MANUAL ‘STIMULATION’ by multi-penised monsters, blood and betrayal, sex in space, and blow jobs at the wheel. Japanese animation has hit the shops carrying certification ratings Bugs Bunny only dreamt about.

Emanating from independent art studios in the Orient and marketed by Manga Entertainment, a division of Island World Communications, the burgeoning cult of adult animation sets not just new frontiers for animation itself but challenges the notion that cartoons are for kids and adults with their sense of humour intact. The leading Manga title, Akira, has sold 70,000 copies in the UK alone since its release in 1991 and offers dark visions amidst stunning visuals.

Set in the year 2019 when ‘the world is on the brink of absolute destruction’, Akira’s plot centres around a Tokyo which ‘shimmers with tech-noir fetishism, gangs of cyber-punk bikers cruise the sprawl of the post-atomic city and rioting crowds surge under the neon-topped buildings looming a thousand storeys into the sky’. Rating 15, Akira is one of the less explicit in Manga’s range yet is a mightily impressive piece of work. In common with its fellow releases, however, it contains what appears to be a cultural penchant for an unnecessary level of blood-letting and brain-splattering but remains high on intrigue.

CLOSE TO OBSESSION

“They’re technically brilliant,” says Ralf Palmer, Director of Animation for Don Bluth (Ireland) who are responsible for more traditional forms of Western family cartoon such as All Dogs Go To Heaven, Rock-A-Doodle, and The Land Before Time, with considerable international box-office success. “They are especially good at layout, background, and attention to detail, and they dispense with classic formalities. In Japanese animation, though, characters are often quite rigid and stiff. They are close to obsession in their thirst for the drawn subject and while that means there’s a huge market there, they tend to mass market them and so their quality can suffer.”

With titles such as Legend Of The Overfiend (18), Legend Of The Demon Womb (18), and Crying Freeman: Portrait Of A Killer (18), the appeal would, it seems, be an acquired taste on this side of the world. Elaine Downie, manager of Tower Records’ Dublin branch, feels that their attraction thus far has rested with “computer games users and anything cult-like such as science fiction, horror and comics buffs.” Indeed, one or two scenes available make Hellraiser seem like Mary Poppins: The Next Generation.

While Downie admits that “the certification ratings are okay” and Alan Townsend of Dublin’s HMV regards the violence as being “not much different from games like Street Fighter 2 and Mortal Kombat,” there is caution in advance of the Video Recordings Bill which is due to come into effect next January. “That Bill is intended to clean up rental pornography but will affect retail trade,” claims Townsend. “Videos will be re-certified for this country, including foreign language films and even Manga, and if we were only left with a small number of titles in these ranges then it may not be worth our while bringing them in at all.” According to Manga’s Mike Preece, a new video entitled Wicked City has already “had three or four minutes taken out by the UK censor and most of them have been cut in some sense. Some have been entirely rejected by the censor.”

STAUNCH MACHISMOS

Ultimately what Manga offers is a selection of videos most of which were on adult cinema release in Japan. Could the same happen here on a regular basis? Mike Hannigan of Dublin’s IFC was encouraged sufficiently by a two-week screening of Akira last year to consider further releases. “We had it on in January. The first week was a bit slow, but this could well have been the month that was in it. The second week picked up and for its final two nights it finished on a high. It was a contradiction of the normal film-going trend in that sense. We would certainly investigate the possibility of bringing in further releases.”

Indeed, Hot Press readers in the UK will be able to trek along to see GOL-GO 13 which, according to Manga’s Mike Preece, is going on “limited UK cinema release this month, with another three or four titles on release in ’94.”

Although Manga has clearly established itself with its brand name, the signs are that a host of other companies look set to capitalise on the growing market. Western Connection’s The Sensualist (18), for example, follows ‘the debauched life of rich merchant Yonosuke and the erotic events he experienced during 54 years of life since age seven’.

And lest one takes things too seriously consider Manga’s Ultimate Teacher (15) wherein ‘Hinako, the beautiful leader of the delinquents’ possesses ‘Velvet Pussy panties guaranteed to crush the most staunch of machismos’ and where ‘victory is largely determined by choice of underwear!’.

Some things never change.