Devil Hunter Yohko

Saving the world while staying a virgin.

Devil Hunter Yohko (魔物ハンター妖子) is a Japanese OVA series created by Madhouse, produced by Toho, and released in North America by ADV Films as their first release. The series was first released on December 1, 1990 and ended on July 1, 1995. It is about a sixteen-year-old girl named Yohko Mano, voiced by Aya Hisakawa, who banishes demons from the Earth.

Yes, before you continue reading, this blog is far from being dead, I've just been busy "adulting", hence the lack of updates, but I can assure you I have plenty of Retro Animé series and OVAs waiting for a review, so bare with me.

 

Dress for the job you want.

Get quality clothes for your battles.

For today's grand return to posting, I'll take you back to the early 90s, a time where bootleg Animé heavily circulated around the world on VHS tape format.

Enter the world of the Mano family, they have been hunting demons for centuries. Yohko's grandma, Madoka was the 107th hunter in the family, until her daughter, Sayoko took her place as the 108th hunter. However, there's one catch. To have the skills and powers of a hunter you have to be a virgin. Unfortunately, Sayoko never took the job because she got knocked up before her mother passed the torch, so the responsibility went straight to her daughter Yohko. 

Yohko is a blooming teenage who's found the boy of her dreams Hideki and intends to let her hormones lose. The demons on the other hand, are aware that she is next in line to become the new hunter, so they decide to use all the tricks they can to make her lose her virginity and not become the hero she's meant to be. Will she be the hero her family needs? or will she succumb to the pleasures of sex?

Cutey Honey started the trend, while Yohko preserves the legacy.

Nude transformations and magic.

Lasting only 6 episodes, Devil Hunter Yohko was the first ever Anime to be released in home video by ADV in the USA. It was also probably the first Ecchii  animé ever to see American release. This was in the year 1990. The US had received gory anime like Akira and Vampire Hunter D. There had also been a very limited release of hentai like the infamous "Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend" found in the adult section of "selected" video stores. There was no internet at this time, so the only people that had ever seen a hentai were those with enough personality to walk straight into the adult section and rent a poorly dubbed bootleg while having to cope with the store clerk's look at your face.The Echii genre for those that don't know is a lowbrow genre that has lots of tits and ass, but isn't actual hentai. It is essentially softcore and includes shows like Ikki Tousen, Seikon, Desert Punk, and Highschool of the Dead. This is the grandfather of all those shows. The trunk of the sleazy Echii tree! It featured copious blood and nudity without having to buy it in a porn store. This made it a somewhat popular title back in the early 90s. 

 

This devil hunting collection of OVAs is perfect for fans of panty flashes, girls with weapons, and 90's anime art style. I first watched this decades ago while I was entering high school, and discovering then obscure Japanese animation with a bunch of good friends. I used to rent it from a local video place that had lots of anime featuring a decent amount of Ecchi and Hentai stuff.  The store clerks didn't give a fuck about kids watching this stuff because they thought these movies were essentially cartoons. 

 

How can you resist love?

How can you resist panties?

If you're into the  魔法少女 (Magic girl genre), you probably have watched it before. If you haven't, go for it! Like most Anime in the genre, the story is very easy to follow. Probably Devil Hunter Yohko, owes it all to Cutie Honey, the one that started it all, and the one we have covered in detail in the past from original Anime to every remake to date. 

 

Plot wise, if you're looking for original ideas, you won't find much here. Nevertheless, don't fix something that's not broken! We all know that the Japanese animation & manga industry have spent decades telling stories about teenagers discovering sex, teenagers dealing with duty over pleasure, and most importantly, teenagers saving the day while fanservicing the viewer. However, Devil Hunter Yohko does come with a valuable lesson as crazy as it may seem. Sayoko discovers that a hunter will not lose her powers as long as she uses protection while having sex. So, the trick is not getting pregnant instead of full celibacy. Believe it or not, Sayoko hands out condoms to her daughter, while encouraging her to have as much sex as she can. While this seems like a cheap plot hole, who could have thought condoms would be the ultimate MacGuffin that enable our hero to save the day and have a good fuck at the same time?

 

"Don't worry, I have protection"

"Better rub all this cum off"

 Quick Episode Guide.

 

1.Devil Hunter Yohko: Yohko Mano is introduced. Yohko goes about her daily life; day dreaming about a cute guy named Hideki. Yohko learns that her family has a long history of being devil hunters. But this time the demons decide to take out the next devil hunter before she can fight back. After a failed attempt to take Yohko's virginity (so that she can't become a devil hunter), the demons decide to use Hideki as bait. Yohko must become the 108th devil hunter and rescue the man of her dreams. This first episode is the one that features the most Ecchi themes and scenes. From then on, the adult themes are toned down and reduced to accidental nudity.

 
2.Devil Hunter Yohko 2: Yohko trains to become a good devil hunter. Nearby a local construction site destroys a forest in which sleeping spirits lie. The spirits are disturbed by this and start harassing the construction workers. Azusa Kanzaki, a Devil Hunter in training, is introduced. Azusa came to become an apprentice to Yohko. The two team up to fight against the spirits that are harassing the workers. From this episode on,  there's a comedic twist that I guess, could have worked for a full season.

 
3.Devil Hunter Yohko 3: Yohko has a dream about a man named Master Biryu. Yohko is transported to another dimension and learns that Biryu has been imprisoned. Yohko learns that she must save Master Biryu (although she develops a crush on him). Meanwhile, Azusa saw Yohko disappear and attempts to get Yohko back with Yohko's friend, Chi. They manage to get to where Yohko is, but fail and manage to get themselves back where they started. She must fight the demon holding Master Biryu captive in order to free him.

 

Coitus interruptus by motorbike.

Some demons have powers to get you naked.

 
4.Devil Hunter Yohko 4-Ever: A tribute to Devil Hunter Yohko, with a collection of music videos. These videos feature songs from the series (including three new songs), put to scenes from the anime, colored manga picture, an original animated video featuring chibified versions of Yohko and Azusa, and two live videos. A lot of people don't consider this episode as such due to being mostly a cut and paste from the previous episodes.

 
5.Devil Hunter 5: Hell on Earth: Madoka, Yohko's grandmother, senses the return of Tokima: the demon who from the time of the first devil hunter has been the enemy of the Mano family, is approaching. Tokima appears and possesses Ryuichi Asakura, a man whom Yohko has a crush on. Tokima tricks Yohko and gets near the clock that keeps his power sealed, but is repelled by special talismans. The next day, Madoka ends up with her past youthful body! Tokima possesses Azusa, who takes the clock. Yohko fights Azusa to try to stop her from destroying the clock. Yohko is tricked and "killed". The clock is destroyed and the demon's power released. Yohko is taken to the time of the very first Devil Hunter, Haruka Mano. The two go back into the present and fight against Tokima.

 
6.Devil Hunter Yohko 6: Double Jeopardy: Ayako Mano, who is nearly identical in appearance to Yohko, is introduced; she has spent her life training and honing her abilities so that one day she may defeat Yohko and become the devil hunter of the Mano family, and now she is ready for the final confrontation. Yohko continues to live her life and is unaware of Ayako until she starts stealing away every guy that on whom Yohko has a crush. Then one night while taking a bath, Yohko hears something outside and gives chase. She then meets up with an Azusa look-alike. She and Ayako attack the unsuspecting Yohko with crushing attacks, while Yohko parries the onslaught. The fight stops, but Ayako vows to finish it. Madoka reveals a certain part of her past that relates to the encounter. Yohko's teacher, whom she has a crush on, is used as bait to lure Yohko. Ayako and Yohko meet face-to-face for the showdown. The fight awakens a demon who sleeps deep within the Earth and the two must learn to fight together to fend off this powerful creature.

 

 

Ready for the fight.

Another demon hunter?

 

Devil Hunter Yohko, of course, was a response to the “magical girl” craze popularized by Sailor Moon (though the trope existed long before). While that series, as with most, was aimed at girls and young women, Devil Hunter Yohko was plainly aimed towards older boys and men, being a darker anime with substantially more violence and nudity. The heroine is an everyday girl, who maintains her family’s professions as a demon slayer, and fights them in a stylish red Chinese dress. Obviously, this meant some developers would take a shot and make a 16 bit videogame port of the OVAs. 

 

Devil Hunter Yohko: The 7 Warning Bells, A Valis-esque action game for the Mega Drive (Sega Genesis here) from obscure developer Klon, it’s a tie-in to the 90s anime, one which might seem slapped together at first but reveals more character underneath. Despite its disinterest in telling a story, the game certainly looks like Valis, or any other Telenet/Wolf Team-developer titles, right down to the featureless face of the heroine. And like many of their titles, it doesn’t feel right either, with slightly awkward controls and monotonous levels that don’t really develop so much as meander (though there are some branching paths). For example, the first stage is filled with winding vines, but it’s not entirely clear what parts you can walk on until you try them out. Neither the enemies nor Yohko react much to damage – in fact, taking hits is a little bizarre, because there is no invincibility period, but if you manage to avoid another attack for a second or so, Yohko will regain a slight amount of health. It’s not much, though, and you can still find yourself dying in three or so hits. Two other Devil Hunter Yohko games were made for the PC Engine console as well.

 

16 bit Yohko.

Fights only, no sex here.

 

But is this Animé based upon a manga?

 

Devil Hunter Yohko, like several popular Animé started in animated form before they made the jump to the respected Manga format. Gaku Miyao adapted the OVAs to the format in 1995 in one volume that focused on expanding the story of Yohko's past while facing new demons. Six to be exact.

 

The manga.

Gaku Miyao's talent.

 

While a lot of people consider Devil Hunter Yohko a cheap Sailor Moon rip-off that relies on all the Animé tropes and fan service clichés, I can say it's worth a shot.

Mind you, this is chock-full of almost everything that gives anime a "bad name". You've got the gratuitous nudity and fan service sequences, the violence, the sexual innuendoes, all focused on a cute little high-schooler. There's even tentacles on some of those demons she has to fight- but, no, this show, despite the borderline ecchi first episode, doesn't go there.

What Devil Hunter Yohko does do is entertain. The characters are likable and funny, with Aya Hisakawa at the top of her form as Yohko herself. Konami Yoshida as her sidekick Azusa is also super-cute. The action sequences are topnotch (I'm apparently not the only one who thought the swordfight at the end of the first episode was really cool) and at times, the plot can actually venture into the realm of genuine cleverness, especially in the fifth OVA.

The animation in the first few episodes has suffered quite a bit with time, as the first OAV was made in 1991. However, the plotlines and writing remain more than adequate, and the music for the whole series, mostly J-Pop, is quite good if you're into that style. (The ending song to the second OAV, "Not So Fast Sexy Girl", has to be one of the funniest anime songs ever written.) It was certainly popular enough to merit an entire episode of music videos (OAV 4), which I don't count at all as being part of the storyline (and neither should any other sentient being, for that matter).

Heroes take showers.

That legendary sideboob scene.

 

Overall, Devil Hunter Yohko is another early 90s Anime that deserves its place in history, despite the flaws some see in it. Until next time, stay fresh cheesebags!

Now let's finish today's work with our classic video section:

The trailer:

The Sega Genesis videogame:

 

Bonus theme song:Love Never Succeeds: