8 Man After Anime Review

Quick Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2011-01-29 (updated 2012-10-08)
• 2 stars out of 5 (?)

8 Man After is a classic superhero show given a gritty '90s makeover. Not so much a complete remake as a loose sequel to the '60s original, it maintains the basic plot and somewhat goofy 8 Man costume, but ratchets up the violence and tries to play the drama as straight adult fare. The result isn't exactly bad, but is about as blandly derivative as hard-boiled crime/action/cyberpunk movies get--the entire plot, all of the characters, and nearly all of the dialogue are photocopied straight out of an '80s-era Hollywood crime thriller/action flick of the cheesiest stort. There are also some substantial problems with suspension of disbelief due to major plot holes; stuff that might have worked in the cheesy original come across as between silly and stupid in the otherwise-straight cyberpunk setting.

In all, 8 Man After tries to do something gritty and mature with a cheesy '60s action show concept, and partially succeeds, but ends up being about as generic as action movies come. It's never particularly bad, but it's also never good, and amounts to nothing more than a forgettable diversion.

Read the full-length review...

Full Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2011-01-29 (updated 2012-10-08)
• 2 stars out of 5 (?)

8 Man After is a classic superhero show given a gritty '90s makeover. Not so much a complete remake as a loose sequel to the '60s original, it maintains the basic plot and somewhat goofy 8 Man costume, but ratchets up the violence and tries to play the drama as straight adult fare. The result isn't exactly bad, but is about as blandly derivative as hard-boiled crime/action/cyberpunk movies get.

The strongest point of the show is its relatively mature feel--the characters are adults (apart from one kid who doesn't do anything but whine) and the violence is bloody. It's not wantonly gory enough to qualify as splatterfest, so you can take it seriously, but the collateral body count is high once the cyber-psychos start rampaging.

In terms of the characterization, the male protagonist and 8 Man alter-ego, Hazama, is the high point. For a superficially generic hard-boiled PI, he's got a reasonably good angry, bitter vibe, and an unexpectedly dark side--the murder of his sister drove him into a vicious revenge-killing spree, which is not portrayed in a sympathetic light during flashbacks.

Of course, since his past is no secret, it makes no sense whatsoever that the vigilante scientist behind 8 Man would download this guy's personality into the superhero's body, given that 8 Man's weakness is the psyche of its human occupant snapping and setting off a bloody rampage. Even less so since that's apparently what happened to the last 8 Man occupant--it's just silly that the scientist, who seems to be a relatively sane, sympathetic character, wouldn't be a whole lot more careful.

Which is one of the two down sides to the whole thing; it's based on a classic superhero show, and, as much as it tries to gloss over major logical lapses, there's only so much that can be done. Since the setting is relatively realistic cyberpunk fare, and it's played completely straight, the bar for suspension of disbelief is set rather higher than 8 Man After can reach. The science is also rather vague given the otherwise-concrete setting. The cyber-psychos make sense, but 8 Man really doesn't--at all--apart from being "military technology," which is a pretty weak excuse for wildly superhuman abilities.

The other issue is that the entire plot, all of the characters, and nearly all of the dialogue are photocopied straight out of an '80s-era Hollywood crime thriller/action flick of the cheesiest stort. You've got a female lead who doesn't do anything other than get emotional at dramatically appropriate moments, a gruff-but-kind police chief, a washed-up football star, a sympathetic hoodlum kid to supply pathos, a slimy politician, a creepy villain who sits in a poorly-lit room full of dolls, a less-creepy villain who's a raving maniac with a big knife, an evil corporation, dangerous drugs, and plot twists you can see coming before the show even starts. There's even some real American football inserted in there for good measure.

Not that any of these things are bad per se, or that the general combination with a bit of an anime twist isn't mildly entertaining, it's just painfully unoriginal and feels sort of like it's on auto pilot. Most detrimentally, I didn't get attached to any of the characters; I'm not entirely sure if this is because they felt like '80s action movie characters rather than anime characters, or if the characterization was just weak, but either way I didn't much care what happened to any of them. (I will admit, though, that I liked the post-credits twist at the very end--it's the one time the female lead does something interesting, and could have set the show up for a sequel that never was.)

About the only other thing worth mentioning is the setting; the entire story takes place in a near-future American metropolis descended into the sort of crime-ridden mess that the '80s always assumed it would. Considering that it's anime, it's a bit surprising that the portrayal of the US isn't entirely embarrassing--nothing looks particularly silly, and it's not much worse than half the Hollywood action movies of the era. Apparently spikes are allowed on football helmets of the future, but even that least-Japanese of sports is portrayed relatively straight. Heck, there are even sympathetic (albeit stereotyped) black characters.

The visuals are otherwise decent but unremarkable. 8 Man himself, not having gotten a makeover, looks pretty silly and completely out of place, but the character designs are otherwise distinctive and on the realistic side (with the exception of the portly police chief, whose face has been getting re-used since Astroboy). The action is a little bit unusual; 8 Man's main power is running so fast he's nearly invisible, which amounts to flashes of blue sparks racing around the villains while pieces of them fly off. This isn't exactly cool, nor is it wildly exciting, but it is moderately unusual, and there's at least one fight that isn't just 8 Man massacring everyone around him. Action, however, is not the focus.

The classic 8 Man also had the power to look like anyone, but while he still has that ability, it sadly doesn't get any significant use in the story.

Streamline's English dub is about par for their work; a little broad, and the writing is sloppy, but well above average for the era in terms of acting, and the familiar set of voices is matched well to the characters. The standout here is, somewhat amusingly, a brain in a jar at the very end--he sounds more convincing than anybody else. Sam, the sympathetic street-kid (voiced by Catherine Battistone), is the weak point, somewhere around Saturday-morning cartoon level. The music is barely even noticeable.

In all, 8 Man After tries to do something gritty and mature with a cheesy '60s action show concept, and partially succeeds, but ends up being about as generic as action movies come. It's never particularly bad, but it's also never good, and amounts to nothing more than a forgettable diversion.

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Some other remakes of classic shows include the very similar Babel II and Casshan OVAs, also both released by Streamline. More recently there's Casshern Sins, which makes much more drastic changes to the original.