Yoshihiro Nishimura's Onimanji (2023) Fantaspoa 2023

Yoshihiro Nishimura (Mutant Girls Squad, Tokyo Gore Police, Meatball Machine Kodoku) returns with a sequel to his earlier The Great War of Torakage. Its more bloodshed and weirdness as our hero takes on various bad guys and bad demons

Nishimura’s films are hit or miss. Narrative is not always a priority. He prefers to go for effect, blood and fun. They tend to be lean mean fun machines that are best viewed in theaters full of like minded audiences. When he hits they are a blast and a half, when they don’t they can be a bit draggy.

Despite having some awesome sequences, Onimanji is largely a miss. Blame the unwieldy  run time (it’s just under two hours hour) that allows the narrative to be looser than it should be. Nishimura’s film are better around 90 minutes. As a result there are some overly rambling bits that wear us down.  The film also suffers from being a sequel. Despite this being about a secondary character from the earlier film I kept thinking I was missing something.

While never bad Onimanji is not up to some of the director’s earlier classics, however fans of his work will still find a lot to delight in.