8Man After

• Perfect Collection

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          G-----------PG----------PG13-----------R------NC17

If you liked the movies Robocop, Bladerunner or Total Recall, the you will probably like 8Man.

A little explanation may be in order, at least as far as I understand it. In the 1960s there was a anime called The Eighth Man that, as I understand it, tells the story of a man who was augmented with cyborg implants into the perfect fighting machine. It also tells of how his human emotions interfere with his objectivity to which he pays the ultimate price. At least that is my take on it. You can purchase a copy of the The Eighth Man from The Right Stuf International.

8Man After tells the story of what happens after the 1960 series. A perfect collection is a movie that is made from a anime series, much like the Macross II movie.

Anyway.....

A private investigator named Hazama is hired to find a scientist who sells top secret cyborg technology to the underground crimelord who goes by the name Mr. Holloween. When the investigator is seriously wounded by one of the "new" cyborgs, made from the stolen technology, he becomes the new 8Man and hunts down those responsible for all the new cyberjunkies that are popping up all over the place.

However, the killing of Hazama's sister haunts Hazama, and thus 8man, making him at least as dangerous as the cyberjunkies who he battles.

I really enjoyed 8Man After but did notice some minor problems with continuity, probably caused by the editing of the series.

Ever wonder where Streamline Pictures got the music score for the beginning sequences??? No need to wonder anymore....

Also, there is a live action version of what appears to be the original 8man. It is not exactly bad, but does suffer a certain amount of cheese effect in some places. One of the more interesting things about it is that some of the same voice actors which did the dubbed version of 8man After did the English voices for this video. This particular video can be purchased from The Right Stuf International or rented at your better video rental stores.