tai & over the course of his career would be the creator of numerous manga, with his most notable being Getter Robo, which Go Nagai helped co-create but the manga interpretation (& its numerous sequels) was 100% Ishikawa's vision. Unfortunately, Ken Ishikawa would pass away on November 15, 2006 at the age of 58 due to acute heart failure, collapsing at a dinner banquet he was attending after playing some golf. However, his legacy of wild action, 200% intensity from his characters, & amazing artwork lives on throughout all of anime & manga, most notably in the works of screenwriter Kazuki Nakashima (Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, Back Arrow), who proudly calls himself "Ken Ishikawa's #1 Fan".

Since the two were such close friends, it's only natural that Ken Ishikawa had some works that felt inspired, in some way, by the works of Go Nagai, and one example of that looks to be Majuu Sensen/The Demonic Beast Front. Debuting in the pages of Futabasha's Weekly Shonen Action in 1975, Majuu Sensen was a manga that dealt with things like "demons", experimentation in an effort to surpass the limits of humanity by fusing with non-human beings, & the literal apocalypse, making it seem like a direct response to Nagai's iconic Devilman from 1972. Both series even ran for only a single year, though Majuu Sensen was compiled into just four volumes, but in Ishikawa's case that was simply because Weekly Shonen Action itself got cancelled, leaving Majuu Sensen unfinished. Regardless, Majuu Sensen is now considered one of Ishikawa's most iconic works (Type-Moon even full-on used the name for its 2019 TV anime Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia), & the design of lead character Shinichi Kuruma has been paid homage to every now & then, most notably in how Ryoma Nagare dresses throughout the OVA series Getter Robo Armageddon in the late 90s; in fact, mangaka Shinichi Kuruma (Majinden/Battle Royal High School) literally names himself after the character! Therefore, it's not surprising that Majuu Sensen would get adapted into anime at some point, in particular twice, one being a direct adaptation of the manga & the other being an alternate universe sequel. Seeing as it's the month of October, let's get a little horror-themed & check out both of these anime adaptations of Majuu Sensen, one of which for the second time.

Naturally, we'll start with the first one, a three-episode OVA (though they were all ~45 minutes long) produced by Animate-Film/MOVIC & J.C. Staff that (interestingly enough) actually came out all at once, first on VHS on October 1, 1990 & then on LD on December 1 later that same year. The OVA was also given a short theatrical run in Theater Ikebukuro from October 13 to 26, 1990, & on February 22, 2002 (that's a lot of 2s) would get re-released on DVD; sadly, though, the OVA has not been re-released since then, & it's not even streaming anywhere in Japan. Nevertheless, let's see how the OVA adaptation of Majuu Sensen holds up over 30 years later & in what ways Ken Ishikawa differed in his take on a "Dynamic Armageddon" from Go Nagai's Devilman.