Anime: Yami no Shihoukan Judge

Judge, as Yami no Shihoukan Judge was known in its US relaese, is one of those obscure OVAs out of the early 1990s that made no impact upon its release and has even less impact today, Yes, it has negative impact; its continued existence somehow makes itself more obscure and less relevant. So here's an effort to restore Judge to zero impact.[br][br]Animation: Obviously, something made 17 years ago isn't going have the same polish and shine that viewers expect from contemporary series, but I can't find too much fault with the animation in Judge. There's stark contrasts between the bright normal world and the dark spirit world, or hell or the Shadow Realm or whatever you want to call it. All of the action scenes are decently animated with no blatant shortcuts like speedlines or panned stills of the type you'd find in Gensomaden Saiyuki or Tsukuyomi Moon Phase (TV version). With the demonic angle to the plot, you can expect some scenes of violence and torture, which were probably the main draw for Judge back in the day. Like many pre-digital anime, there's a certain amount of "warmth" and charm in the cel animations for these violent scenes, and a level of detail that you don't often see in modern digital anime. While the animation in Judge isn't amazing, it commits no crimes other than that of being "old." Which is really no reason to avoid it.[br][br]Sound: Against my better "judge"-ment, I went with the English audio track. And as expected of a mid-1990s dub, it shows signs of being rushed, low-budget, and "tweaked" to be more mainstream-accessible. It's also one of those dubs where Central Mark Media teamed up with Manga Entertainment in the production, which means a swear-tastic experience with gems like "I hate that fucking bird!" And not surprisingly, the acting is bad, from the cheesy accents of the otherworldly characters to the botching of even a simple "Good morning, how are you?" conversation. It was amusing in a way, but I'll assume that the Japanese track was better. [br][br]Other than that, there's nothing else of note in the sound category. I don't remember very much background music, good or bad, and considering the cheesy elevator music that plays over the ending credits, the adage "less is more" holds true here.[br][br]Story: Always a major stumbling block in these one-shot OVAs. The concept of the dead raising their grievances against the living in a court of law scores originality points; I don't know anything from Judge's era with a remotely similar setup, so at the very least it's not clichéd. Judge plays off societal frustration with the legal system -- supernatural judgement is invoked against criminals who escape the legal system of the real world, a concept I can see repeated in contemporary series such as Death Note and Hell Girl. Unfortunately, the single episode doesn't allow the concept to be fully explored or brought to a moral conclusion. A couple of cases are tried and settled, but we get no explanation of how "The Judge" (who maintains a Clark Kent human identity as well) came into his situation, or where his exploits will lead him.[br][br]This wouldn't be so bad, except that the story features plot holes big enough to fly a demonic parrot through, and several major sections just don't make sense when you add everything up. At one point, a spirit medium and defense attorney basically tells the judge, "I'll see you in court." But instead of actually going to some kind of court scene, they proceed to battle it out with (the equivalent of) ancient Egyptian laser beams. Later, you'll be wondering why the last trial scene even started in the first place when you hear the plaintiff's testimony. But thanks to the concept and the relative completeness of the story arc, the score is not too low here.[br][br]Character: Another victim of the one-shot format. As I mentioned, we have no explanation of how The Judge became the way he is, and no indication of where his character is going other than a generic "I'm gonna keep doing my best." The animation lends a hand to character development, with one nominally human character having an obviously bizarre bug-eyed look. What do you bet he's somehow evil? Fortunately, we don't have to guess, thanks to the convenient shortcut of visuals substituting for actual character development! And then we have the Defense Lawyer, who exploits his unique ability to negotiate for the living in Dead People's Court for monetary gain. Once again, we get no explanation of who he is or why he has this ability. He just has it Because He Does. Other characters are one-dimensional and barely worth mentioning, like the Judge's love interest who solely exists to provide a gratuitous (but non-explicit) sex scene for the audience.[br][br]Value: I can't say it has too much -- Judge certainly doesn't have "classic" status, and you're not missing anything significant by not watching it. I can't give a completely abysmal score because I did buy it on DVD (which is pretty much the only way you'll find Judge at this point), and I'll probably re-watch it to see if it's any better in Japanese. Fortunately I paid between $5 and $8 for it after shipping, so it wasn't a huge loss. If you like "oldschool" anime, this isn't the greatest, but it's hardly the worst either.[br][br]Enjoyment: Middle-of-the-road on this score. I kind of like watching old OVAs like this because they represent a completely different era for anime and the fandom compared to today. I wasn't bored by Judge, and the action scenes and cheesy dialogue provided enough entertainment to get me by. I can't strongly recommend it for general audiences though -- you have to have a certain liking or at least tolerance for anime from this era to enjoy Judge.[br][br]Recommendations: If you want supernatural horror, you might have better luck with more modern entries like the aforementioned Death Note and Hell Girl, or possibly others like Requiem from the Darkness and Divergence Eve. If old-school is what you're after, you can easily do better than this, with titles such as Bubblegum Crisis 2032, Burn Up!, Megazone 23, or Devil Hunter Yohko.[br][br][br][br]