Audience reviews
12 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Cool_Hand
Midnight Eye knows what it's doing and it does it well. Noir cyberpunk with action and a bit of mystery aimed at older teens and adults, it's a great example of anime from a bygone era.
The movie has everything a good noir needs. The colors are dark. The atmosphere is dark. The characters are dark without being edgy. Above all else a sense of mystery hangs over the show and refuses to disappear or be resolved even at the end.
Specifically, we never find out exactly what happened to Goku. It happened and that's all that matters. Making the OVA any other way would mean suffering through a long-winded explanation that doesn't affect the plot immediately in front of us. It's a good choice, leaving the viewer with a feeling similar to an HP Lovecraft tape — the universe is bigger than you…
Read at the sourcefh1478
My Girlfriend Is My Motorcycle
Goku Midnight Eye is an anime about a private eye, who hates shirts and just want to show off his belly button.
The two OVA episodes are a weird mix of things. a bit of journey to the west, set in a sci-fi setting, and the main character has an eye, who can destroy the world, but it does doesn't cohere into a whole, It feels like a lot of different parts, but it never feels coherent.
Steve Blum does a good job of making the main character cool, in the certain way that only he can voice a character, but he is kind of empty. it's not a show you watch for character development, you are here for cooler moments and cyberpunk sci-fi atmosphere.
I love the director art style, men with broad shoulders and dark hair, beautiful women who are ready to kill you at a…
Read at the sourceDeathlessVoid
If you extract feelings of nostalgia and comfort from old 80's anime due to their vaporwave / outrun aesthetic, Midnight Eye: Gokuu is going to be a welcome treat to your senses. The animation is beautiful, and there are enough boobs and fast cars to go around as well. The story isn't mind-blowing, but it's not awful. A solid way to spend an evening.
Gokuu is your typical manly man detective. He's out to serve justice and protect naked women from unfathomable evils.
The women are the typical helpless types from the era, and they throw themselves at Gokuu when they are aware of the prospects of him fixing all of their problems.
But man, that visual style. Wow. Sure, at the time it was nothing special, but today it hits hard.
Read at the sourceOzzy_Osbourne_03
Midnight Eye: Gokuu is a two-part OVA series directed by the one and only Yoshiaki Kawajiri, who has also directed such classics like Ninja Scroll, Wicked City, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, and Cyber City Oedo 808 to name a few. This anime follows a man named Gokuu Fuurinji a device that investigates the murders of his fellow officer colleagues and has been given the "eye of god" which allows him to hack into any computer which he then can control. Out of the cyberpunk anime Kawajiri has directed, Midnight Eye: Gokuu is probably my favorite. The art, the violence, and the weird shit that goes on in this anime is just incredible. Don't get me started on the OST, an amazing blend of synth, industrial, and a bit of hard rock sets such a great mood. If you're a fan of Kawajir's work, 90's anim…
Read at the sourceJamesKremlin
I mean, it's Kawajiri. What else do I have to say.
Went in with normal expectations though, was hoping it might be as fun as his other OVA projects. To start, I don't know exactly why I chose the dub, just went in blind. The fact that it was the immortal Steve Blum as Goku was an absolute treat. The rest of the dub, let me just say is a bit dated. There was some pretty hilarious moments with Yoko's voice actress which had me laughing.
Overall, though not as completely off the wall as Wicked City, the peacock woman is about as close as we can come.
Don't have much to say about the actual show though I do highly recommend viewing. The final line of this first part is just gold.
Read at the sourceKamezuki
This is one of the cheesiest '80s OVAs out there, although it's difficult to recommend to others due to the nudity.
The story starts out straightforward enough: Goku, an ex-cop-turned-detective, is on the case after his former partner and other coworkers mysteriously commit suicide. He finds out that these deaths are all connected to one person: a wealthy businessman named Hakuryu, but there's no evidence.
This is where things get weird. As Goku digs deeper, he sneaks into the bad guy's base, which is complete with a giant, a half-naked dog-like motorcycle-hybrid woman who shoots pink lasers from her mouth, and robot mosquitoes equipped with anesthesia. Meanwhile, elsewhere, there is also a naked woman with peacock feathers that have eyes on them which hypnotize people, and a guy who ha…
Read at the sourceRauLeCreuset
Originally, when I first seen the cover photo of this anime I honestly thought it was a series, but only when I started to watch that I realized it was a movie, it's a shame, because after finishing this anime movie, I thought to myself this would have made an epically one of a kind awesome series, I thought the idea of a single microscopic eye being able to control computers on a global level even to the highest level of deploying nuclear weapons was absolutely ingenious. The doctor or random mad scientist who decided to inplant that into goku had reasons of his own, which were never divulged or explained during the movie, but what power that would be to be able to control machines on a global scale like that, that's just top notch technological power right there, and I just want to close…
Read at the sourceVoivodian
Midnight Eye, despite its unassuming appearance (for a Yoshiaki Kawajiri feature at least), is a true cyberpunk anime through and through. Still, it perplexes me how subtle and restrained this cyberpunk world feels despite featuring laser firing quadruped android redheads complete with kinky motorbike handles attached and the nature of the titular midnight eye. It seems that once you take away the relentless in your face dose of the far out occult or gorgeous mechanical art that Yoshiaki Kawajiri is so well known for, his equally distinctive atmospheric metropolises bite very close to home; to our own bustling yet uncaring and distant cities.
I would dig deeper into this subtlety but it does not seem intentional as the plot is about as standard and ass kicking as Cyber City Oedo or Wicked…
Read at the sourceTerajima
Well, after this I could say that Yoshiaki Kawajiri is confirmed as possibly my favorite director of Japanese animated movies in terms of style. What I have watched of him are not necessarily masterpieces like those of others, but I love his style. Unimportant scripts and situations, but an aesthetic that is a fucking blast with a visual mastery, way of "shooting" and editing that are solid gold.
His films have charm and sparkle, 80s tacky elegance, always developing during nights, in hotels, pubs, discos and strip clubs. With sports cars, top cars, guns, sexy women, sex, sentimental music, neon lights, office lights, highway lights, lights everywhere, that's the charm of the night, its city lights.
Read at the sourcePerrydotto
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS.
SUMMARY: If you love cheesy, goofy late 80s anime shlock with a genuinely well done cyberpunk/noir setting, this is the OVA for you. If you expect an actually good or deep story that doesn't go totally off the rails, look elsewhere.
Goku Midnight Eye is a 1989 OVA based on the manga of the same name. There are two OVA episodes made, this being the first one, and in my humble opinion far and away the better of the two.
Fair word of warning: I'm a big, big fan of B-movie type stuff, cheesy shlock and all sorts of things that are unintentionally hilarious. With Goku Midnight Eye, I personally feel like I've landed a real hit for my growing list of material for B-movie nights. As a result, if you expect a review that takes this OVA 100 percent seriously…
Read at the sourceShura-shurato
This is a true gem in the heydays of cyberpunk anime ova´s, so goes for part 2, anyway i really am SOO distressed that there is no plans to revive or continue this one, with REAL potential that is left unfinished. The storyline starts a bit predictable but evolves into further dark background and some very mysterious charac., villians with some that are introduced fast while others have a more bigger role. the main person in here is definetly no wimp, and it proves it by the fightingstyle, so is the more marure animation with some good late 80´s sketches, i really was totally into the story at loads of scene´s , with ofc enjoyable music.
Read at the sourcealteredcourse
This two-part OVA series from 1989 is adapted from the manga by Buichi Terasawa, whose work, I must confess, I'm not terribly familiar with. But I have seen the Space Adventure Cobra movie, and between that and what I've heard, I gather his stories typically feature two elements: manly men and shapely women. The first episode of Goku: Midnight Eye, you'll be pleased to hear (or not), has both.
Let's get this out of the way: Goku is a standard action movie, albeit one that has all the style and flair you'd expect from director Yoshiaki Kawajiri. If you go into it expecting any more, you'll be disappointed. There are no thought provoking themes or deep characterization here. But despite that, Goku manages to tell an entertaining story. Which I will now spoil, for this is the only way to con…
Read at the source