Midnight Eye: Gokû

Yoshiaki Kawajiri is so fun. You see, there are a lot of stereotypes about anime, labeling the genre as a shallow excuse to animate women being violated and blood spurting in every direction. Those stereotypes developed largely in response to the films of Yoshiaki Kawajiri. And if you can appreciate his movies for what they are, you'll have a blast watching them.

Goku: Midnight Eye is no different. It's an hour-long OVA set in a futuristic city where a sort of female peacock monster is causing police officers to kill themselves. Then it becomes sort of a dark superhero story when the lead character gets a bionic eye and a metal staff that can change to any length (he rams it through people and uses it to vault himself around like the old monk in Ninja Scroll). This is all handled in typical Kawajiri fashion, with well-designed monsters, gore, a cynical hero, frequently nude women, and a hissably evil supervillain.

If nothing else, the movie is a great little guilty pleasure, designed to make you wish you could do all the cool things that Goku does. Have fun with it, and be sure to watch it after midnight.