Lion-Girl (2023) User Reviews

Too little action, too much everything else

[JonjaNet · 3/10 · 7 October 2023]

Can't decide if it is trying to celebrate anime and manga, or if it is making fun of it. Too long and boring either way. Whatever the point is, it takes WAY too long getting to it. LOTS of gratuitous nudity, a little gore (could have stood to swap that) and a disappointing amount of fight scenes.

Film spends a whole lot of time gazing at our heroine in, and out, of her superhero costume and literally tells us how she has been trained in all forms of martial arts and fighting styles, so you really feel like it is building up to an epic fight scene SOMEWHERE in the movie, All you get is some glowing special effects and everyone staring at one another until one of their heads explode!

Overall I found the premise and the general idea great, but I was really disappointed in the execution.

So bad and so goooood

[matteocordioli · 3/10 · 11 January 2024]

It's so trash that I couldn't keep my eyes off it.

There's a lot of colour, it's imaginative, there's nudes, there's violence and gore, it's eye candy, it's like an adult anime with many references to old cartoons (the fist of the north star in particular) .

Very often expensive productions with a lot of special effects lack this kind of imagination and passion.

Please watch it, sustain this kind of movies, I am sure Quentin Tarantino would agree with me. In a way it reminds me of Grindhouse productions (with a big intellectual effort of course).

The TV anchorman was so funny, like taken from an old 80's movie.

I waited for something to happen, nope just boring trash from start to finish.

[psxexperten · 1/10 · 29 December 2023]

I was feeling generous, so I'm giving a single star towards its well-executed special effects, but in a world where 2023 has raised the bar to sky-high standards, this film barely scrapes the term 'special.' Plus, there's a creepy-looking villain who could easily be mistaken for Art the clown's less intimidating cousin from Terrifier.

Let's talk plot, or should I say, the lack of it. This movie's storyline is so nonsensical that it doesn't deserve the dignified title of a plot. It's a baffling puzzle where every piece is missing, and trying to make sense of it will give you a headache.

To sum it up, "Do Not Waste Your Time"

SOS Different Day

[phuckracistgop · 1/10 · 4 February 2024]

Yes I understand that this movie is based off a comic book and that the survivors migrated to Japan. But why does the Hero who is trained in martial arts a caucasian???

For once I would like to see movie maker steer away from the typical "It takes a caucasian to save the day" nonsense. Or at least not go with cultural appropriation with a caucasian being better at a something like martial arts, then the people who invented it.

But nooooo, here we are with the typical fare of predictable Bull Malarky that is getting old really quick. And a deal killer when it comes to making a movie where people who want to see themselves or at least someone whop resembles them in a leadership position.

Loved it

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 18 December 2023]

Go Nagai created Cutie Honey, Devilman, Mazinger Z, the first erotic manga with Harenchi Gakuen, Getter Robo and Violence Jack. At one point, he was drawing and writing five weekly manga publications at the same time.

He also created the characters and did the designs for this movie, Lion-Girl, which is directed and written by Kurando Mitsutake (Maniac Driver).

Meteors hit the Earth and one out of every thousand people survived. Only Japan wasn't sunk -- an inversion of Submersion of Japan and the parody The World Sinks Except Japan -- and as war rages endlessly, the meteors transform humans into demonic hybrids known as Anoroc that kill humans, all while a new Bushido code emerges and samurais rule the lawless lands.

There is a hero and that is Botan (Tori Griffith). Her parents died from being transformed into Anorocs on the day of her birth and she was raised by her Uncle Ken (Damian Toofeek Raven) to defend the weak. She's also Lion-Girl, the rebel who Shogun Fujinaga (Tomuki Kimura) wants to destroy.

Botan and Ken are asked to deliver Herbert (Matt Standley) and Mayumi (Shelby Lee Parks) to a safe area where Ogi Agan (Stefanie Estes) will protect them. Joined by the cybernetic Marion (Joey Iwanaga), they battle Anorocs under the command of Kaisei Kishi (Derek Mears, who has played Swamp Thing, Jason and a Predator).

I have to confess that I totally loved this movie. I realize that it's a mess and the CGI is goofy but it feels like reading a whole bunch of manga all at once while you're on drugs, which I think was the idea, and it just hammers you with ideas, fights, blood, nudity -- male, female and trans -- and even some moments of humor that made me laugh out loud, such as when Lion-Girl stops the exposition and says, "We'll get into that some other time." There are also some definite mentions of the pandemic and Trump, which this was made during.

If they made another of these, I'll definitely watch it. It's long but I split it across a few days and ended up looking forward to each section even if the story makes less sense, but sometimes, you just go with it when you have a heroine with a gold lion mask going all scanner -- they literally call the battles scanning and reference Buckaroo Banzai's "Wherever you go, there you are -- instead of being hypercritical. Don't let yourself get in the way of a good time.

An Absolute Blast!

[stevesinger-2001 · 8/10 · 26 February 2024]

OK, mea culpa, I am not a huge anime or manga fan, so I can't tell how faithful this movie is to the source, but I can confirm that "Lion-Girl" is an absolute blast from start to finish.

It starts out with a bang, one of the best movie openings in a long time and never really lets up for the entirety of its run time. The action takes place sometime in the future where a rain of meteors have not only wiped out most life on earth, but these meteors also exude radiation that will kill most people... and if it doesn't kill you, it turns you into monsters called "anorocs" that hunt humans. Only Tokyo has survived, and an evil overlord has taken power over the surviving humans imposing his will over everyone (his motto is "Don't live long, and die working.") Luckily, Lion-Girl exists, equipped with powers, to fight to save the people from both the anorocs and the evil overlords. And this movie is her story...

Filled with violence, outrageous costumes and effects, and lots of nudity, "Lion-Girl" is great fun. It does have some social commentary, but it never gets preachy and it's all nicely integrated into the bizarre world. And even at a two-hour running time, the story never lets up or drags.

Pretty highly recommended, haven't had this good a time watching a movie in a while.