Here’s an interesting OVA consisting of three separate episodes that tell one story. Each episode is about 45 minutes long and includes the beginning and end titles to let you know that this is no movie. This could easily have been edited together to achieve that feature-length feel. Kudos to Central Park Media for attempting to stay faithful to the source material. However, they didn’t try to hard as they eliminated the Japanese voice cast credits from the DVD. The English voice cast is prominently displayed in the credits. For the purposes of this review, I viewed the English dubbed version without subtitles. Writer/Director Osasmu Yamazaki (creator of FATAL FURY and others) draws heavily from Chinese and Japanese history, legends, and religions, which sometimes becomes confusing because of the complexity of those subjects. The first episode sets up the story and characters, the second episode has action and continues to unravel the mysterious nature of the forces at work here, and the third episode wraps things up nicely with dazzling animated mayhem.

As the movie begins, a young boy named Kouichi consoles a little girl named Terumi as her school mates taunt and torment her. She’s a young girl (similar to CARRIE) who has always been continuously harassed by children her own age. As you can imagine, Terumi’s got a lot of pent up frustration and despair. Years later in high school the torment continues. She gets a new haircut and goes to school for additional taunting. While this is going on, her school mate Kouichi (now a teenager) begins hearing voices in his head. At first he thinks he’s crazy; but the voice insists that it is actually a Japanese god called Susanou. Soon strange events begin to unfold: locals are found murdered by something, and a mysterious Buddhist nun stalks Kouichi.

Terumi, because of her distressful emotional state becomes easy prey to ancient dragon spirits who possess her. Simultaneously, Koichi has transformed into the gigantic war god Susanou. He must find a way to combat the dragon spirits and restore Terumi to her normal self. Before the DVD is concluded, Kouchi/Susanou battles a plethora of giant dragons. Excellent monster and character designs by Ohbari Masami.

SIGHT

The transfer is presented full frame (1.33.1), and nothing is missing as this is how OVA’s are done in Japan. The image is very sharp with superior detail. Colors are genuinely bright and appear accurate, but there is some over saturation in some scenes. Contrast and brightness are good with decent shadow detail. There is no bleeding between colors and no haloing was observed. The blacks are deep and solid. GUARDIAN OF DARKNESS features dazzling animation and images all done justice by this DVD transfer.

SOUND

Here’s the problem with the DVD: The audio is Dolby Digital Stereo, but there is little to none rear speaker activity. The audio for the front soundstage is very good, however. I’m told that is how the OVA was originally released in Japan in 1990. The ambience, crispness, and bass of the front soundstage are pretty good. The voices come from the center speaker and are very clear. They did a good job with the dubbing, surprisingly. There are several sequences when the characters are screaming and the voice actors pulled it off without sounding fake or forced. Its too bad about the rear soundstage. There were several sequences where rear activity could have enhanced the presentation. A 5.1 remaster would have been perfect. The score could have been better as it consists mainly of traditional Japanese music mixed with electronic instrumentation. It would have been better if it had a symphonic-driven score.

FEATURES

Meet the Creator is a five minute interview with anime creator Osasmu Yamazaki.

CONCLUSION

A centuries old conflict with rich history and legends. Throw in some horror, occultism, and giant monsters and you have a combo that can’t lose. If you enjoy anime, you will be delighted with this disk, all others looking for something different might want to rent it first. CPM has done a nice job with the video, but dropped the ball with the audio, although it still gets the job done nicely. They also still need to work on the menu systems and extras. With the violence and nudity, this animated feature is not for the young ones.

                                             Rating (out of 5):