Wicked City (1987)

Wicked City is the kind of adult animation that feels dangerous in the best way: a neon-noir fever dream where Tokyo’s sleek surfaces keep splitting open to reveal something ancient, hungry, and wildly imaginative underneath. Yoshiaki Kawajiri directs with a propulsive, can’t-look-away momentum, staging set pieces that move like action cinema but land with the surreal punch of nightmare fantasy—every frame bristling with tactile detail, shadowy geometry, and creature design that’s equal parts grotesque and hypnotic. Beneath the shock and style, there’s a surprisingly sincere, hard-won chemistry between its two protectors, giving the film a beating heart amid the chaos. It’s not for everyone—this is explicitly sexual, graphically violent, and includes sexual assault—yet if you can stomach its extremes, you’ll find a bold, audacious classic that still looks and moves like few animated films dare to.

Wicked City is clearly trying to be a slick, neon-noir supernatural thriller where a human and a demon partner up to stop a war between worlds, and on a purely visual level it delivers that late-80s anime atmosphere with inventive creature design and bursts of stylish action. The problem is it leans hard into explicit sex and sexualized violence, including scenes of assault, in a way that can feel exploitative rather than purposeful, and that’s a dealbreaker for a lot of viewers. The plot and dialogue are pulpy and often thin, so if you’re hoping for coherent world-building or emotionally grounded characters, you may find it juvenile or just messy (and the English dub can make it worse). If you can stomach extreme content and you’re here specifically for Kawajiri’s kinetic animation and horror-fantasy shock value, it might work; if not, this is one to skip without guilt.