From the story by Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust scribe Hideyuki Kikuchi comes...a movie. Darkside Blues is intended to be a stand-alone film, with unique characters and a self-contained story. What it is; however, is a mess. First, the synopsis...

It's the future. The mega company Persona Century has bought 90% of the Earth's land. The remaining ten percent is left to a hodge-podge of drifters, losers, gangs and anti-Persona rebels. As the 13th hour strikes, Tamaki, sadistic daughter of Persona's president, tortures one of these rebels in the bowels of a factory. Refusing to talk, the rebel is transmuted into gold by Tamaki and the baleful eye of her brother Guren, heir to Persona. Outside, a feral boy called Pigero creates a dimensional portal and leaps inside. A horse-drawn carriage emerges from the portal carrying both Pigero and a stranger. Returning the boy to two of his friends-Mai and Kenzo- the stranger asks where he is. Mai replies "Darkside." and the stranger adopts this as his name. Mai and Kenzo are part of a juvenile delinquent gang called "The Messiah", and the next day they hang out in the town square. A representative from Persona arrives and tells the crowd that rebels attacked Persona's main office, but one escaped. He offers a bounty for the rebel's capture, dead or alive. Mai takes exception to the reps' patronizing manner, but before there is conflict, the old town drunk sings an old anti-Persona protest blues. Darkside makes an appearance then, and the rep leaves. Before Mai can talk to him, Darkside also disappears.

That night, while Mai and Kenzo flirt in the park, the fugitive rebel is attacked by a mutant human out for the bounty; however, Mai forces the assassin to flee. They take him to Mai's friend Selia, a former nurse, who patches him up and lets him stay for a few days. The next day, Selia is attacked by thugs, but rescued by the gregarious Enji, a Persona operative. After escorting her to the Mirage Hotel, Enji senses Darkside's presence. They face-off, but Enji leaves before any actual battle takes place. Selia returns to her apartment with the medicine she got at the hotel, and talks with the rebel, Tatsuya. They have a heated discussion about the role of government (benevolent versus oppressive) when Persona robots attack! Tatsuya is almost overwhelmed, but Selia reveals a rifle and helps him escape. Furthermore, she sets up a hallucinogenic gas bomb, which takes out Persona's human guards when they arrive on the scene. They flee to Kubuki-Choi, but when Selia leaves to call Mai, Tatsuya is ambushed. Pigero saves his butt and takes him to his place. There, Darkside arrives, as well as the assassin. Darkside fries him, but good! He pulls his disappearing act as the girls arrive. Selia and Tatsuya hide out in a convent, while Mai and her gang disable Persona's satellite tracking system so Tatsuya can contact his comrades. They are attacked by one of Persona's augmented humans, but they quickly defeat him. Darkside escorts them to safety when police helicopters arrive. Breaking into all the world's broadcast signals, Persona announces they have bought the Himalayan Mountains. Tatsuya realizes they have found the home base of the rebels. Persona uses their satellite "Quantum Cannon" and blow up Mount Everest from the edge of space. Can the revolution continue? What will happen between Tatsuya and Selia? How about Mai and her gang? Will Darkside and Enji have their battle? Where will Persona's dominance end?

With all this plot and all these characters, you'd think Darkside Blues would be a real humdinger of a movie. Well, it isn't. There is little back-story provided - it would have made sense to create Darkside Blues as a mini-series because the creators try to do an awful lot in such a short time. The result is lots of guess work for the audience. For instance, if the rebels are the "good guys", why does everyone, including Mai and her gang, always call them "terrorists"? Persona Century is the "bad guy", but no one except the rebels seem to care one way or the other about them - even the "free world" gangs seem pretty ambivalent towards them. The fight scenes are far too short - Darkside literally snaps his fingers and it's over. Very disappointing. And speaking of Darkside, we get no background at all about him - what's up with that? He arrives, he "renews", he kicks butt, he disappears. As to who or what he is, I haven't a clue… Worst of all, the characters are incredibly inconsistent, especially Mai. One minute she's a feisty rebel, the next an obnoxious snot. None of the main characters are explored or defined very well, which makes it difficult to care about them.

The animation is quite good - there is a lot of attention paid to detail and shadowing. However, the creators cheap out when Darkside uses his powers - everything is then shown with a solid black background. The sound is also very good, with stereo and surround options available to the viewer.

The DVD provides only a few extras - chapter search, language selection, and trailers for other US Manga discs. There is a link for "Voice Actors", but it's only a rehash of the text from the inside of the DVD cover. For those of you with DVD-ROM, there is an additional extra called Web Conn-Ex. I don't have one, so I can't tell you about it. Sorry.

In conclusion, the ideas behind Darkside Blues are intriguing, but their execution leaves one feeling it's incomplete. A case of style over substance, to be sure.

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