Goku: Midnight Eye II
Goku: Midnight Eye II is the follow-up to the first installment, Goku: Midnight Eye. Both OVA’s clock in somewhere under 55 minutes and can be knocked out in a brief outing. But are they worth the trek? Well, if you read my first review, then you pretty much know what to expect. Action, nudity, etc. The standard components are found in mindless action anime. This is no Ghost in the Shell, so do not expect any psychological or philosophical tropes. Unfortunately, it’s not an X-Men origin story, so we never learn how Goku received his eye.
His eye, you ask? Goku has what is referred to as the “Eye of God,” a cybernetic eye that gives him the ability to control any computerized device. He has the power to rule the world if he so wishes; however, he leaves those aspirations to the various criminal organizations in and around Tokyo.
Like part one, Goku: Midnight Eye II was released in 1989. Madhouse Studios also animated it under the direction of Yoshiaki Kawajiri. The focus remains the same with Yoshiaki Kawajiri at the helm. Mutsuo Koseki and Akira Yamakawa handle art direction. You’ll notice that the art and animation are similar to other works Akira Yamakawa was a part of, including Demon City Shinjuku, Lily C.A.T, and Take the X Train.
GME II is an anime adaption of the manga of the same name written by Buichi Terasawa. It follows the story of Goku;” a former cop turned private investigator. Like most eighties cops, Goku was an apparent loose canon, a cowboy who subsequently was kicked from the force”. This time around, GME II does not pick up where the last one ended, but we find Goku at his usual haunts, amongst villains, beautiful women, and plenty of action!
After a brief introduction, our story follows Goku, who is hired by the beautiful Ryouko to find her brother. Her brother Ryu has become a product of Japan’s desire to create super soldiers. Escaping the Japanese Defense Force, Ryu has become progressively unstable, and unless he receives injections that calm his mental state Ryu will become an unstoppable monster. Her goal is to reach Ryu before he snaps. Her brother’s goal is to get the man who made him the monster he might become.
The anime becomes a game of cat and mouse as Goku searches Tokyo for Ryu. As he explores Tokyo, we are slowly given breadcrumbs regarding Ryu’s whereabouts and his backstory. Honestly, this could have been the Ryu story.
What should be a solid premise falls flat for several reasons—first, the runtime. At less than an hour, it’s apparent that GME II needed more time. More time would have allowed for the second issue, character development. All and I do mean all actors in this cyberpunk play are, as Jim Kelley stated in the movie Enter the Dragon, “Right out of a Comic Book.”
These issues are made worse when it appears that the story falls to obvious poor post-production edits, making it seem like the anime time shifts, leaving out critical information. This is no fault of the director as he made concessions on what to glean from the source material. It’s noted that the manga includes other stories involving Goku, so it leaves one to wonder if there was talk of creating more projects that were eventually shelved.
Attempts were made to get the viewer to look past the lack of character development and focus on the externals. However, shock value, a common trope in action anime of the era, fell flat, making the lack of character development apparent. GME II is a 1989 anime that is deliciously animated. Its animation handled by Madhouse easily rivals works made a decade later.
I was not a fan of the soundtrack as it’s mostly a recycle from the first film. It’s not bad, but it’s nothing that I’ll need to shower twice over. I recommend going sub over dub; Steve Blum (Goku) returns for round two in the English dub released in 2000, but it is apparent he wasn’t enthused with the material. The same can be said of Wendee Lee (Ryoko eng) that readers will recognize as the voice of Faya from the anime Cowboy Bebop. A vocal highlight in GME is Rebecca Forstadt, who is the voice of Lynn Minmei in Robotech: The Macross Saga. She appears in the opening scene as a curvacious naive starlet who surprisingly resembles the waifu of the Zentradi.
Goku: Midnight Eye II is an anime that would have been worth watching had I had access to it in 1989, when anime was still scarce in most of North America. With a better part I and better cyberpunk titles that preceded it, I believe GME II is best left to nostalgia. My recommendation is to skip the OVA and opt for the manga instead.
