The Persona Century Corporation has purchased nearly every inch of land on earth available. Dissension is not tolerated within the corporations borders and those who oppose Persona are dealt with swiftly. Of those few places not yet under Personas control is the free town of Kabukicho also known as The Dark Side of Tokyo. Within the town under the leadership of a woman named Mai is a small resistance group called Messiah. Into this world steps a man who takes the sobriquet of Kabukicho: Darkside. Sealed up in another dimension eighteen years ago by Persona Century Darkside now returns to aid Messiah using his unique mystic power of renewal. That description is probably the only time that you will ever see something coherent about Darkside Blues plot. The whole films plot just moves from one thing to another without much of a proper transition and without much of an explanation or reason either. And yet strangely enough I dont feel like its too much of a detriment to the movie. Darkside Blues has this weird dream like quality to it much like a David Lynch film and that extends to most of its plot. Much like things happening in a dream the plot along with characters and their actions either appear or happen with little to no logic sometimes to completely disappear. For example the titular character Darkside is introduced by horse and carriage coming through a painting from another dimension. Yes its that kind of anime. Sure there is some explanation as to whats going as few and far between as it is but its more about fitting with the mood of the whole thing rather than everything making sense. Everything that happens fits with the tone and mood that the movie is clearly going for and nothing about the plot is outright incomprehensible even if its plot feels a bit muddled and a lot less polished than a David Lynch film. With the plot so disjointed I actually went back and read the manga to see if they had left anything out or had maybe changed something about the plot to fit into the budget. Well I can definitely say that the anime is pretty accurate to the manga sans a few minor details so it being like this is intentional. The original manga was written by Hideyuki Kikuchi who also wrote the Vampire Hunter D and Wicked City series and his writing style does come across to some degree in Darkside Blues in that like those other works Darkside Blues has a similar moody tone and is very atmospheric much in the same as the Vampire Hunter D and Wicked City adaptations. Darkside Blues is is a difficult recommendation. On one hand its very atmospheric and has a nice slow moody pace to it. On the other its borderline incomprehensible plot is going to turn a lot of people away from it. If youre the type of person who loves a good David Lynch film enjoyed the adaptations of Vampire Hunter D and Wicked City or just really enjoy a moody atmospheric aesthetic and dont mind a plot that is a tad less coherent than something youd normally watch then this might have something that you like.
67 /100
9 out of 9 users liked this review