Imagine a city as a living being. An entity that needs a person, an agent (or a Karas), to enact their willpower and keep the activities flourishing inside of it in check. Pretty nifty partnership right there. Other than the Karas there are also the yōkai living in the city as well. The yōkai are Japanese spirits in folklore who are beginning to die out as human’s belief in them steadily fades away.

Everyone else living in the city is merely a child of the whole, a byproduct of the mating of the five major organs that make up the city’s body. If you take into account that those five major organs aren’t ‘organs’ at all but rather Mikuras (or evil yōkais) then I’m sure you understand how a problem starts to crop up.

Karas underwent extensive plot changes from horror, to superhero action flick until it finally settled on dark fantasy. The theme works well the fantastical characters wandering through the modern day streets as well as with the battles that range above, below, beside, and inside the city while still managing to leave the humans who witness the destruction flummoxed as to the cause. The movie starts off with the current Karas of the city being murdered by an ex Karas who has turned evil and named himself Ekou.

To strengthen his following Ekou has the Mikuras who are loyal to him go around the city draining the fluids from the bodies of the humans they kill. He plans on taking over the city and using the residents who had before been under his care as fodder for the other Mikuras, of which there is becoming an alarming amount now that more and more yōkai have turned their backs on humanity. And let’s not forget the humans who have decided to make a deal with devil in exchange for power and safety when the mass feedings start.

But the city takes care of its own and Otoha, a young man who’s soul was chosen to fight for the city’s will even while his physical body lay dormant in a coma, is beginning to wake up.  Once he does he will have a decision to make. Join his willpower with the City’s and become a true Karas in body as well as spirit or go back to the way his life was before he was given such a responsibility. He has to choose quickly because with the old Karas carrying a constant hard-on for possession of the city, he is in no way short of enemies looking to see his head on a platter.

The graphics and art in Karas are some of the best I’ve seen anywhere hands down. The enemies present in this particular anime are weird metal like insects with gleaming teeth and a rumbly belly so obviously there’s never a shortage of bloodshed and carnage to entertain the viewers. I loved the fact that even though Karas stayed pretty loyal to the main character and his struggle it also branched off on several side stories. Usually that sort of thing would be annoying but in this case it isn’t. What are supposed to be side characters becoming as interesting as or more so than the actual main guy. You have the woman who was attacked in her home and from then on spoke of demons to the point where she ended up in a mental hospital since no one believed her but her father (who happens to be a detective specializing in supernatural murders). Then of course there’s the story of the evil Mikuras who turned good to save his brother and not only ends up being an essential part of Otoha’s victory over Ekou but also gains a new yōkai friend in the process. Very lady and the tramp except without the love story or the fact that they’re dogs.

Originally aired as six pay-per view episodes, the Karas story was compiled into two feature length films Karas: The Prophecy and The Revelation which were released in 2006 and 2007 respectively. With its mixture of 2D and 3D art techniques it was no wonder that Karas won the 2006 Tokyo Anime Award competition for best original video. While people were suitable impressed with the look and feel of the movie a lot of people, even the voice cast, had problems shifting through the dialogue and presentation. I see their point. Since there’s very little explanation available in the movie you have to pay extra close attention to the actions and sequences of events going on rather than counting on the characters dialogue to walk you through what’s going on.

The movie is split right down the middle and the confusion generated by the first film frustrated the director. However, even if Karas is hard on the brain cells the simple fact that it’s worth the added concentration counts for a lot in my book.

So my feelings on the films are in no way as mixed as other’s may be. I say watch the movie, bring out your nerd glasses if you have to to make yourself smarter, remember to keep your electrolytes up with some Gatorade, and finally when the credits start rolling pop an aspirin or two to ease the throbbing that thinking too hard usually brings about.

Karas was written by Shin Yoshida and Directed by Keiichi Sato