The Weekly Shonen Jump magazine is one of the biggest and most influential around the globe when it comes to manga and pop culture in general.
One Piece, Naruto, Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Bleach, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and many, many more were published in the magazine, where they would gain worldwide popularity, critical acclaim and the love of millions of fans all around the globe. However, there are also the smaller ones that time has forgotten, even though they sold millions.
One of those is “Bastard!!”.
Bastard has been running since 1988 uninterrupted in Shonen Jump, then switched to the Seinen-oriented Ultra Jump in 2000, and continues today, making it one of the longest running series in the magazine. The series has about 30 million copies in circulation, which makes it one of the higher ranked manga series. (To give you a point of reference, Death Note is also at 30 million, Sailor Moon is at 35 million, and Haikyuu!! at 28 million.)
The Bastard manga doesn’t seem to have the same reach as the others in that league, but it still is a very interesting piece of media to look at, even if it may not be as popular as its contemporaries.
Instead of going through 31 years of manga, we will look at the standalone OVA series, which came out in 1992, and see what makes this 6-episode series a beautiful time capsule of the 80’s.
Bastard!! – Destroyer of Darkness!
The high fantasy adventure story unfolds in the lands of “Metallicana”, where the four “Evil Lords of Havoc” are attacking the castle of the king. They have sent in the powerful wizard Osborn to attack the fortress with a gigantic Hydra.
In the castle, the magicians and knights are helpless. They are losing all their men, the damage done to the castle walls is getting worse by the second with this raging beast that cannot be stopped.
Somewhere in the castle, the young priestess Tia is told by the Great Priest that she holds the key to turning this desperate situation around: If she kisses her childhood friend Ruche, she will release the legendary wizard who was sealed inside him a long time ago. Reluctantly, she agrees – and promptly, hell breaks loose.
She has awoken one of the ancient enemies of the kingdom: Dark Schneider.
A powerful dark wizard and egoistic tyrant, who once belonged to the four “Evil Lords of Havoc” – they were once a team of five. And he is quite upset about having been sealed away for the last 15 years. He wishes to destroy everyone in his path and go back to being an overlord, but as it turns out, his host Ruche did more than just sealing him away: As he is using the young teenage boy’s body, he is changed by the empathy and friendship he had towards Priestess Tia – even if it’s just marginally, he cannot do her harm.
Meanwhile, the Hydra and Osborn arrive in the throne room, sure of their victory. As they spot Dark Schneider, they freeze: He was believed dead for the last 15 years, and now the old ally is back? However, Dark Schneider has had it with all this mayhem around him, and simply decimates the attackers with a dark spell.
The “Slayer’d” spell, turning Osborn into dust.
And so, the new Dark Schneider is back, slightly changed, and having feelings for Tia, the childhood friend he never actively met, but knows that she is important to him as a person. As the episode ends, he kisses her and thus accidentally turns back into his host’s form, Rushe, who has no clue what happened to him.
Tia and Rushe embark on an adventure together, to fight the four “Evil Lords of Havoc”, and stop their plans to destroy the world.
Episode 1 ends, the adventure ahead of them.
This is how Bastard begins, and immediately, three stylistic choices will jump at the viewer at full force: The very 80’s design, the high fantasy setting straight out of a Dungeons and Dragons session, and the abundant use of Heavy Metal references.
Triple the Style, Triple the Fun
I. Heavy Metal
Dark Schneider is a reference to German heavy metal singer Udo Dirkschneider, the country of Metallicana is pointing to Metallica, and Captain Bon Jovina at Bon Jovi. And it doesn’t stop here, there are 5 more episodes to go, we will meet King Di Amon (a vampire lord who wears Kiss-like facepaint), and other different dark magic spells, such as Hellion, Booryan Deado, Gunsun-Ro or the all-destroying MEGADESU.
(Depending on translation, the names might be changed to avoid copyright issues, the anime goes for example for “Meta-Rikana” instead of “Metallicana”, while my German manga copy left the name unchanged.)
Similar to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, another long-running Shonen series, the names of real life bands and singers will be used for characters, and this becomes its own brand of fun to ‘spot the references’. Some will be more out in the open, such as the castle of Whitesnake, but some more obscure, like the Dark Priestess Abigail.
However, it is not only a way to pay homage to a whole music genre, but it also weaves itself to the fantasy setting, which also had its influence in the metal genre.
II. Fantasy Aesthetics
One thing that I have to immediately point out, is the beauty of the world design, especially in its use of backgrounds.
Gallery of Backgrounds, swipe/click right to flick through
The hand-painted landscapes and architectural designs make the world grounded and graspable, and the different settings every episode make for new, unpredictable highlights of carefully crafted art.
Together with the grand scope of armies fighting, the world being in danger, and the heroes roaming the lands together, we get a grand, bookish feeling of worldbuilding. There is history and depth here, even in this short running time.
In addition, some heavy metal influenced designs will be found in this fantasy, for example the evil deity Anthrasax, which looks straight out of H.R. Giger’s mind (who had made NSFW album covers for Danzig, Tryptikon and Celtic Frost), or the (sadly manga-only) “Golem” that Dark Schneider summons, which strongly resembles Snaggletooth, the mascot of the band Motörhead.
The Giger God Anthrasax. (I personally suspect a mix of Anthrax and Saxon)
Dark Schneider’s Golem…
…and Motörhead’s Snaggletooth.
III. It’s 80’s as heck
Bastard fits in with other 80s Shonen anime franchises, in all good and bad ways.
The protagonist is strong and powerful, and in addition, is someone who has a teenage boy as a host – but with no drawbacks. Even if Ruche can’t remember what Dark Schneider does when he takes over his body, it is never portrayed as something bothersome or negative: The contrasting example would be Naruto, who suffers under the demon sealed inside of him. And, of course, a kiss is the trigger to swap them both around, so romantic tension is always automatically given. The comedic banter between Tia and Ruche/Dark Schneider is also a highlight that is accentuated in goofy expressions and fast timed physical comedy.
The other “good” way would be the OVA format: This anime did not run on TV, it was made for home release, and hence, it can go all out on violence and nudity. The additional short length makes for a condensed and straight-to-the-point experience without filler or downtime. Together with the late-80’s-early-90’s anime aesthetic, it is a marvel to watch, a true time capsule of this period. Big poofy hair, ladies in leotards, muscular protagonists, very ugly and very evil demons, metrosexual heroes – shoutout to my personal favourite character in this whole OVA, the Ninja Gara, who wears a black fishnet t-shirt and absolutely stunning red eye shade.
The “bad” ways, so to speak, are the problems that can come with very early Shonen OVA adaptations: They are incomplete. Bastard is only 6 episodes long, but it seemingly adapts smaller arcs here and there, with only loose connection. One episode, a new hero will join the protagonists at the end of the episode, only to be completely missing in the next one. In addition – and here I found only minimal sources – it seems like 8 episodes were planned, and the last two were scrapped. One source suggests that this was because on of the “creators” (not specified) was arrested during production. But even with its open end, the OVA makes for a fun snack-sized Shonen watch that really trims the fat on all sides and polishes what is there to full brightness.
Yet, I must also point out some decisions in the story that would most likely not fly nowadays, most notably some character’s parental figures. Tia’s father is not the most supportive, the King and his high priestess daughter are equally rough, but the relationship between Dark Schneider and his adopted child Ashes Ney is the crowning debatable jewel in this 80’s treasure – which is never questioned and given quite some focus.
It will make for some uncomfortable moments, but as the layer of campy schlock is already so thick, it manages to lay low in the grand scheme of things. (Just listen to that wonderful ending theme!)
Conclusion
Bastard is truly “the 80’s condensed into 6 episodes of anime”, with all its up- and downsides. Not only makes it for a great throwback to another time in anime history, but also in Shonen Jump history, to see what was one of the big series back in the day. You can spot references and preferences in retrospect now that you are looking back from the future: The Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure-like way of naming characters, the evil antihero with his gory fighting style that is reminiscent of Devilman, or the Dragon Ball Z style wizard fights of flying around and flinging energy blasts.
Although Bastard is still around, it is far away from the reach it once had, and has changed its aesthetics and focus radically, being more ecchi-focused than aiming for the grand high fantasy stories of rivaling countries, all out war, and armies of good and evil.
If you like this time period in anime history, I highly recommend checking it out, purely for the stellar art and animation, and then for the wonderful pulp story that has its own rough charm. It watches very quickly, so enjoy a great time with this little overlooked gem!
The End.
Sources: Entries on “Bastard!!” on Wikipedia, ANN, and MAL.
Elena DS 