Audience reviews
11 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
ochichas
Wagwan! Alexandre desu.
The Plot
It is the story on how Hajime became a killing machine. It depicts how years of bullying, treason, sex and violence can turn a ordinary boy into someone who gets off with the sight of blood.
The Cons
I'll try to explain what was the worst part. I think, when you are watching this OVA, you need to have some knowledge of whom Hajime is and does in the manga and what he becomes to understand how hard the other people actions did on Hajime on a psychologically level. It leads to nowhere to know the trauma if you do not have an idea of what Hajime will become of that. You know what I mean?
The Neutral
There were times when the animation was good but where another times when it was dog shit, with the flickering and shaking.
The Pros
I think the story is the b…
Read at the sourcedoctorminsuks
I've noticed a lot of people don't like this OVA for the fact that it doesn't stand up to the Miike film that was released a year before this OVA. This review is from someone who has read half the manga currently and has seen the Miike film three times and is currently watching it for a fourth as I write this review. Although I can see their point, I think it's important to take this at face value as a different form and new look into a series. This isn't meant to be related to the movie in any way, and going into it expecting it to be similar will ruin the experience for you.
-- Story --
So this isn't so much of a retelling of the manga as much of a sort of backstory into Ichi himself. If you're coming into this expecting the gore and slasher themes of the film or manga, you're going to…
Read at the sourceAnimeMarathon
I was expecting some good dark humor. And in a sense, because of the atrocious animation, disgusting dubbing, and unrealistic-absurdist type violence, it was so terrible it was a little bit funny. But the subject matter itself isn't funny at all. There are people who are turned on by violence and that's something it's about time we as a culture had a talk about. It's a part of human nature that most people are too afraid to talk about. But even worse than being afraid of it is pointing it out and mocking it. Making it into a joke. I can't appreciate it. That's really all I have to say.
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
Overview:
Since I reviewed a children's film last time, I decided to change things up and review something a bit more "edgy". Ichi Episode 0 is a prequel to the cult film Ichi the Killer directed by Takashi Miike. While the film I believe deserves its cult status in the world of gory exploitation movies, this anime...kind of sucks.
Background:
While the manga came before both this anime and the film, the anime was ONLY made due to the film's massive success. Takashi Miike started out in the 1990s in Japanese "V-Cinema" which are mostly direct to video porno films and violent exploitation movies. I think the V stands for Violence and Vagina. However, Miike quickly proved himself to be a capable director and rocketed to international stardom with the disturbing horror film Audition in 199…
Read at the sourceGaryL
Extreme violence and sadism are things that really shoud be handled with care in animation, otherwise you end up with something like Ichi The Killer.
The OVA is only 45 minutes long, but by 30 minutes in you start having to endure it instead of simply watching and not because it's disturbing, but because it is awful. The OVA shows the MC's past, prior to his transformation as the frenzied hopeless psychopath Ichi The Killer, so possibly the only good aspect of the show is when we delve into Ichi's psyche, witnessing when the line between violence and sex blurred in his mind, specially in what is by far the most interesting sequence of the short film when we see something involving BDSM and the dissecting of a frog.
The pacing is terrible, we have no sense of plot development whatsoever,…
Read at the sourcehinekure
Are you interested in the psychology of serial killers and perverse psychopaths? Do you like gore that will make you cringe in slight discomfort? Well then, this is probably the OVA for you, because I can't really see why it would appeal to anyone other than you and me.
This is the first anime I have seen that has delved into the psychology of what society sees as the ultimate in perversion and depravity - ie, brutal murder or torture giving the perpetrator sadistic sexual pleasure. That's essentially what happens in Ichi the Killer: Episode 0. If it had been nothing more than torture porn, I'd probably still have watched it all the way through, but I'd've given it a 4/10 at most. What caught my attention was essentially the parallels it draws with a great deal of serial killer cases. It…
Read at the sourcelawlmartz
It's no secret that sometimes I'm a masochist when it comes to anime, or film, for that matter. There's something about subjecting yourself to the blinding agony of something that's so terribly made that it makes you question your existence. There's something pure about the awfulness.
And that brings me to Ichi the Killer. Ichi is awful.
But it's the kind of awful that I can get a kick out of.
Ichi also gets kicks out of kicking people and being awful. But not for the same reason I... you know what? Just never mind.
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Ichi has got some weird, wannabe arthouse stuff going on. Lots of single colored frames- red, yellow, blue, purple with action panels shot onto them, then flashing red backgrounds. Near epileptic seizure inducing flashing included, the rest of the animation looks p…
Read at the sourcecamsauce505
I want to preface this review by saying I watched this anime thinking that it was a merely an episode zero for a longer anime series and not a prequel to a live action movie and because of that I don’t really hold a bias for it being good or bad depending on how I felt about the movie. So I can only judge the OVA and nothing else. Let’s begin, shall we?
-CHARACTERS
In the terms of the characters, Shiroishi(MC) is the only one that kinda stands out. All the other characters were pretty one dimensional and stayed that way throughout the entirety of the OVA. The bullies were dicks, his friend betrayed him, his parents didn’t seem to care that much about him, his parole officer and love interest(I don’t know what else to call her) just wanted to use him, essentially everyone in the OVA is pre…
Read at the sourceUndercover_Otaku
I found this animated adaption of the manga hard to watch at times. Not because of the blood and violence, which I enjoyed, but because, in comparison to the manga, it lacked many of the qualities that made it so wonderful in the first place. Much of the story was lost as well as the development of the characters such as most of the main lead's past and why he behaves the way he does. Another flaw in this adaption is the animation. It could've been smother and faster to match the fight scenes but I digress. It hurts to say these things because not only am I one who prefers anime to manga often times, but I'm in love with Ichi the Killer series, but I'd be lying if I this episode did the manga any justice.
Read at the sourceanimegorey
Man oh man. If you like twisted, violent, psychopathic and demented killers, YOU WILL LOVE this OVA. I laughed alot during this insanely twisted mindfuck of an anime. I watched it twice in a row, the second was to show my wife cause she got home about 10 minutes after I finished the first viewing. She thought it was stupid and sick. But she likes the anime Red Garden, so she don't know nothing. Animation was excellent and sound was great. The opening theme is a psychotic, energy filled kill song that may give you a siezure or at least the urge to laugh or be violent. This is a twisted story of how to make a psycho killer. Watch and you'll see.
Read at the sourceStarman
This is NOT worthy of the Takaashi Miike film that everyone loves. Avoid this anime for bad art, reused cells, boring plot development and confusing situations that are supposedly revealing details about Ichi's backstory. The shock level of the film is rather tame, despite the overtones of marital sexual abuse and of course violent sexual frustration. Watching this leaves you feeling dirty, and not the refreshing enjoyable dirty like watching the real movie. Go see a Miike film instead.
Read at the source