Introduction
Hoichiro Ohma works in an office. Everybody knows him as a silent, humble man. Even his girlfriend, Nanase, doesn't suspect that he could be something more, but he is. When a person dies as a victim of murder; when someone kills himself with a curse on his lips; when someone's death needs to be judged, he is there, for he is a Judge Of Darkness. Following the Laws Of Darkness, with a book made of human skin and an unusual parrot, he pronounces judgement over living criminals that would otherwise go free.
(Source: ANN)
Audience reviews
10 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
dxdnelion
Yami no Shihosha Judge have an interesting premise. Our main character is known as a clumsy and moron guy but it was just his disguise. In reality, he is one of the 'judge' from hell to punish those who have committed crime and get away from the law. His judgement was based on the book of the human skin, whereas it shows him who killed the victim and how this happened.
I wish this could be rebooted and made as a series instead of the movie. The movie didn't do this series justice, it makes the whole storyline a bit rushed; confusing and unappealing.
Overall, it was a decent watch. Giving it 6/10.
Read at the sourceToran71
This doesn't deserve such a low score! This is was awesome for what it was. It's an early 90s OVA you get what you see, it's nothing crazy high quality but they're usually fascinating and this one is no exception. The story in this is one of the coolest and most well thought-out depictions of Japanese occultism I've ever seen in anime. The entire thing is steeped in mythology and lore about death and hell and deities like King Enma, stuff like that. If you've heard of an Onmyoji before thats what the main character is based on, amongst other things.
Eventually the story went somewhere I wasn't expecting but absolutely loved. Like demonic Law and Order. If you're looking for adult goosebumps style anime, this is it. It almost reminded me of an episode of the Twilight Zone in a way.
Read at the sourceTrill_Bread
Yami no Shihosha Judge or simply as "Judge" in the english dub, is a supernatural-horror story about a salary man by day that moonlights as a drag queen by night in order to torture and punish criminals who have escaped justice. The main character of this story is Hoichiro Oma who is a blend of the Peter Parker/ Clark Kent archetype of the picked on nerd in the office who seemingly acts as the obedient flunky to his superiors, but in reality is the last remaining heir of an ancient bloodline that practices cross dressing and supernatural law as the "Judge of Darkness" (aka the Prosecuting Attorney of Darkness, the english dub "simplifies" this by calling him a judge but also makes his naming scheme not make sense); who harasses, tortures, kills, and then drags to hell the souls of criminal…
Read at the sourceWallplug
I wanted to watch more Ova's from the 80s and found this one thinking it was from the 80s. But then I noticed it was from the 90s which kinda surprised me because it looks like an anime from the 80s. The concept of the story was good but the execution was kinda bad and the characters lacked real emotion.
The animation looks like it is from the 80s but it has a charm to it I enjoyed the art of this anime but it is still far from being the best animation I have seen.
The voice acting sounded weird to me I'm not sure if it was the version I watched or what but it sounded bad or maybe it was because this anime was made on a budget.
I do not think this is a bad anime but it is far from perfect that is why I give it a 6 I think this is probably the highest I would rate it.
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
It's now the month of October, so I thought I would review a spooky horror anime! Then I realized just how few good horror anime actually exist. At least there are a decent number of God awful horror OVAs from the 1990s, so here's Judge!
The manga is from the 1980s and is written by the same dude who created the far superior Gallery Fake. That manga/anime about art forgery that you've probably heard of but haven't seen because almost nobody has. The anime is a single episode, 40 minute OVA from 1991 that was animated by JC Staff. This was a few years before JC Staff graced the world with Garzey's Wing. Also like Garzey's Wing, Judge was one one of the bad titles forced on to Central Park Media because it bombed hard in Japan. Central Park didn't have a lot of confidence in Judge and relea…
Read at the sourcenullgolem
I watched a hard dubbed version.
I like supernatural and occult themes, and you have a lot of modern day superstition in the japanese that runs through media like this (or even stuff like Tetsuo Body Hammer) The setting is quite decent setup for a story. The title 'judge' is a bit of a misnomer as the main protagonist isn't a judge.... he is more like a prosecutor for the wrongfully deceased/ but also seems to be an investigator as well.... "Spirit Lawyer against the darkness" is a better title for this movie. (it's actually a bit like mashup of phoneix wright ace attorney meets shin megami tensei) the anime doesnt explain a lot of things and plenty is confusing...
setting was cool but its a very short run time for a lot of lofty conceptualizations, to make it worse something as abstract…
Read at the sourceSidewinder51
rate:6 (fine)
seen via english dubbed
Judgement has always been known to occur. From how we were raised to the religion we fall under. Although, the exact rules of death are unclear. Seeing, how you must be dead to be aware. With no accurate documentation of witness reflections we can only guess how it will play. In comes this movie to fill the blanks to from what we already know to be true.
Like
-plot is believable. Plot left me with no raise questions. whom am i to say mediums exist or not? Or the dead can speak or not. Such questions most do not have answers for. Plot is also very thorough. Anyone can make a stand and set a scene but you can tell from the words they used that they did their research for the area of study.
Dislike
-in rare times in the film i was struck in awe! For ex…
Read at the sourceDrz3wo
Yami no Shihosha Judge is not bad I have to say, but It`s not good either. The story and concept behind it is quite promising but the way it is showed in anime destroyed all the potential that it has and made it an average animation.
This adaptation was made in 1991 and when you takie this into account the animation and sound effects is quite good. However music sometimes doesn`t fit current situation and gets annoying over time.
To begin with character design is nothing special. Main character is a quiet office worker and at the first sight nothing unusual stands out about him that only passively watches everything around him . His second judge "form" is an total opposite. This contrast makes him kinda interesting but it`s the only thing that will get viever attention when it comes to c…
Read at the sourceaweser
Yami no Shihosha Judge isn't a known anime for a reason. The concept of the story is rather interesting but it doesn't work well as a horror.
The main character resembles Clark Kent. He is a nerdy and kind guy at work but when no one is looking he turns into a super hero whose goal is to bring justice upon vilains (by killing tchem ofc). We don't get to know why is he that way, who exactly is he and what is his story. He definetly isn't a "generic good guy" but unfortunately he isn't memorable either.
When it comes to the art & music they are fairly ok for a 1991 anime. My only objection is that the music sometimes doesn't match the scenes.
And finally the most important aspect: "Why is YSJ not good as a horror?".
#1 There were only 3 scary scenes in the entire movie. It definetly is no…
Read at the sourceanimegorey
The concept of this story isn't that bad. They could have done more with it. Action is a bit lacking and it's rather generic at best. It's short (thank god), but still has low rewatchability as there isn't much there to make you want to rewatch it. Animation is typical of it's age. Characters are easy to forget and anime as a whole is worth watching if you seen most of them and are experimenting with OVAs or something. Easy to find cheap on dvd if desired, but there's much better anime to spend your money on.
Read at the source