Audience reviews
9 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
markphp
Darkside Blues will always strike me as that movie that had the potential to be one of the best in it's generation. While the animation is on par with the best of its era, the inconsistencies in the story and the characters make this movie much worse than it should be, considering the first look at the world. As a short summary, the movie takes place in a world where a corporation managed to buy most of the world (around ~90% described in the movie) and create complete anarchy, as the last 10% are marginalized and forced to live in slums. Don't get it wrong, the movie doesn't enter or describe it's politics one bit, except for surface-level scratching.
In terms of action, it's the strongest point by far, as one of the things that the movie does very well is create tension, through the wor…
Read at the sourceHellspawn28
NOTE: This review was originally posted on my Letterboxd account on 3/1/2022
I only remember seeing this anime once on VHS when I was a kid, and I barely remember what happens. I went into this anime expecting it to be an underappreciated gem. To be honest, it's a decent film. Although the animation in Darkside Blues is excellent, the story is disappointing in my opinion. The animation is incredible, and I adore the film's dark tone. Despite his lack of involvement, it has the feel of a Yoshiaki Kawajiri film. It has lovely dark shading, and I like how dark colors are used. The backgrounds are extremely well-detailed, and the character movement is incredibly fluid. The soundtrack for the film is composed by Kazuhiko Toyama (Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII), and it is very well done in my…
Read at the sourceGsarthotegga
Darkside Blues is a product of the late 1980s to mid-1990s anime period, where seemingly half of all OVAs or series would simply tease the audience and never become a finished product. This movie follows that trend, its 80-minute running length leaving us with many unanswered questions, though it stands alone decently as an aesthetic actioner, with an expected sequel—it never came. The manga-is-better-crowd doesn't even win here, because the manga is just as unfinished—abandoned after the first two volumes were published by Vampire Hunter D writer Hideyuki Kikuchi and artist Yuuho Ashibe.
This series is tagged with words like vague, ambiguous, obtuse, etc, but the really important one is INCOMPLETE; it's not easy to tell if something will remain vague until the work is complete. but it's…
Read at the sourcePink_Noodle_Hair
I really wanted to like this a lot more than I did. I am not familiar with the source it's based off of, but my guess is that the source material has more time put into the characters. In my opinion the biggest thing stopping me from really enjoying it more is the somewhat strange pacing and open ended ending.
I could go into particular things I liked or didn't like but in the end I think it needed more than 83 minutes to build the characters. It does successfully create a very somber mood and I like the juxtaposition between most scenes being not only full of light but almost blindingly so. This is at odds with Darkside's total blackness, and I dig that. It has a whole lot going for it in style and mood, I only wish the characters had time to be fleshed out and gave us more reason to car…
Read at the sourcemegafat
The Persona Century Corporation has purchased nearly every inch of land on earth available. Dissension is not tolerated within the corporation's borders and those who oppose Persona are dealt with swiftly. Of those few places not yet under Persona's control is the free town of Kabuki-cho, also known as "The Dark Side of Tokyo". Within the town, under the leadership of a woman named Mai, is a small resistance group called Messiah. Into this world steps a man who takes the sobriquet of Kabuki-cho: Darkside. Sealed up in another dimension eighteen years ago by Persona Century, Darkside now returns to aid Messiah using his unique mystic power of renewal.
That description is probably the only time that you will ever see something coherent about Darkside Blues plot. The whole film's plot just m…
Read at the sourcebedheadred
The evil Persona corporation dominates most of the earth with their iron fist, excepting small resistance movements, one of which is located in the free town of Kabuki-cho, also known as “The Dark Side of Tokyo”. Here a group of juvenile delinquents known as Messiah dwell. For a fee, they shelter and assist a terrorist who opposes Persona.
I really wanted to like this movie because it was based on a manga by Hideyuki Kikucho who also wrote Vampire Hunter D. You can see the similarities in the animation (which is superb for its time,) supernatural themes and mysterious, romanticized character of Darkside. Unfortunately, the movie did not live up to the D.
Call me dense, but I never did understand Darkside's power or why he was at odds with the Persona corporation. Had he not been a part…
Read at the sourceHuntsman
Beware for Darkside is coming to Earth. No I am not talking about the DC comic super villain who terrorizes the heroes of the DC universe. I am talking about the unnamed dark clad man who comes through a dimensional portal on a horse drawn carriage arriving in Kabuki-cho "The Dark Side of Tokyo" which is one of the last places on Earth that isn't controlled by the Persona Century Corporation. This mysterious Darkside brings a coming change and renewal to poor and disenfranchised people of Kabuki-cho, as well as the power hungry rulers of Earth that run Persona Century, and the rest of the citizens of Earth.
I had originally watched Darkside Blues around fifteen years ago, and at the time I really enjoyed the film, but after seeing the film again after such a long time I realize that while…
Read at the sourceBlackMagic
If you are a fan of 90s anime, then I'd recommend taking a look at Darkside Blues. If you haven't seen many anime from this time period, then this is a fairly good example of the visual styles of the 90s. However, most people will probably find the story somewhat mediocre and maybe even confusing.
Darkside Blues is a nice little gem from the 90s based on a manga by Hideyuki Kikucho who is one of the most respected horror writers in Japan. Often called the Stephen King of Japan, many of Hideyuki's novels have been adapted to anime such as Vampire Hunter D, Wicked City, and Demon City Shinjuku.
Animation - 8
I'll go ahead and draw attention to the elephant in the room: this is an old anime. The art and animation styles likewise reflect the 90s. Whether you enjoy 90s style or not is your ch…
Read at the sourceJaloyoloti
True to the manga, Darkside Blues is a little gem for the mid-90s with older looking art but it really goes well with the atmosphere of the story. There's a particular part my friend had pointed out to me during a fight scene when one of the men has a lit cigarette and as he's moving around there's a streak of red following the cigarette's movement. Sounds nerdy, I know, but it's things like that that makes good movies and anime REALLY good. If you like mysterious sexy men riding a horse-drawn carriage check this one out.
Read at the source