In 2003, most people interested in cult Japanese films became aware of an infamous new movie ‘Ichi the Killer’ from maverick director Takashi Miike. Ichi built its reputation on taking live-action violence to new and frankly, extreme levels and thanks to this, has since managed to build up quite a following amongst fans of the genre. This anime, also titled ‘Ichi the Killer’, is a prequel to the events of the live-action movie and delivers exactly what you would expect from such a film; pure ultra-violence.

Straight from the off, we can see Soichiro isn’t enjoying his teenage years. He’s being harshly bullied at school and being mentally tortured at home, but instead of trying to do something about this, he just grins and bears it – hoping that perhaps tomorrow will be a better day.

But things don’t get better and it soon becomes obvious that Soichiro is slowly losing grip of his sanity. Things get even worse for our man when he is forced into dissecting a frog in front of his school class and is bizarrely ‘turned on’ by the whole process.

Confused and lost thanks to another troublesome evening with his parents, that evening Soichiro indulges himself by massacring the school’s pet rabbits and pleasuring himself over their contorted remains.

If this wasn’t bad enough, he’s been secretly caught in the act by his only (so called) friend, Kaneda! Being the kind and understanding buddy that Kaneda obviously is, he proceeds to ruthlessly blackmail Soichiro on a daily basis to prevent him from revealing what he has witnessed.

Bullied, tormented and now even blackmailed, Soichiro eventually loses whatever control he once had over his violent instincts and his true, hellish self is finally revealed - but to what purpose?

‘Ichi the Killer’ is the typical ultra violent anime with hentai overtures, similar to an anime such as Violence Jack. It should be noted that sexuality is essentially the driving force behind this story and there are several scenes of brutality towards women as well as some fairly odd scenes involving animals.

On a more positive note, the music, which is almost continuous throughout this 40 minute OVA, is very originally handled and manages to evoke a true feeling of Soichiro’s growing insanity. On the other hand however, the animation is very average and on occasion - noticeably poor.

So there we have it, Ichi the Killer - an average ‘ultra-violent’ anime that never aspires to be anything more than what is already cliché within the genre. 4/10.