Baoh Raihousha

Hello, Visk here and today I will be clearing up this misconception about how this masterpiece has been misrepresented in the other reviews here. I love Baoh. I truly do. The world seems to also. I've been told that this OVA was the basis for how alchemy worked in the critically acclaimed series FMA. I've also been told that it was also the inspiration for the T800 Robot in Terminator. In many ways this OVA is superior to the aforementioned titles but due to its short run time and lack of exposure critics nitpick just because they are worried someone else will see through their cleverruse that I've seen through. I will now tell you the truth the others are to scared to tell you. Sure it is flawed but this is a real gem compared to the shit that comes out every season nowadays. (Note: The same Mango Farmer that made Jojo wrote the source material for this.) [PART 1: THE STORY] There was once a parasite, no not the maxim one, and this said parasite was named Baoh. The parasite infects our main character's love interest. Said love interest gains the ability to become blue and that entitles gaining the ability to be baller like a Smurf or the "I'm Blue" guys. The evil people are jealous of his baller status and loli girlfriend so they set out to kill him. That is what you get at the start of this riveting story. I personally think this one of the most engaging and relatable stories I've ever had the pleasure of viewing. There is literally no way this could have gone in any other way than sheer perfection. I was told by a friend that the production of this show was done in a five year long orgy that only ended because the decade was about to end. [PART 2: THE ART & ANIMATION] For something that came out in 1989 it looks brilliant but the problem comes in when all your amazing characters are dwarfed by Col. Dordo. There just was not enough screen time for this glorious hunk of man and machine. Stan Lee also agrees with as Cyborg is pretty much a wannabe of the power that Dordo holds. Marvel makes Cyborg's enemies laughably weak compared to man that Dordo faces. He takes on the last Indian on Earth while Cyborg fights some skinny bitch boys who die in one hit. To our knowledge Baoh is invincible. Now, you are wondering why I rated it so high but the reason for that is that Dordo made it worth the money and the fights were as smooth as Bruce Willis's bald head. With that out of the way I will now continue onto the next segment. [PART 3: CHARACTERS] This show suffers from the fact that Dordo wasn't the main character. The world spoke and now we know that the only true flaw this show has is that there isn't more Dordo. It is a paradox because of the fact that Dordo exists the characters are instantly a 10/10 but the fact that he isn't the main character warrants this section a 0/10; so to be fair to the show I will give the characters a 2/10. Better luck next time Pierrot. I will end this with an overwhelming recommendation that you should watch it and then tell 5 friends to watch and repeat and repeat and repeat etc. This saved anime way before your French Killers and your Attacking Titans ever tried to. You will not regret giving this 46 minute masterpiece a shot. The end has to be one of the most memorable I have seen in any piece of media. Visk here and I'm signing out. I hope you enjoy the show.

Only a few minutes into this OVA and there is already a scene where dogs are brutally murdered... yup this is without a doubt a story written by Hirohiko Araki! If you're a fan of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, you may already know Baoh from JJBA Allstar Battle, because he was a DLC character in this game. The plot is pretty straightforward and without many twists: this anime is about a young man who has the so-called Baoh parasite in his body. This allows him to transform into some sort of monster that looks like it's straight from Thundercats. He escapes from a facility and meets agirl with physic powers on his way. They encounter a lot of bad guys that Baoh has to slaughter and in end, he fights a strong enemy, so they bring some shounen elements into the mix too. This OVA is pretty gory, so if you like to see a monster killing people and melting their faces, then Baoh Raihouska might be for you. Like I said the plot isn't really all that special and since this anime is only 47 minutes long, there isn't much character development. The action was good and the art style was nice to look at (it doesn't really resemble JoJo's Bizarre Adventure though). Some things bothered me though: the girl's physic power really didn't add anything to the plot at all. Why did she even have a special power in the first place? It felt really random. Also, the ending was kind of weird too. Overall Baoh Raihousha is no masterpiece, but for what it is, it's definately pretty enjoyable.

I'm not sure about lightning but genius can definitely strike twice! This fantastic short story comes from Hirohiko Araki, the creator of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, my all-time favourite manga/anime series, so naturally I had super high expectations going into this, which were lowered due to the 6.12 rating and the other reviews making fun of it. Was it anything like JoJo? Absolutely not. Did it deliver in terms of the initial high expectations? Absolutely yes. Don't trust the mediocre rating! Baoh is an extremely entertaining short film. Since it is above 45 minutes it's technically long enough to be considered feature length, and well, it gives youeverything that a sci-fi thriller you would see in theaters even today would give you, but only in a fraction of the time which for me makes this far superior to 90% sci-fi movies. Story: 8/10 The story is the typical tale of a secret government/organisation scientist creating an ultimate weapon that ultimately kills him and endangers the world, however it is brilliantly executed here. It makes me think that this was in a way Akira, before the Akira movie was even released (the Baoh manga is from 1984) Baoh's tragedy is that Ikuro, a 17-year-old teenager who was experimented on and had a parasite placed in him, must confront and control his demons and use his superhuman abilities, that he can tap into with the parasite, to stop the hitmen sent after him. The scientist and his organisation will stop at nothing to capture him, even endangering the lives of the innocent by setting a gas station on fire or capturing and torturing a nine year old girl who was with him. The ending sequence is also great however I won't spoil it. Art: 8/10 Given that this was made in the 80's I was not expecting anything jaw-dropping, but kind of got it in the end. True, the animation is quite choppy at times by today's standards, but "art" encapsulates more than just the fluidity of animation. For it's time it's relatively smooth anyways. The firey effects, the violence, the people's faces melting from Baoh's ability, the visual effects when it comes to the destruction of walls and buildings, though - amazing! This movie was not afraid to get graphic with it's gore and they animated it well. That is to be expected of Hirohiko Araki, since he likes to make even mundane injuries look really gory, which strangely appeals to me. As a result, all the fighting scenes looks great and are constantly tense, also due to the fact that Ikuro is vulnerable when he is in his human state. Characters: 8/10 There aren't too many characters in this anime as it is only 48 minutes long, but the main two, Ikuro and Sumire were quite nice and wholesome. Sumire was cute, and Ikuro's struggle of taming Baoh and escaping from the mercenaries sent at them, while protecting her, was what made him so very likeable. I was very attached to these characters and even felt sad for them multiple times during the movie. Also, the hitmen were cool as you would expect from hitmen in a badass action anime, plus the last one had extremely cool abilities. Enjoyment: 10/10 You won't believe what a blast I had watching this. First off, I'm usually not the biggest fan of old shows or movies since they are usually very slow-paced, however Baoh was not like that. I already explained how Baoh achives what most sci-fy moves do but only a fraction of the time, cramming as many sci-fi thriller tropes as possible in a short amount of time while still remaining original in its execution. I also already spoke about how entertaining the gore and destruction effects are. However, most importantly this movie flew right past me along with the time I spent watching it. At some point during the film I moved my cursor to see roughly where I am and I was at the 35 minute mark. I could swear I had been watching this for only about 10 minutes maximum. The truth is I was so sucked in that it felt like it past by too quickly for me to notice how much time had truly pased. I can definitely see myself rewatching this soon, even though I rarely rewatch anime. The only major criticism I have for this is that it cuts off a LOT of content from the original manga. Really, it's an adaptation of the beginning, hook, and end of it, while leaving the three chapters in the middle completely.

Now this is a great OVA and does not disappoint. You may recognise some similarities to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. That's because this was Araki's first to use his signature gore (the guy who made JoJo). Starting at a confusing beginning, everything is soon explained. Although not much is revealed about the main character's characteristics. It is great for a short story. The battles are unlike anything I've seen from a superhero anime. When this ended, I was left wanting more. There isn't much else I can say about this other then to watch it. It's great for all sorts of fans, it's got a Superhero, Gory fights, Horror, ScienceFiction, Cyborgs and Espers. This OVA is incredible for something of it's time.

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