Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma

Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma
Cover of Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma as released by ADV Films
妖魔 (Yōma)
Genre	Adventure, horror, supernatural
Original video animation
Directed by	Takashi Anno
Studio	Toho
Released	May 1, 1989 – June 1, 1989
Episodes	2

Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma (妖魔, Yōma, lit. "Ghost") is a 1989 Japanese original video animation directed by Takashi Anno. A manga adaptation was later created by Kei Kusunoki.

Plot

A terrible war has ravaged the land, and now, fueled by the blood of numerous fallen warriors the Yōma, demons from hell, emerge once more. A skilled ninja seeks to end the bloodshed these demons inflict upon humanity, but to do this he must fight against his undead former best friend and fellow ninja who was killed in battle and has been resurrected to serve the Yōma.

Hikage in an Evil World

The first part begins after what appears to be a fierce battle, with several ninja from the Takeda clan retrieving weapons from their fallen comrades and enemies. Two of these ninjas, Hikage and Marou, are observing the process until Marou begins acting strangely. He almost attacks Hikage before returning to normal, seemingly shocked and frightened by what he has just done. The pair make their way back to the Takeda camp. That night, the clan leader, Shingen Takeda, is attacked and killed by a yōma. Shortly thereafter, Hikage learns from a Chunin that Marou has deserted the Takeda and is at risk of exposing Shingen's death to other countries. He is ordered to track down Marou and eliminate him before word can get out, the Chunin warning him to show no mercy towards his former friend.

On his journey, Hikage is attacked by a pair of Iga ninja but quickly defeats them. Later while by a waterfall, Hikage reminisces about his childhood with Marou. He is brought out of his thoughts by an old man who is "waiting to read his last rights". At the old shrine that the priest takes him to, he explains on how people who have lost the will to live go to commit suicide by drowning themselves in the river and how he is there to appease their souls. Knowing nothing of Marou's whereabouts, the priest advises that Hikage go to the village near the temple, as the sun will be setting soon. He takes the advice and heads to the village, encountering a young woman with a large scar on her cheek along the way. The woman, who reveals her name to be Aya, takes Hikage to the village and introduces him to several of the villagers, most prominantly Taichi; a cheerful man who enjoys drinking and partying, and Ito; a woman with a suspicious air about her. During one of the villagers' parties, Hikage spots Marou for a brief instant, but is unable to find him in the following days. He hears from Aya about how none of the people who live in the village, including herself, know where they came from or what they were doing before their arrival and how Hikage will soon be the same. Nevertheless, Hikage continues to look for Marou, all the while being stalked by what he believes to be hunter ninjas. On one of the nights, he meets with the hunters to elaborate on why he is staying in the village. They allow him to continue investigating the village, but remind him that he must show no mercy towards Marou.

Another day passes and Hikage sees Aya suffering from a nightmare. He hugs her in order to comfort her, but immediately hears screaming coming from the forest. He rushes to find Taichi and one of the hunters dead, their chests having been ripped open and most of their entrails devoured. A spider yōma attacks, but Hikage uses shuriken to drive it away, whilst seeing a brief vision of Marou. Before dying, the other hunter reveals that Marou is a "child born of the ground" and how everyone in their village knew about it, but never discussed it. Left with this mystery, Hikage confronts Aya with Taichi's death, only for her to deny it. She explains to him that it is not unusual for a current resident of the village to vanish when a new person arrives. When she goes to her house to store some water, she hears Ito's voice asking her to do her a favor. Hikage goes down to the riverbank to find that the bodies of Taichi and the hunters, along with the bloodstains and weapons, have disappeared without explanation. At night, Hikage hears Aya singing unusually late and goes to investigate. He finds Aya being held in a different spider yōma's mandibles and attacks it. It drops Aya, but soon runs away with Hikage in pursuit. He arrives at the temple and finds the priest from before. He tells him that he is the spider yōma from the other night and how he is erasing the villager's memories in order to ripen them for Kikuga no Miko's, the demon lord of the land, revival. The two have a short battle during which Hikage kills him after being taunted into doing so. As Hikage walks up the temple's stairs, Aya wakes up and remembers how she got her scar, the priest's spell having worn off when he died. She throws herself into the river to drown. Hikage finds a seemingly uncontious Ito and rushes to her aide. This proves to be a mistake as Ito reveals herself to be a yōma as well. Restraining Hikage with wavy demonic hair, Ito elaborates on how Kikuga no Miko's resurrection is close at hand. Hikage uses some gunpowder bombs to get her to let go, briefly knocking her out. She soon regains consciousness and turns into the spider that kidnapped Aya. Hikage is able to take her down permanently and enters the shrine, demanding that Kikuga show himself. He destroys the buddha statue to reveal an egg that he quickly cuts open. The egg opens to reveal Marou feasting on Taichi's severed head. He growls as Hikage approaches, causing the entire building to crash down. Outside, a fully dressed Marou walks away, giving the broken building a final glance before departing.

The next morning it is pouring rain. Reflecting on the night's events, Hikage suddenly remembers Aya and finds her body in the river. He crys silently upon realizing that she has died. Later when the storm lets up, Hikage returns to the village to find it wrecked and all of the inhabitants dead. An acquaintance of his, Kazami, arrives and tells Hikage that the Oda and Uesugi clans have found out about Shingen's death and that he does not need to pursue Marou anymore. Despite this, due to feeling guilt over not being able to save Aya and still seeking answers to why Marou betrayed their clan and became a yōma, Hikage leaves to continue his quest in search for his old friend.

Maoru with Crazy Fang

Two years have passed since Hikage traveled to the west in pursuit of Marou, yet he has not had any leads on his whereabouts. While on a beach, a kunoichi spots him and identifies him as a ninja. A group of ninja from the Kōga clan, lead by Shiranui, attacks the girl, demanding to know why she killed their leader. She denies having anything to do with it, and soon Hikage ends up fighting them as well. They kill two of the Kōga and injure one of Shiranui's eyes. Shiranui stumbles into the ocean and is trampled to death by Majumi no Miko, the demon lord of the sea. Hikage asks for Marou's whereabouts, only for Majumi to tell him that he should realize who his childhood friend really is by now. Angered, Hikage attacks Majumi and barely manages to kill him while in the water. Meanwhile, Marou converses with Shiratsuyu, a snake yōma, on what to do about the war between the Oda and Takeda clans. Marou orders Shiratsuyu to kill Hikage while he turns Mikawa into a "living hell".

The kunoichi travels with Hikage to a nearby village that has seemingly been untouched by the war. Revealing her name to be Aya, sharing the same name as the woman who Hikage failed to protect two years ago, she goes to one of the villager's huts to ask if they can spend the night there. She screams in horror when she sees that the baby has no head and soon the entire village reveals itself to be dead, yet still walking. Hikage says that it is a procession of the dead before the undead all vanish. The village is shown to be in ruins and the two spend the night in a wrecked hut. The next day, Hikage leaves Aya behind and continues his search. He runs into and battles Shiratsuyu, along with Mai, a female butterfly yōma, and a tree yōma, Yoki. Meanwhile, Aya, upset that Hikage left her behind, encounters Kotone, the spirit of a woman who says that she was killed by her lover. They talk briefly before Yoki grabs and holds them hostage in front of Hikage. With some difficulty, Hikage slays Mai and Yoki and Shiratsuyu is possessed by Kotone and vanishes.

After traveling for a while, Hikage brings up how suspicious it is that no yōms have attacked them since the fight with Shiratsuyu. While they discuss the war, Kazami appears before Hikage and attacks him, saying that he was ordered by Katsuyori Takeda, the Takeda clan's new head, to borrow the power of the yōma and the only way that Kikuga will help them is if they kill Hikage. Kazami strikes at him, but hesitates and is mortally wounded by Hikage as a result. He uses his last words to tell Hikage that he does not wish to kill him and that Katsuyori is insane for asking the yōma for power. As it turns out, Marou only told the Takeda that he would help them in order to create more hatred and grudges when the final battle at Mount Nigashino. During which the entire Takeda clan was decimated by the Oda, leaving Hikage no home to return to.

Characters

Hikage

• Voiced by: Kenyu Horiuchi (Japanese); Christopher Pryce (English)

The main protagonist of the series, Hikage is a young ninja who is sent on a mission by the Takeda clan to eliminate Marou. Though loyal to the ninja clan he was raised in as well as following orders to the letter, he still deeply cares for his childhood friend and is greatly troubled and confused by his sudden betrayal. The night of the betrayal, Hikage received a small scar under his left eye due to being scratched by a poison shuriken that his friend threw at him. He finds a love interest in a young village woman named Aya and later a kunoichi by the same name. Despite his young age, Hikage is greatly skilled in the use of swordsmenship, as well as the usage of several other weapons.

Marou / Kikuga no Miko

• Voiced by: Kaneto Shiozawa (Japanese); Jon Geiger (normal form), Dick Reiss (1st yōma form), and Charles Campbell (2nd yōma form) (English)

The series' main antagonist, Marou was Hikage's childhood friend and fellow ninja in the Takeda clan. According to him, he was born from the start as the demon king of the land, Kikuga no Miko, by taking the form of an infant human body as well as being "born of the ground". However, needing human sacrifices to fully awaken as Kikuga, Marou fled his village and had the spider yōma gather human sacrifices to feed him while he slept in a cacoon. He emerges just when Hikage disturbs his rest and departs. Kikuga plans on fusing with Majumi no Miko so that the world will be taken over by yōma as well as for humans to "transcend humanity". Though the two demon kings merge into a wolf-centaur hybrid powerful enough to destroy the world, they are still defeated and killed by Hikage during the final battle. He is reincarnated as a baby by his deceased lover Kotone, whom he killed after losing control as Marou, and is taken in by Hikage and Aya.

Aya

• Voiced by: Hiromi Tsuru (1st) and Mina Tominaga (2nd) (Japanese); Catherine Glynn (1st) and Jessica Robertson (2nd) (English)

Aya refers to two woman depicted in the OVA series. The first is a young woman who lives in the village where nobody can remember their past. She has a large scar on her cheek. Its origin is never exactly revealed, but it was apparenly traumatic enough for her to lose her will to live. Hikage develops romantic feelings for her, but it is never expressingly stated that she feels the same. She is used by Ito to lure Hikage out so that she can kill him, but the plan fails and immediately results in a battle. Hikage forgets about Aya until it is too late and cannot prevent her from drowning herself. After the battle in the shrine, Hikage finds Aya's corpse and cries over her loss.

The second Aya is a kunoichi from the Kōga clan of ninjas. She is hunted down by members of her clan for killing their leader (though she insists that she did not do it) and is rescued from them and Majumi no Miko by Hikage. Though annoyed by him at first, she quickly warms up and falls in love with him as they continue journeying together. After a series of battles against the yōma and the death of Kazami, Aya tries to dissuate Hikage from his quest to find Marou, but to no avail. She follows him anyway and has her face stomped on by Majumi, and is knocked out for the rest of the final battle as a result. After the battle has ended, Aya, now sporting a scar similar to the one that the first Aya had, is relieved to see that Hikage has survived, and embraces him. They take in the infant reincarnated Marou and raise him.

Music

The series uses two pieces of theme music: Yōma Kazoe Uta (妖魔数え歌, lit. "Ghost Counting Song") by Mami Nakizoto is the series' opening theme, while Ashita he no Purorōgu (未来へのプロローグ, lit. "Prologue for Tomorrow") by Midori Karashima is the series' ending theme.

Releases

In Japan, the series was released on VHS on May 1, 1989. ADV Films released the VHS on November 11, 1998. The OVAs two episodes were released on May 1 and June 1, 1989, respectively in North America by ADV Films's Encore Action, in France by Mangas, in Germany by OVA Films and in Russia by MC Entertainment. The OVAs were rebroadcast in an anime marathon by Encore Action on November 4, 2000.

Reception

DVD Verdict criticised Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma for its "limpid animation and static imagery" and quality of the DVD release. Mania.com's Chris Beveridge compared Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma with Wrath of the Ninja for its ninja protagonists.

External links

• Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma (OVA) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia