Campus Special Investigator Hikaruon

30 minutes of fame.

学園特捜ヒカルオンAKA Campus Special Investigator Hikaruon is a 30 minute OVA from 1987. Quick action, fan service, a cool theme song, and a motorcycle dude who transforms into an armored superhero no one's heard of before. What's not to like?

A strange series of apparent suicides is occurring at a Japanese private school; Campus Investigators Hikaru Shihodo and Adzumi Hadzuki infiltrate the school to investigate the cause of these student deaths. Adzumi goes undercover as a business-suit wearing bodacious-babe teacher. Hikaru, back in school and posing as a newly enrolled student, is picked on by big, bad, bully Gomi and his gang, but quickly turns the tables on Gomi with his “too cool for school” attitude. After some “I-am-the-man” posturing between Gomi and Hikaru, pretty student council vice president Yayoi Shina becomes enamored of “Shihodo-kun”.

Through Shina, Hikaru meets suave, stuck-up, delicate featured, anemic looking student council president Amakusa (evil incarnate). Manipulative brainiac Amakusa is really a student’s soul-eating monster from another dimension. Amakusa takes Shina captive and puts Adzumi under mind control, and then he changes into a giant monster. It’s up to Hikaru to transform into the metal super-hero HikaruOn to rescue them. 

 

Hikaruon looks like a VR Trooper.

Average 1980s hero style.

 

Hikaruon was produced by AIC studios, veterans in the Animé industry producing a respectable amount of 133 OVAs ranging from hentai to sci-fi. Some of them, covered in past reviews here: Guy, Project Zeorymer, Dangaioh, Call Me Tonight, and the legendary Megazone 23 just to name a few! Moreover, it's directed by Kazuhiro Ochi, who's worked on Dragon Ball Super, Mobile Suit Gundam & Fist of the North Star. 

 

As above mentioned, Hikaruon is not trying to deliver an original story at all. In fact, it was conceived as a tribute to the "Metal Hero" (tokusatsu) genre from the 80s. This is a short one-episode. There's no backstory or character development at all (probably a good thing, actually) and very little characterization for our cardboard cutouts; the villain's motivations are also unclear. Granted, plotting and character nonsense is not usually the main factor drawing people to series like this, but it does help to have some kind of hook to keep the viewer interested—the appeal is the shortness and fast-pace, fun imagery, and a few bits of interesting animation. There is a mishmash of effective elements, but not one thing that is done enough or consistently well to make this anything more than a forgettable time waster.

 

Hikaruon main characters.

Vintage poster.

The storyboarding is often pretty good, with the chosen shots being quite dramatic (love the bit with the car trying to run over the protagonists). This was a period of animation where they weren't afraid to incorporate background animation somewhat regularly, and there is a bit of that. Hideki Tamura's running sequence is nice, though short. Both Shinya Ohira and Yoshinori Kanada animate parts of the final fight scene. Not really among the best work of either, though some of the effects animation predict stronger efforts of Ohira's, such as his scenes in Angel Cop or Akira. Kanada's scenes are probably the most stylish—especially those great silhouette light shows, and he was always a shining light in the darkness for so many of these old TV series.

The biggest standout, other than exposure to obscure work from a few industry veterans, is probably a much darker atmosphere than is usual for a show of this nature. It starts with a suicide, depicted in a creative fashion, and they even use unshaded and colorless bystanders to good effect. The multiple dimensions also lend this a bit of a surreal touch, with the chessboard setting being the most notable. Most of the scenes outside of the short school segments are nocturnal urban scenes that are well-rendered and moody.

 

Hazuki Adzumi, more than a teacher.

Brave Hikaru's friend.

 

Back then in the 80s, the few chosen ones who were lucky to witness some of this material, would frequently label it as an "adult form of animation". Nevertheless, this wasn't because of the occasional nudity & sex some of these OVAs included. This label, quoting a legendary 1980s franchise, referred to Animé as being "more than meets the eye". Think about it for a second, Adzumi Hadzuki (pictured above) infiltrates the school to investigate teenage suicide. How hardcore is that for an animation? He-Man and Optimus Prime only dealt with soft moral issues, never with depression and eventually death. I for one, can say this was groundbreaking to me, as a young impressionable and susceptible boy. Suicide is definitely one of the most difficult themes that society experiences, sadly, everyday. So, yes, I think we can agree the Animé industry was decades ahead of what the American cartoon industry considered suitable for children. No wonder, concerned families wanted to ban Animé because of its "satanic/perverted" content that would poison young kids minds. Moreover, Hikaruon also includes a couple of scenes where rape is involved. Although, our hero gets there just in time, the matter is teased twice. Considering, this is a 30 minute story, producers wasted no time in implying the demons hiding in the school are the very evil cause behind the issues that are destroying the students' lives. Once Hikaru arrives in school these demons have already infiltrated school with their minions posing as regular students. 

What's in it for the demons? Well, they feed on teenage flesh and blood, so it's only natural they target a high school full of them. Sadly, we don't get an explanation as to why they do it, and how Hikaru became the superhero he is. 

VR Troopers!

What could have happened to Hazuki.

All in all, Campus Special Investigator Hikaruon is a quick story that pays homage to the tokusatsu genre, and that's pretty much it. Remember that the 80s boom for animation had hundreds of companies producing as many OVAs as they could. The thirst was real, and honestly, producers didn't care if their stories would remain unfinished forever. They wanted the cash, and they got it.

 

Here's the opening in full HD glory:

 

 

The ending in full HD as well:

And a movie clip, also from the recent HD remaster: