"Programming genius Joe Takagami is Silicon Valley's brightest rising star, creator of the Rockford foundation's supercomputer ROSA and soon-to-be a Nobel Prize winner. But when a chance encounter with an old girlfriend turns deadly, Joe's past starts to fall apart around him..."
"Hunted by the unstoppable, inhuman Sattle Beings, Joe unwittingly unlocks a malevolent and dark paranormal power within himself - a power that delights in wanton destruction and killing, a power with insatiable and demonic appetites...."
"What is the secret of Joe's phantom past? Who can he trust when everything he thought was real becomes a lie? And what is the sinister connection between the Rockford foundation and the genocidal Gods Blood Project?"
VHS version: Language Format: English Language Label: Manga Video Volume: 1 2 Running time: 48 mins 51 mins Certificate: 15 15 (cut) Catalogue no: MANV 1147 MANV 1181 Price: £9.99 £9.99 Release Date: 13th Jan 1997 10th Feb 1997
Joe Takagami is a computer wiz-kid in Silicon Valley, famous for the creation of 'Flash networks' that have revolutionized computing. A chance encounter brings him into contact with an 'old flame', but the girl in question denies knowing him from anywhere other than the cover of Time magazine. Furthermore, computer records deny the existence of the girl, Judy, and the woman he mistook for her winds up dead. And why is he hunter by the so-called Battle beings?
So begins another offering from Manga Video. The plot is hybrid of the movies Terminator and Blade Runner - you'll see what I mean if you watch it - and is completely lacking in originality. Something of a no-brainer, it's main appeal is to the fans of Fist of the North Star and the like, although even here it is something of a let-down - the fights that do occur, although bloody, tend to be short set-pieces. The animation is variable, tending towards the poor end of the scale, although the voice acting is bearable. Just.
In short: one to avoid. Score: 2 out of 5. Chris Hartford