The 80’s are a wonderful time capsule for media. It presents an aesthetic that is out of fashion now, but still beloved by the general consensus for its zeitgeist of the decade.
In this age, the manly, hypermasculine hero was the protagonist to have. Muscles, Justice, Violence and lot of Punching – this is the formula most of 80’s media pieces follow. Not only in films, with well-oiled Arnold Schwarzenegger and Silvester Stallone, between Robocop and the Terminator: The same goes for anime and manga, where “Fist of the North Star” and “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” were born and would take the world by storm. But many of these series are forgotten by time and widespread media, sitting still placidly in the 80’s, waiting for someone to come and look at them.
And this is exactly what we will do now!
“Riki-Oh” is one of these series. Published in Buisness Jump, a Seinen magazine from Shueisha’s Jump family, this is a manga that has all the tropes you could wish for: dystopia, yakuza, martial arts, manlyness galore, and prison hell. The manga ran for 12 volumes, between 1988 and 1990. Two OVAs have been released, and a live action movie as well, that received a cult following for being an over the top, trash, silly gorefest with a lot of mindblowing practical effects. But this is a story for another day, we will focus on the first OVA, from 1989. Off we go!
Story and Characters
In a post-apocalyptic Japan, everything is awful. People are dying, injustice is roaming the streets and the air is polluted. In this dreadful world, Riki is one hard dude. A mysterious vibe is around him, he bears a star on his right hand, and he is insanely strong. After his girlfriend dies by the hands of the yakuza, he battles the man responsible, but gets caught while performing his revenge.
Screw your car!
Our protagonist finds himself in a Tokyo State Prison that is now privately owned. Injustice is a daily matter, people are hurt or killed, and life is hell. Riki makes some friends, but loses them to the cruelties of prison pecking order, and therefore, tries to take the bad guys down.
Prison life is not lovely.
Everything escalates as Riki finds out that the prison is using the inmate’s workforce as a drug producing factory. He burns down the greenhouses and confronts the bosses of the prison, the chairman, his yakuza boss and their right hand fighter. More on him later.
After a lot of violence, a prison riot, and people getting hurt, Riki punches through the prison wall and leaves, towards new adventures.
This is how you exit.
The story is streamlined and not as complex as in the manga, there is for example only one main prison fighter, instead of four, and characters are omitted, while others are changed completely. But it does not hurt the story, it becomes its own thing.
As you can see, the story is explained pretty fast, but it is not the main focus of the OVA anyway. When you watch Riki-Oh, you are here for the spectacle.
Artstyle and Visuals
There is no point in denying that this OVA puts a great emphasis on bodies and the presentation thereof. Given that the violence involves a lot of body horror, it makes sense, but the amount of half-naked men in a prison is through the roof. The hypermasculinity of the 80’s comes with a fetish-isation and cult of manlyness that ends up being so over the top that it becomes ridiculous. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Naked fight in a prison shower. Man gets punched in boobs. I never thought these two sentences go together.
Riki gets punched and his clothes explode, leaving him topless.
His sit-ups sparkle!
Naked Riki is in chains, BDSM undertones included.
The 80’s fetish of men, and the muscles they have are one thing, but another aspect impressed me, a trope that I really much like in these types of shows: The feminine guy. If everybody has gigantic muscles, strong jawlines and incredible punching power, the nimble, slender and soft-faced guy visually stands out. And that can only mean one thing: That guy is going to kick immense amount of ass. Contrasting gender performances seeing eye to eye and are to be taken seriously!
OH SHIT
Now that is one badass man who can rock those fingernails! (Not pictured here: His superdeep voice.)
On the matter of framing and presentation, Riki-Oh has some beautifully composed shots, that really do shine in the fight scenes. The animation is not extraordinary, but it gets the job done. Gory shots and violence are animated well, the rest is very static, but still pleasing to the eye. The cinematography in those scenes is lifted straight from the manga and it really shines.
Simple, clean, nicely framed shots that look good. What more do you need?
X-ray “impact frame” that shows up only for less than a second. A nice touch.
The final fight in the burning greenhouse. Visually pretty impressive!
Conclusion
While Riki-Oh is a neat OVA that is very much a child of its time, I would personally love to read the manga some more, for the “way-too-realistic”, yet “too-over-the-top” violence. The violence in the OVA is toned down. Yes, the OVA is tame in comparison to the manga. Eyes get stabbed, people get skinned and the violence never stops. It becomes an insane gallery you walk through and go “Oh, no I never thought you could actually do that!” In addition, it does seem that the OVA does not give the original artwork 100% justice.
The balancing of black and white, as well as the artstyle are stylish. The OVA loses a bit of the “oomph”.
While the original story is a lot longer and features more characters, the Riki-Oh OVA does not waste your time. The pacing is fast and it trims the fat so strongly, that you are only left with the crucial plot points and main fights. Is that bad? No. Instead of an epos, it becomes a snack-sized anime of condensed 80’s that you can watch in one go and think: “Oh yeah, that was a nice trip to the past!”
If you are interested in the time capsule that is Riki-Oh, give it a watch. It is not a landmark of the genre, but a cult classic – well, that title would rather go to the manga and the live action adaptation – but it is a nice short action flick for a rainy afternoon, when you craving fun and camp goodness.
This has been Riki-Oh: Toukatsu Jigoku (The Wall of Hell)
Elena DS 