Wicked City

A Japanese animated film. The narrative rests on a treaty between two worlds. There has been peace for centuries between the world of humans and the world of the dark side, and the agreement is renewed at intervals. The time to renew comes. A group on the other side is against it and wants the treaty broken. There is a protective unit: agents working on the border between the worlds. Taki is from the human side; the partner he is given is from the other, a woman called Makie. Their task is to guard an old man who will sign the agreement. He is old, immoral and takes himself entirely unseriously; he is the most memorable character in it. From there the narrative is a flight across one night. There are attacks in the city, shape-changing beings come after them, and the two agents have to learn to trust each other. The film is one of the known examples of the dark animation wave of the 1980s. The city, the light and the violence set the style of that moment and influenced what followed. Yoshiaki Kawajiri directed. The source is a novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi. Who it is for: anyone curious about adult Japanese animation of the 1980s and dark fantasy. Who it is not for: a great many people; the film contains scenes of sexual violence, and the most disputed side of the genre in that period is plainly here.