Bio Hunter

Kamagaya and Komada are Bio Hunters; scientists that bravely fight a ‘demon virus’ that is affecting people all over Japan. When people catch this vicious virus, they become hideous monsters, set purely on hunting down and killing innocent bystanders.

On the surface, Kamagaya and Komada seem to have control of these strange circumstances; however, it’s soon revealed that Komada himself has accidentally contracted the ‘demon virus’. And while at the moment he manages to retain control of his ‘inner demon’ (and even wield it’s strength at times), every time he is forced to transform, he loses grasp of a little more of his humanity and can feel himself gradually being consumed by the demon virus’ evil intent.

I must admit I had pretty low expectations for ‘Bio Hunter’ even before I sat down to watch it. Horror is usually either extremely good or extremely bad, and indeed, the first 5 minutes certainly didn’t help these notions, what with a pretty detailed ‘sex & death’ scene (think ‘Species’ here), soon followed by a what I can only describe as a ‘demonic battle’.

It all seemed to be very familiar stuff, however, as the story progresses a little further and we get to know the 2 main characters a little more, I actually started to enjoy Bio Hunter.

Especially interesting was Komada’s struggle with his demonic half; a seemingly doomed man that is trying extremely hard to suppress his ‘demonic’ urges, this kind of angst reminded me of a vampire that refuses to drink human blood. It’s always interesting to see how people react to such extreme changes in their nature and if old morals manage to hold up against such new and strong urges.

I started to get a feeling this was trying to tell a story a little deeper than your average demon-slasher anime, and indeed, I wasn’t surprised to learn Bio Hunter was based on a script by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, a great anime director behind the likes of X TV, Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (a film which co-incidentally explores similar themes to that of Bio Hunter).

The only time the story ever really falls flat is in its disappointing treatment of women.
You see, naturally, the demons only seem to feed on young, helpless women (after carefully ripping off their clothes) – excuse me if this sounds familiar.
I just don’t see the point in this other than to up the amount of naked flesh on screen and tick off some kind of hidden quota on what should be expected of such a show. This is type of thing serious harms the integrity of what is considered to be ‘adult’ entertainment while adding nothing but a few pointless scenes of ‘tits’. Was it really worth all that?

So in summary, I’d have to say that Bio Hunter is a fun little action movie that perfectly fits it’s 60 minute running time. It clearly establishes its main character goals and then strives to please you with some nice looking animation and an enjoyable plot. A slightly under-rated piece of action horror.