Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma

Did You Know?

• The OVA was rebroadcast in an anime marathon by Encore Action on November 4, 2000.
• ADV Films released the VHS in North America on November 11, 1998.
• The OVA aired on Encore Action in North America and was released in France by Manga, in Germany by OVA Films, and in Russia by MC Entertainment.

Plot

A land scarred by war sees the Yōma, demons from hell, rising again on the blood of countless dead soldiers. One ninja sets out to stop the carnage, but his mission forces him to confront his resurrected former best friend, a fellow ninja killed in battle and now enslaved by the demons. The story opens after a fierce fight, as Takeda clan ninja gather weapons from the fallen. Two of them, Hikage and Marou, watch until Marou briefly tries to attack Hikage, then acts shocked and scared.

They return to camp. That night, a Yōma kills their leader, Shingen Takeda. Soon after, a Chūnin tells Hikage that Marou has deserted and might reveal Shingen’s death to rival countries. Hikage is ordered to hunt down and kill his former friend without mercy.

Traveling, Hikage fights off two Iga ninja and kills them. At a waterfall, he remembers his childhood with Marou. An old priest appears, saying he waits to read Hikage’s last rites. He explains that despairing people come to drown themselves there, and he comforts their souls.

Knowing nothing of Marou, the priest sends Hikage to a nearby village before sunset. There, Hikage meets Aya, a woman with a large scar on her left cheek. She leads him to the village and introduces him to the cheerful drunkard Taichi and the suspicious Ito. During a party, Hikage briefly sees Marou enter a hut, but cannot find him in the days that follow. One night, he meets two fellow Takeda ninja to explain why he remains in the village.

Characters

Hikage serves as the main character, a youthful ninja assigned by the Takeda clan to kill Marou. He remains faithful to his clan and follows his orders, yet he holds deep affection for his childhood friend and feels confusion and distress over his friend's sudden turn against him. On the night of that betrayal, Hikage got a small scar beneath his left eye when Marou scratched him with a poisoned shuriken. He develops romantic feelings for a village woman named Aya, and later for a kunoichi who shares that name.

Even though he is young, Hikage possesses great skill with a sword and various other weapons. Marou, also called Kikuga no Miko, is the primary villain. He was once Hikage's childhood friend and a fellow ninja in the Takeda clan. Marou claims he was born as the demon king Kikuga no Miko, taking the shape of a human infant and emerging from the ground itself.

To fully awaken as Kikuga, he needed human sacrifices, so he fled his village and had a spider Yōma gather victims while he slept inside a cocoon. He emerges when Hikage disturbs his rest and then departs. Kikuga intends to merge with Majumi no Miko, which would allow Yōma to take over the world and let humans transcend their humanity. Although the two demon kings combine into a wolf-centaur hybrid strong enough to destroy the world, Hikage defeats and kills them in the final battle.

Marou is later reborn as a baby by his former lover Kotone, whom he killed after losing control as Marou, and Hikage and Aya take the infant in. The name Aya refers to two different women in the OVA. The first is a young woman living in a village where no one remembers their past. She has a large scar on her cheek, and its cause is never explained, but it was clearly traumatic enough to make her lose her will to live.

Hikage develops romantic feelings for her, though it is never made clear if she feels the same. Ito uses her to lure Hikage out so Ito can kill him, but the plan fails and leads to a battle. Hikage forgets about Aya until it is too late and cannot stop her from drowning herself. After the fight at the shrine, Hikage finds her body and weeps over her loss.

Reception

Critics were split on Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma. DVD Verdict panned the OVA for its weak animation, static visuals, and poor DVD quality. Mania.com's Chris Beveridge noted its ninja protagonists resembled those in Wrath of the Ninja. THEM Anime's Carlos Ross disliked the character writing but praised the retro graphics and action sequences. Sequential Tart's Sheena McNeil called it a delightfully eerie film, saying its mythology gave the story substance and its well-developed characters brought it to life. Otaku USA's Paul Thomas Chapman admired the psycho-geography, describing a mad world where burnt umber days under a harsh sun give way to nights filled with purple shadows and ghastly greens, with every rock and tree hiding goblin-faces eager for blood.