Product Description

From the beginning of time earth has been enslaved by the powerful and grotesque demons. The dominance these arrogant immortals hold over their helpless victims is challenged only by the noble guardians. Eons later in the year 2089 the demon lord is preparing once again to enslave the human race. Studio: Urban Vision Release Date: 06/12/2001 Run time: 50 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Akiyuki Shimbo

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67840 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-06-12
• Rating: NC-17
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 50 minutes

Amazon.com
Based on the manga by Saki Okuse, Twilight of the Dark Master is a brief--less than 45 minutes--feature that is long on static imagery but rather short on storytelling. Although the opening narration tells of the Great Mother creating demons and guardians, humans are transformed into demons through drugs and bioengineering onscreen. As he's celebrating his engagement, Eiji, a pharmaceutical researcher, metamorphoses into a monster resembling Ray Harryhausen's Cyclops in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. Eiji goes on a rampage until he's captured by the eerie brother-sister team of Chen and Huang Long, who take him to a sex club and feed him prostitutes. Eiji is part of an experiment conducted by Mr. Takamiya, the master demon. Opposing the forces of evil is Guardian and "fire manipulator" Tsunami Shijyo. Tsunami and Takamiya meet in a duel that ends before it really begins. Director Akiyuki Shimbo favors still images with the action occurring on the soundtrack, producing a striking but static feature that resembles a manga shot panel by panel, rather than a conventional animated film. Not rated ("for mature audiences"); suitable for ages 18 and up for nudity, violence, violence against women, suggestions of rape, and incest. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Great animation, but...
I fell for the oldest meanest trick in the book when i ran into this title at the video store - the DVD cover is beautiful, and the movie summary makes the movie sounds reasonably interesting. But unfortunately, the cover seems to be the best thing about the movie.

While the animation and the soundtrack were great, and plot had a lot of potential, it seems that the creators of this movie didn't really bother to develop the story into the great movie that it could have been. The story is somewhat scrambled, the characters are developed badly (if at all), with the bulk of information about the main character being provided somewhere in the final battle. That is - somewhere in the last 7 minutes of this (short) movie.

In short - if you feel a burning urge to watch anime, and this is the last title on the shelf at the video store, I'd still recommend that you think twice before renting this. And if you do rent it, do yourself a favor and watch the Japanese dub, at least this way you'll get to experience the cool soundtrack in its full glory.

A good standard for anime
A little on the short side BUT to say this movie was bad is being ultra picky .It had great gorey bloody scenes brought to you by the evil ones .The movie gore and fighting was sacrificed for sake of story line but that isn't a bad thing .I agree that this movie with some added work from the creaters could have put this flick among the top .Great animation work ,story work ,vocals as well .

Good if you give it time
This is really an anime that grows on you. The first time most people watch it they have no idea what's going on. I have shown it to at least 20 friends, and I have had to explain the story too every one of them. None of them even had a clue. Many people say that this is because there is almost no storytelling to speak of, and that nothing is explained. This is not true. There is in fact an extremely involved and layered storyline that works on multiple levels if you just take the time to understand them. It just takes a few viewings. The film is a very stylistic piece, with heavy influence on music, sound effects, and off-the-wall angles and colors. Though this makes the film extremely confusing at first, once you understand the storyline it is it's greatest asset. The music and artwork flesh out this sci-fi horror freak show. The story is extremely layered as well. There's references to the creation of mankind; speculation on the future of pharmacutical companies, the sex industry, technology, and metropolization; the documentation of the evolution of demons, guardians, and humans and their interactions throughout time; and even love stories. Some people would say that the extreme gore and explicit sex are disgusting, but in fact these are crucial to making the film realistc and the establishment of this as a theoretical real future. The characters are original and interesting, and this anime contains my favorite monologue EVER! That's right, including any movie and play I've ever seen. I'm refering to the supreme demon's monologue at final scene. The contrast of the horrific physical form and the intellegent words is absolute genius. My only reasons for not giving it a perfect score are that it is rather brief for a feature (clocking in at just under 45 min), it's a little lacking in character developement, and the DVD itself it totally lame. There are virtually no extra features of any value whatsoever. But don't let that deter you from purchasing it, because overall this is a great anime that is hard to appreciate, but once it has been it is quite an achievement and definitely worth picking up.