Twilight of the Dark Master (1997)

Director:

Akiyuki Shinbo

Writers:

Duane Dell'Amico (screenplay)
Tatsuhiko Urahata (screenplay)
(more)

Genre:

Animation | Fantasy

Tagline:

The Ultimate Clash Between Good And Evil

Plot:

In the near future, the demons prepare for a new assault on earth, which is protected by the guardians...

Plot Keywords:

Demon | Anime | Futuristic | Nudity | Based On Comic

Cast

Andrew Philpot	...	Tsunami Shijo (voice: English version)
Toshihiko Seki	...	Tsunami Shijo (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Steve Bulen	...	Kudo (voice: English version)
John DeMita	...	Huang Long (voice: English version)
Julia Fletcher	...	Chen Long (voice: English version) (as Julia DeMita)
Barbara Goodson	...	Takamiya (voice: English version)
John Hostetter	...	Detective Kumazawa (voice: English version)
Eleanor Joy Lind	...	Additional Voices (voice: English version)
Seth Margolis	...	Tajima (voice: English version)
Matt McKenzie	...	Junk (voice: English version)
Matt K. Miller	...	Tenku (voice: English version)
Denise Poirier	...	Shizuka Tachibana (voice: English version)
Emi Shinohara	...	Shizuka Tachibana (voice)
Kaneto Shiozawa	...	Kudo (voice)

Directed by
Akiyuki Shinbo

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Duane Dell'Amico		screenplay
Saki Okuse		comic
Tatsuhiko Urahata		screenplay

Produced by
Yaemi Aoki	....	producer
Masao Maruyama	....	producer
Masanori Sakamoto	....	producer
Naoko Takahashi	....	producer
Mataichirô Yamamoto	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Keiji Urata

Cinematography by
Hiroshi Isagawa		(director of photography) (as Hiroshi Isakawa)

Film Editing by
Yukiko Ito
Harutoshi Ogata
Satoshi Terauchi

Art Direction by
Yoichi Nango

Art Department
Yoshimitsu Ôhashi	....	storyboard artist

Sound Department
Yasunori Honda	....	sound director

Animation Department
Hisashi Abe	....	animation director
Hisashi Abe	....	character designer

Production Companies

• Goodhill Vision
• Mad House (animation production)
• Toei Animation Company
• Toei Video Company
• Tristone Entertainment Inc.

Distributors

• Madman Entertainment (2004) (Australia)
• Urban Vision Entertainment

Other Companies

• Maki Production  titles
• Toei Audio Visual Art Center (TAVAC)  recording studio
• Victor Entertainment  music production

Runtime:

USA:50 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Netherlands:6 (re-rating) | Australia:R | Germany:16 | UK:15 | USA:Unrated

Company:

Goodhill Vision

Great animation, but...

I fell for one of the oldest, meanest tricks in the book when i ran into this title at the video store - the DVD cover is simply beautiful, and the movie summary makes the movie sounds reasonably interesting. But unfortunately, the cover seems to be one of the few good things 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.