Wicked City

After lazing about for 9 days, I’m back to write my review on Wicked City & finish this duology. In my last review, I went over how Demon City, although a bad movie, was a movie I rather enjoyed due to its atmosphere & visual design. I’m hoping this will be the same case for Wicked City.

Story: 5/10

The story in Wicked City is just as lackluster as it was in Demon City, however I give the nod to Wicked City because it somewhat tries to do more with its plot, there’s more going on this film, more to digest, more to think about. The plot about this movie is that a bodyguard from the human world, & a bodyguard from the demon world have to team up with each other in order to protect this guy from getting killed by a faction of the demon world that doesn’t want this peace treaty to be signed. Unlike Demon City, the plot is actually somewhat thought-out, & it has a potentially engaging narrative at its fingertips. Of course, this doesn’t really amount to too much. This movie just doesn’t explore how the treaty would effect either side, we’re largely confined to the human world, rarely, if ever getting to have a look inside the demon world. The plot is largely underplayed for this one, largely serving more as backdrop/an excuse for the action scenes to happen.

Characters: 5/10

The characters in this one are also lacking, like in Demon City, however I think they’yre slightly more charismatic & have just a pinch more of a personality than the characters from Demon City do. That being said, they’re still 1-dimensional ultimately, with the slight exception being Mayart, but him becoming the protector, someone actually competent on some level, from a pervert at the start of the movie is rather sudden, & nothing foreshadows that he’s more than what he may seem. The characters are ok overall, like the plot, they primarily serve to drive the action sequences, but credit where it’s due, they’re more memorable than they were in Demon City. The various Demons that Taki & Makie fight are completely 1-dimensional & uninteresting. They’re only personality trait is “I’ll kill you” & nothing more. Even their powers aren’t much to write about.

Art: 9/10

Without a doubt the strongest part of this film is the art. Wicked City is aesthetically gorgeous, it’s character designs are slick, the color design is (pardon the pun) wicked. It’s an all around strong effort. The animation is also fluid & flows very well. The action scenes are staged, choreographed, & directed well, & leave an impact. Some of the storyboarding & shot structure is also pretty cool. I remember a shot about 50 minutes into the movie that served as a transitional segment for an action segment. The minimalistic color design of this shot is what made it so memorable to me.

Sound: 7/10

The sound is about on par with Demon City, the mixing can be rather quiet & hard to hear some of the time, the voice acting is a solid effort, & the rest of the sound design, relying sometimes on ambiguity, sometimes on crunch, all sell the tone & atmosphere of the individual scenes about as well as Demon City did, so not too much more to comment on with this one.

Overall: 6/10

Wicked City is more-or-less on par with Demon City. Although I slightly prefer Wicked City because the plot & characters are somewhat more engaging in this one than they were in Demon City. Otherwise though they’re equally worth watching. The plot is underutilized, the characters aren’t super interesting, the art, atmosphere, & setting are fantastic, the animation is also fantastic. The sound is solid. It’s an ok movie, enjoyable schlock if you will. I’m giving this one a 6/10.