OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Amon Saga

At the beginning of the OVA boom of the mid-80's, Amon Saga was a feature-length project by Tohokushinsha Film which based on the manga written by Baku Yumemakura and drawn by Final Fantasy character designer Yoshitaka Amano. It was a standard sword and sorcery tale but with a pinch more gore than the average fantasy anime had at the time. There was little fanfare for it in America when it was released in 2001 as most people thought that it was the recently produced Amon: Devilman Apocalypse OVA which followed up the early 90's Devilman series.

In a reality like something out of Robert E. Howard's Conan, lone swordsman Amon traverses the war torn lands seeking to get revenge on the evil masked Emperor Valhiss whose entire kingdom rides on the back of a giant turtle. Amon works his way into Valhiss' goon squad in an attempt to assassinate the Emperor for killing his mother, although the wicked ruler has captured the princess of another realm whose father holds the map to a missing treasure that could give the empire enough power to take over the known world. Amon has to juggle his feelings for the kidnapped princess while maintaining his position in the empire but breaks away with two other fellow recruits that help free the princess. Afterwards, they are all attacked by werewolves, but the barbarians literally rip their faces off. The Valhiss forces find where the treasure lies just as Amon and his party arrive to have a final duel to the death where the Emperor is revealed to have a deformed hamburger face wrecking whatever kind of Darth Vader cred he might have had.

Amon Saga is a forgettable Dungeons And Dragons rip off, although you can see some elements from it were used in future Japanese productions like the Golden Axe video games. There is a brief cameo by Amon's original sensei who is a dead ringer for Amano's most popular character, Vampire Hunter D, although there is no given connection between the two separate properties. The style and design are the only real appeal to this as the plot and characters are so predictable you won't be surprised by anything less than the intense fighting sequences. The OVA could make for a one-time watch for a look into the rise of high fantasy anime at the time, but its limited VHS and DVD release from Manga Entertainment shows that it isn't really worth seeking out a physical copy.