Customer Reviews

Twilight of the Dark Master Collector's Edition

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I fell for the oldest meanest trick in the book when i ran into this title at the video store - the DVD cover is beautiful, and the movie summary makes the movie sounds reasonably interesting. But unfortunately, the cover seems to be the best thing about the movie.

While the animation and the soundtrack were great, and plot had a lot of potential, it seems that the creators of this movie didn't really bother to develop the story into the great movie that it could have been. The story is somewhat scrambled, the characters are developed badly (if at all), with the bulk of information about the main character being provided somewhere in the final battle. That is - somewhere in the last 7 minutes of this (short) movie.

In short - if you feel a burning urge to watch anime, and this is the last title on the shelf at the video store, I'd still recommend that you think twice before renting this. And if you do rent it, do yourself a favor and watch the Japanese dub, at least this way you'll get to experience the cool soundtrack in its full glory.

This is really an anime that grows on you. The first time most people watch it they have no idea what's going on. I have shown it to at least 20 friends, and I have had to explain the story too every one of them. None of them even had a clue. Many people say that this is because there is almost no storytelling to speak of, and that nothing is explained. This is not true. There is in fact an extremely involved and layered storyline that works on multiple levels if you just take the time to understand them. It just takes a few viewings. The film is a very stylistic piece, with heavy influence on music, sound effects, and off-the-wall angles and colors. Though this makes the film extremely confusing at first, once you understand the storyline it is it's greatest asset. The music and artwork flesh out this sci-fi horror freak show. The story is extremely layered as well. There's references to the creation of mankind; speculation on the future of pharmacutical companies, the sex industry, technology, and metropolization; the documentation of the evolution of demons, guardians, and humans and their interactions throughout time; and even love stories. Some people would say that the extreme gore and explicit sex are disgusting, but in fact these are crucial to making the film realistc and the establishment of this as a theoretical real future. The characters are original and interesting, and this anime contains my favorite monologue EVER! That's right, including any movie and play I've ever seen. I'm refering to the supreme demon's monologue at final scene. The contrast of the horrific physical form and the intellegent words is absolute genius. My only reasons for not giving it a perfect score are that it is rather brief for a feature (clocking in at just under 45 min), it's a little lacking in character developement, and the DVD itself it totally lame. There are virtually no extra features of any value whatsoever. But don't let that deter you from purchasing it, because overall this is a great anime that is hard to appreciate, but once it has been it is quite an achievement and definitely worth picking up.

Like a splash of water waking one from a nightmare, this is an abrupt, compact, and dark anime. A heroine with prosthetic body parts, having been eaten/deformed by her fiance turned demon, seeks out the assistance of a cool, effete, but dangerous guardian to put her beloved down. Unaware of the larger plot involving the recreation of an age old über-monster, the two are distracted from their task by a pair of wind manipulating, incestuous siblings. Weighing in at only about an hour, this film moves along very quickly but never seems too forced or hurried. The characters remain mysteries throughout, with the Elric-albino-like hero barely registering on the personality meter. Emotive sadness is at least hinted at by the interaction between the fiance trapped in the demon body and his long suffering woman. The effects are appropriate for such a dark and dismal futuristic world, rain and terror abounds, especially as the demon is `fed' by the proprietor of a high class sex club. The end sees the inevitable confrontation, and amusingly the über-monster rattles off the major parts of the play up to that point before attempting to deflect its fate. In an instant, perhaps too quickly, the deed is done and the credits roll. Recommended.

A big thing is that there is no dramatic fights that realy impress you.The hero is just to powerful he just snaps his fingers and POOF,the enemy a blue glow sparks from the enemy and it just vanishes.Realy that's what happens I'm not kidding.The story is strange but you can follow it.This anime has some nudity but quickly turns you off with a demon ripping a her arm off at the elbow.The ending also is strange and leaves you feeling unsatisfied and some what confused.On the good side it does have umm....a twisted strange plot(if you like that kind of thing.)and nice animation but you still cann't get into it very much.

Twilight of the Dark Master / B00005BCKE

*Spoilers*

I understand that "Twilight of the Dark Master" is a movie based on an existing manga series - one that I haven't really been exposed to up until this point. From my outsider's experience, I think it's safe to say that non-fans probably won't be won over by this movie.

I have no doubt that a lot of effort went into the making of "Twilight of the Dark Master". The animation is lovely, the English voice dubbing is decently done, and the plot - what little there is - does try to keep the viewer in the loop as much as possible. Unfortunately, the final effort just comes off as deeply shallow, as though this were the basic framework of a movie, rather than an actual, complete movie in its own right.

The basic story arc is that here are demons and angels/guardians living amongst humans, striving against each other in a silent warfare. A recent experimental drug, however, has been used to turn a human into a demon and his tattered and emotionally scarred fiance sets out in a determined (and rather shell-shocked) quest for vengeance. About five feet from her apartment, though, she rather procipitously rus into a man who just happens to know a demon-hunter (lucky!) and they tromp off to talk to the guardian and explain their troubles.

The local guardian seems to work as a sort of paranormal consultant to the police - a kind of cross between Sherlock Holes and Blade, if I may be forgiven the analogy. And here is where the story is the most interesting. The guardian sleuths about a little bit ham-handedly, but the character has such a soothingly competant voice that it's easy to immerse yourself anyway, and try to enjoy the trail of clues. Unfortunately, the guardian turns out to be a little *too* competent - to the detriment of the movie - as his one and only clue is the only one he needs to solve the case, and the villains who try to murder him along the way are so massively out-classed by his magical guardian powers that there's just no tension. And this failing sort of surprises me - it's not rocket science to understand that a threat must be credible or else the drama is undermined. But it would seem that someone on the writing staff was so committed to the idea that humans are weak and guardians are unstoppable gods that they refused to be budged on ideology for the sake of a good movie.

Several other reviews have already noted that "Twilight of the Dark Master" is unpleasantly short, and while the sequences described above are far too rushed, the main reason for "Twilight"'s short length seems to be its almost complete lack of a proper ending. When a major demon turns up for a climactic end battle, it would appear that the developers realized that they had run out of budget and just rushed through a dialogue-laden alternative ending that performs several major artistic offenses, including the shoe-horning in of a previously unmentioned relationship between the guardian and the demon and - worst of all - just completely fails to make any sense.

Honestly, "Twilight" isn't bad, if you're just looking at anime as a genre to explore, but there are much better out there and it's ridiculously over-priced considering the short length, rushed content, and lack of drama. Check it out as a rental if you must, but if you're not already a fan you probably won't want to see it twice.

This movie provides English subtitles for the hearing impaired, however, the English subtitles almost never match the English spoken dialogue, which can be very annoying at times.

~ Ana Mardoll

Even though this movie was brief(around 50 min) it definately had its share of action, gore, and evil beings like demons. I would recommend this movie to ANYONE who likes Biohunter, or Wicked City, or movies of that sort. The ending script was VERY well done, and the ending music(when the credits roll) was really cool. This movie was basically very well done, if you look at everything. The cover is a feast for the eyes as well.
The only bad part about the movie was ONE thing, it could of been a LITTLE longer. Enjoy!

I began my anime watching almost two years ago, obviously spawning from american cartoons. I went up to my local video store and found some wierd movie called "Twilight of the Dark Master." Lets just say I can still watch the movie and not let my attention stray one bit. This movie is beyond any dark anime you will ever see. They pack a whole series worth of potential in a 51 minute movie, giving history on how the dark master and Tsunami were created and how they came ot live like they were. The fighting in this movie is unbelievable. If you have any doubts on this movie, don't fear you will not be disappointed.

To me this is the perfect anime movie. Being female I have a soft spot for touching emotional stories about love and heartache, however I hate dramas. Kinda wierd huh? What I do like is touching love stories when they are combined with elements of gore, fighting, and did I mention gore? Especially when creepy demons are running about. Cool. This movie didn't have a whole lotta action but it is there and the sheer atmosphere of the setting is creepy enough to give you goosebumps. It does have it's fair share of blood and killing tho' for freaks like me that crave that kinda thing. What I really loved about the movie was the extremly beautiful and tragic love story intertwined in it. I even cried at the end. The story is also very good, there is a lot of talking but if you actually listen to what they're saying you'll find it all ties in together very nicely. The character designs and music are also very gorgeous. I should add that the dub is extremely well done and impressed me greatly. No corny high pitched screeching like some animes. I recommend this for anyone who likes a little blood, a good story and setting, and tragic love.

Okay, just to warn those fans of animes like Dominion tank police and other silly animes, and also fans of DBZ and battle arena toshinden-type animes THIS IS NOT FOR YOU. The plotline is very dark and twisted, and hard to follow for the (no offense) wacky-anime lovers, however, if you liked X, Ninja scroll, and Vampire Hunter D, then you just may never go back to anything that doesn't have the words "dark, twilight, demon,or evil" in the title again. I cannot express with words the plot in the space provided me, but I can tell you this, Keep both ears open and both eyes on the screen because this anime will have you coming back again and again, not recommended for the kiddies though, let them stick to pokemon. hope I was helpful. bye

Ok here is a great anime film for any anime fans out there. Great artistry, this is a beautifully drawn film, with action, but not too much to bore you, or make it the typical "guy" film, both males and females can enjoy this film. It has some sexual content so it's not a film recommended for children. Of course, the movie is short and you're left aniticipating more, and wanting more information. I was left wanting more and in a way was left angered that it was only 50 mins. but that's the beauty of it, You're left wanting more (therefore making it a great film, and the creator an intelligent person). Also, if you are a great fan of only action based films such as Battle Arena Toshinden where characters are mainly fighting and little plot is exposed (don't get me wrong, I liked the film/series), this is not the film for you, although it has some gruesome and bloody action, it is not solely based on that.