Well, it appears that yet another horde of penis-tentacled aliens has converged upon Japan, and once again, no young girl is safe. At the rate these things are going, it'll be quite a wonder if Japan has any women left in a couple of years! Be that as it may, however, the real issue here is that this current assault is a Demon Beast Invasion, which has been chronicled for us by Toshio 'Urotsukidoji' Madea and presented for our consumption by Central Park Media. Is this Invasion worth your attention? It depends on your patience. Demon Beast... comes in 6 episodes, which progressively get better. If you are willing to sit through a few "rough-around-the-edges" beginning installments, you may find that you are rewarded for your patience.

As Episode 1 begins, a college girl is being raped by a demon beast (from space, no less) that was in the guise of a handsome young college student. The resultant explosion of the girl caused by this vicious lovemaking attracts the attention of a team of Interplanetary Mutual Observation (IMO - remember that) agents. After a chase, the beast escapes, and we learn that it has the ability to jump from host body to host body in hopes of locating a woman biologically capable of dealing with it. Agent Muneto Ungyosai is dispatched to scope out the college campus, and it is not long before he meets Tsutomu and Kayo, two of his closest childhood friends. Considering the close emotional bond these three share, it's no surprise that the evil demon beast comes to rip it apart with the fury of its lustful tentacle-peens. The creature quickly possesses Tsutomu and uses him to rape Kayo; luckily, the IMO agents aren't far away and, after Muneto's partner gets his hands ripped off, Muneto and Kayo manage to defeat the beast and save mankind. Of course, all of this has set us up for...

Episode 2, in which Kayo finds, much to her chagrin, that, after the rape, she is now the mother of a new demon beast. After the creature rapes her friend directly from Kayo's womb, it escapes, flying off into the night to summon hordes of demon beasts to begin an invasion of earth. As it awaits the invasion's arrival, it takes every opportunity to rape various women after decapitating and eating their lovers. Soon, the demon beast has amassed an army of possessed sex slaves. Luckily, agent Muneto manages to overcome the confidence he lost because of the demon beast's return and engages the creature in battle once again, eventually winning via the rather unique (at this point) method of Sex With Kayo. (If this were really an institutionalized technique of fighting, methinks I would start taking some self-defense classes.)

In Episode 3, a triad of beautiful female IMO agents from the future returns to try to stop Kayo's demon beast from resurrecting itself yet again. It seems the creature is feeding off of Kayo's lust in order to resurrect itself, which I guess puts the blame for its return on Muneto, who insisted that the two have phone sex. As the creature grows to mammoth proportions and begins terrorizing the city with its ample amorous appendages, the group of three splits, two agents assigned to keep Kayo safe, the third, Ash, assigned to restore Muneto's once again shattered confidence through (prepare for a surprise) sex. With Muneto's faith in himself restored, he is ready to save Kayo from her demon beast progeny. The three IMO agents join together to free her, and, yet again, Kayo and Muneto save the world and stop the demon beast by joining as one. I wish heroism were always this fun...

In Episode 4, Kayo's cousin, Miyuki, invites her and Muneto to spend a weekend with her in Ohyama, where she is undergoing religious training. Kayo is reluctant at first, but when a statue at the Ungyosai Temple (Muneto belongs to a line of priests, it seems) sprouts a bloody vagina and begins masturbating, the decision is cemented: Muneto must go to Ohyama to cleanse himself of the demon beast's curse. Of course, it's no surprise that this is a set-up: Miyuki has been possessed by the demon beast (which has, incidentally, caused her to grow a long, green tentacle penis), and is being used to lure Kayo to Ohyama in order to free it. After a journey filled with various sexcapades, the two arrive and quickly proceed to make love (are we noting a pattern here?) During the middle of the night, Miyuki leads Kayo up a holy mountain and, by getting her to pass a barrier beyond which women are forbidden, disrupts the mountain's holy power in order to resurrect the demon beast. All of this Miyuki is doing, you see, because she is the reincarnation of a girl who once loved a man in the Ungyosai bloodline who could not return her affection because of his religious celibacy. Of course, Muneto is conveniently the reincarnation of this celibate love. In order to save Kayo, Muneto must 'as the monk' sleep with Miyuki, satiating her unfulfilled lust and freeing her from the demon beast's spell in order to save the reincarnation of the one she loved (that's Muneto, if I lost you there).

Episode 5 brings Muneto and Kayo to Hong Kong as part of yet another sinister plot to resurrect the demon beast. It seems, after its defeat in the 4th episode, the creature's spirit spread into the atmosphere and rained down over China, spawning hordes of green, salamander-esque creatures that it uses to possess the members of the Chinese mafia and rape various Chinese women. Via the mafia's influence, Kayo and Muneto win their trip to Hong Kong and set off to enjoy themselves. Unfortunately for Muneto, Kayo decides she doesnât feel like putting out, leaving him in (or is that stuck with?) quite the pickle. Of course, after being kidnapped Kayo is much more receptive of Muneto, and so once again it is up to him, along with the help of IMO agent G7, to fight the mafia and demon beast and save Muneto's true love. Any guesses on how they defeat the demon beast this time? Hint: it's the method they've used 50% of the time so far...

Finally, in Episode 6, The Final Battle, Muneto and Kayo are on a class trip to a rather isolated little Japanese island. Since Kayo and Muneto seem doomed to never get any peace, it comes as little surprise that their class is soon being accosted by hordes of tentacled purple sea-pods. Once again, the onus is on Muneto and Kayo to save mankind and stop the demon beast. The rest pretty much writes itself...

Hopefully, this summary hasn't seemed too exhaustive. If anything, I think it gives a rather accurate representation of the series. Demon Beast Invasion is definitely not a paragon of storyline innovation; as a result of this, it is unsurprising that style proves more important than substance. Is DBI stylish enough to entertain you? That depends on the episode.

Personally, I found the first disk (Episodes 1 and 2) to be a bit of a bore. The whole thing plays like a softcore Men in Black, and it suffered that disturbing problem of featuring characters that have no genitalia. I don't know about everyone else, but I personally find it rather disturbing that these people seem to have no reproductive organs at all. The worst infraction occurs when Kayo first discovers her demon baby. She is being raped by a stalker in a park, and, when she spreads her legs, there is nothing but a mass of white from which an alien-head tendril magically emerges. Now, I would certainly have nothing against not showing the creature popping from Kayo's nether regions, but the blatant disregard of doing a spread-eagled shot where there is just nothing between her legs really annoyed me. Along with this, the first two parts have rather crude animation that often consists of panning over stills for long periods of time, along with the whole alien-hunter subplot, which proves rather uninvolving and a bit sophomoric. Episodes 1 and 2, in the end, just feel like children's Sci-Fi with a little sex and violence thrown in, whereas the rest seem to have a greater maturity and understanding of what makes good horror; for this reason, I found the first two DBI installments rather unsatisfying.

Things definitely pick up after these installments, though. Episode 3 sustains much more interest by adding the creative 'women of the future' element, and its disregard for Japanese pubic hair restrictions and timorous forays into depicting penetration keep things more entertaining on the shock front as well. Episode 4, while being less anatomically explicit, is definitely the most sexual of the episodes. Unlike the others, which generally keep things running at a pretty quick pace, this one stops on several occasions to indulge in lengthy sex scenes. It is also the most original episode, being one of only two that don't have the demon beast defeated by Kayo and Muneto making love, and also the first to begin the final three episodesâ trend of taking the action to exotic locales. Besides, any episode that provides an image as memorable as this is all right by me.

While Episodes 5 and 6 are slightly less original plot-wise, they at least spice things up by changing venue and adding new characters and backstories, as well as by taking the plunge into presenting explicit depictions of sex (read: penetration). Along with this, I was rather surprised to find that I had become rather unexpectedly emotionally invested in the characters of Muneto and Kayo. I suppose after seeing the couple be so constantly tormented by that evil demon baby (for it is the only villain after Episode 1), it's kind of impossible not to feel for them, yet still, I was surprised to find that they had actually taken on a good degree of emotional resonance. Kind of like with Kill Bill, I found that character development really enhanced my viewing experience (this was probably what hurt DBI 1 and 2 so badly).

Central Park Media's presentation of the Demon Beast Invasion series is good while not stellar. Video, presented in the direct-to-video (obviously) featuresâ appropriate 1.33:1 aspect ratio, is generally clear and has good colors, considering the source material. Obviously, Demon Beast 1 and 2 are never going to look great, and, all things considered, the presentation is fine. The same goes for audio, presented in both Japanese and English stereo with removable English subtitles. I will say, however, that the Japanese is definitely preferable, since the various English dub artists either sound like (for the males) pro-wrestlers or (for the girls) whiny bitches, and in both cases are pretty terrible as far as acting is concerned. I would definitely recommend sticking with the original tracks on this.

As for extras, many are listed on the back, though in effect they are really rather limited. On the disks are previews for other Central Park Media releases; ads for Demon Beast Invasion manga; Meet the Characters galleries with brief synopses of each character's role in the series; and a three-minute documentary on the art of anime, which might be helpful for newbies (it was for me) but will seem terribly simplistic to anyone else. As for DVD-Rom features, there are weblinks, English-voice cast listings (the Japanese actors have chosen to remain anonymous), very short photo galleries (though disk 2 does have video cover shots from the Japanese releases, which would have been cool to have on the other disks), and, finally, scripts that are basically just the episodesâ subtitles typed out.

While extras are, in the end, sparse, I suppose the final two disks have enough entertainment value to recommend in their own right. If this all sounds intriguing to you, you have two options, based on preference. If you want to follow the complete story, you can save $10 and get all 6 episodes along with a pretty little box to keep them in; if youâre less interested in story than smut, you can save $30 dollars and just buy disks 2 and 3 individually. Either way, though, you should be in for a pleasant evening.

For more info, visit Central Park Media online right here!