iva42 - 2016-01-03 16:55:22

Released in 1990 Hell's Wind is the third and final part of the Violence Jack Trilogy based on the Manga and Short stories written by Go Nagai. Following the improvement of Evil Town over Harlem Bomber, Studio88 kept control of the animation with direction being passed from Ichiro Itano to Osamu Kamijo. Hell's Wind is generally regarded as the best of the trilogy by those who have watched all three parts.

Slightly shorter than Evil Town, Hell's Wind clocks in at just over 50 minutes but uses that time well by keeping the story lean and focused with plenty of time for the action and violence people want to see. As expected with Jack the action takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting and in line with the general tropes of the genre focuses on a motorcycle gang as the villains.

So why do most people view Hell's Wind As the best of Violence Jack?

The main reason is the story and characterisation which are without doubt the best of the series. While the motivations of the characters remain simplistic they are at least fleshed out enough to make the viewer care about them. More importantly the supporting cast are no longer just meat bags to get killed and raped as Jack wanders around but instead are genuine protagonists in their own right. The best case of this is Jun who as soon as she gets her first proper introduction is kicking as much ass and blowing things up better than even Jack can manage. Compare that to Rikki in Evil Town or Mari in Harlem Bomber and it is a huge improvement.

The villians are also the best the series has seen. Dante acts as the main villain and has vastly more presence than Mad Saurus or Harlem Bomber in the first two OVAs. He has enough personality to actually promote a responce from the viewer rather than just simply being a bad guy. He is backed up by Joker and Gokumon both of whom have far more menace and personality than even the previous main antagonists and genuinely dominate the screen when they are around.

Lets face it though no one watches a Violence Jack OVA for the story, its all about the body count. The Violence in Hell's Wind takes up much less screen time than in previous OVAs with most deaths caused by explosions or gun shots rather than close up knife violence. When Hell's Wind turns it on it is as hard core as the series has ever been though. In the first four minutes someone gets their legs cut off, is disembowelled and decapitated with a chainsaw as graphically as any Anime or gore porn film has ever done it. Importantly the sexual violence is turned way down in Hell's Wind with most of the rapes happening in the background or off screen. There are still plenty of tits but it is less the focus of a scence than before.

The animation in Hell's Wind is easily the best of the series and is actually as good if not better than most anime from the start of the 1990s. The soundtrack is well done mixing orchestral scores with ominous synth tracks as it goes along. The sound effects and voice work are the best the series has seen with Unsho Ishizuka doing a great job as Jack.

In summary from a technical stand point Hell's Wind is the best of the Jack OVAs feelin much more like a violent mainstream anime than a hard core OVA as Evil Town did. That's not to say it is an actually good anime, just the best of the Jacks.

Personally I would say watch Evil Town over this as it is much weirder and hard core like Jack should be, if you just want to watch one of them.