Smackdown Toons Part 4: Battle Royal High School

This title doesn't fit in with the rest as well as I remembered.  Oh well.  There is some bare-knuckle fighting but it is a lot more supernatural than the others.  It is still amusing in its own way so I don't think you'll be disappointed with:

Background:
Released By: AnimEigo
Length: 60 minutes
Year of Production: 1987
Language: Sub and Dub both included, Dub reviewed
Available on Netflix: Yes

First off, let me tell you not to confuse this title with Battle Royale, the live-action Japanese movie featuring high school kids forced to fight to the death.  I love that movie.  This one not so much.  Also, you may remember me saying that AnimEigo specializes in quality.  This title is apparently the exception that proves the rule.


The Fighters
The main protagonist fighter in Battle Royal High School is Riki.  His goal in life is to kick the crap out of a lot of high school kids and then move onto professional fighting.  Riki is also a devoted showman and likes to wear a leopard mask when fighting.  Then he gets possessed by his otherworldly counterpart, the Demon King.  This changes things a bit.

Cat Fight!!

Story:
The story opens on a bunch of kids running to witness a fight.  Riki is fighting every member of the karate club in order to gain the right to quit.  Odd rules but thems the breaks.  Many young school girls are watching through the club's windows gushing over how hot Riki.  They are also cursing Riki's childhood friend and fellow karate club member Yooko who gets to spend time sweating with him everyday.  Riki finishes off the captain of the karate club, removes his name from the team roster and puts away his leopard mask for the next time.

Fighting at right angles only

 Meanwhile in another dimension the King of the Demon Realm discusses an important prophecy with his followers. “The leopard headed warrior will appear and face a being from the dark world.”  The demon lord takes this to mean he needs to go pummel Riki.  

The demon world has tigers!

 Back in the human world, Riki's antics in the Karate club have lead to the captain resigning and Yooko getting severely pissed off.  Riki celebrates his victory with massive quantities of food provided by his admirers.  Yooko helps him celebrate by knocking him on his ass.  As he gets up to retaliate he notices that time has apparently frozen.  Riki tests his theory by molesting Yooko.  Her lack of response confirms his theory.  

Testing 1..2...Testing.......I love science!

 Riki travels through his frozen school, fighting desks that transform into monsters and demonic blackboards.  Eventually he makes his way to the roof and confronts the demon lord.  The demon lord sends out some minions who Riki is barely able to defeat.  The demon lord then stabs himself in the hand, which makes Riki's hand bleed.  No, this isn't some sort of voodoo, apparently Riki and the Demon Lord are the same person, just from different sides of the dimensional divide.  The demon lord decides the easiest way to deal with this revelation is to fuse himself with Riki and turn his body into a kind of fleshy Time Share Condominium for their souls.   

All the king's men

 Okay, that was the most normal section of this OVA, believe it or not.  Now is when it gets weird.  The stage shifts to a space ship high above the Earth.  Said spaceship belongs to the Space Time Continuum Enforcement Agency and the dedicated staff on board are scanning the planet for Hyper Psycho Kinetic Waves.  Apparently the Overuse of Sciencey Buzzwords Agency is underfunded or this OVA never would have seen the light of day.  Anyway, a lot of Pyscho Waves are being emitted from the high school's karate club captain.

Mega Proton Scanner indicates Fluxor activity in the Beta Quadrant!

The karate club captain goes out to vent his frustrations on some local delinquents.  This is all well and good until he gets stabbed and transforms into.......what else?  A tentacle monster!  The delinquents are being absorbed and killed one by one until a man calling himself the Demon Master, not to be confused with the Riki/Demon Lord hybrid.  Demon Master attacks the monster and drives it into a corner.

The old Japanese monster standby

In order to escape, the tentacled mass transforms into a kitty cat.  Demon Master Yuki chases the cat, which grows bat wings and flies away.  Not to be beaten, Yuki throws a manhole cover at it, destroying the wings.  The cat is re-cornered in a vacant lot and Yuki hurls a nail though kitty's head.  This prompts the cat to turn into a large reptilian beast.  Yuki shoots this with an energy bolt, and a tiny demonic fairy emerges, the source of all this chaos.

She ain't no Tinkerbell

Riki and Yuki meet up, all the while being observed by Space Enforcer Zankan.  The two men with demon-related occupations agree to join forces to root out the Fairy infestation masterminded by one of the Demon Lord's enforcers.  Zankan watches some more.  Speaking of Fairies, a much cuter appears before one of Riki's would-be-girlfriends named Megumi.  

AWWW! That's a bit better.

The Fairy agrees to help Megumi with her love life.  Megumi decides the best way to do this would be to have the fairy take revenge on the karate girl Yooko and eliminate the competition.  Little fairy possesses Megumi's teddy bear named Buttons, turns it into a giant, and has it attack Yooko.

Most adorable death match ever!

Zankan the Space Enforcer appears to defend Yooko.  He discovers the bear is a virtual being with a smaller, real teddy bear at its core.  The entire thing is animated by a large accumulation of emotional stress.  Makes me glad my emotional stress only causes ulcers, not demonic stuffed toys.  Zankan transforms into super hero mode and defeats the bear.  Yooko promptly falls in love, so in a sense, the fairy accomplished her mission to eliminate Megumi's love rival.  

Yooko loves a man in uniform. 

Zankan comes to the school to fight Riki for no real reason.  They are evenly matched and nothing really changes.  While this is happening, the Fairy Master approaches the Demon Master and convinces him to join forces.  And by "join forces" I mean they fuse into one body in order to prove they are superior to the Demon King.  The epic final battle stage is now set.  Zankan fights fused Fairy-Demon-Master and Riki roams the school.  He discovers a bunch of fairy infused hooligans attempting to rape Megumi.  

Demon rapists

Riki makes short work of the demons and rescues Megumi, whose clothes are strategically ripped for maximum male enjoyment.  She takes this opportunity to confess her love for Riki who can't take his eyes off of her lips, legs and breasts.  Then Megumi's head explodes.

Something always spoils those romantic moments

She isn't dead however.  The head exploding was a way to transform into a giant venus fly trap which promptly kills Riki.  Or so we think, except that was an illusion Riki.  The Megumi-plant-thing begs Riki to kill it.  Riki agrees to kill her with his love and the beast splatters.  Riki then uses the demon king's power to reconstruct Megumi body bit by bit.

Those Elric Brothers were amateurs

Zankan is getting beaten badly by the Fairy Master so Riki comes to his rescue and takes over.  The Fairy Master sprouts a horn which gets impaled in Riki's chest.  The pain forces Riki to black out, giving the Demon Lord full control over his body.  Now able to fully unleash his powers, the Demon Lord finishes off the Fairy Master in a traditional, samurai-style slash.  A little more female nudity on Megumi's part and the OVA is over.  The End!

Sliced to pieces!

Why watch?
1. The Glitch - There is a scene in the beginning karate fight scene in which a character disappears off screen before the end of the screen.  It is a neat little glitch in the animation.

Look just behind and to the right of the captain, half a body!

2. Quality Gore and Monsters - There are some great monster designs in this show, some of which I can't show due to exposed breasts or other body parts.  The animators did a great job with the monsters in this.  

Piranha Plant in real life

Demon Desks

Classic Mutated Tentacles

Why not to watch?
1. Character Designs - The female designs in this show are creepy and doll-like.  The males are generic and bland.  It seems the design team only had the passion for designing monsters.

So bland it hurts.

Super Creepy High Schooler, looks like she's 10

2. Convoluted, Overly Dense Plot - With all of the Masters and Lords and Police Agencies things get somewhat complicated.  In the 60 minutes this show runs, there are 3 different villains and alliances are forged and broken.  I occasionally got some of the characters mixed up, especially when they aren't given a proper introduction. 

So wait....is this the good guy or the bad guy or the bad guy who fused with the good guy?

Should you be watching?
Take it or leave it.  It is amusing in a way but a real plot would be nice.  The monsters are amazing and a lot of fun.  The human characters are underdeveloped and 2 dimensional.  If you don't take it seriously this is a wonderful piece of animation but if you want something of substance keep looking.