Black Magic M-66- Cult Manga Review

Masamune Shirow is one of the giants of manga, gaining prominence in the West with his work on Dominion Tank Police and Appleseed, which were both ubiquitous manga releases back in the day, but he is now mostly known for his cyberpunk thriller Ghost in the Shell.
I knew of him through Manga Mania of course but my first encounter was through a review of Ghost in the Shell in the Johnny Vaughan Movie Watch review show where it garnered a meh review from the panel. However, or manga fans the film became an instant classic up there with Akira and Fist of the North Star. It brought his work to prominence out West, including a much maligned but actually okay Hollywood adaptation.

Before all that, Black Magic M-66 was a Shirow work from 1983 with the OAV released in 1987. I had read the manga in a few Manga Mania issues (#31 to 36) but hadn't seen the film. I thought I'd correct that oversight, so, one stormy and thundery night in March, I put in on whilst sipping my tea and munching on my digestives.

It start with a military helicopter, which is carrying prototype black ops machinery, crashing in the woods. An investigative journalist looks into the matter and finds that a military cyborg has gone rogue and is now persuing the daughter of its inventor, Terminator style. What follows is a cat and mouse chase through the city as the military try to stop the out of control tech from going on a bloody rampage whilst the journalist, a strong and independent young woman named Sybil, tries to protect the girl, Sarah Connor style from The Terminator.

As with Shirow's other works, the technology design is amazing and the presence of AI kill its gone wrong is presient of where we find ourselves. I mean, just look at these Boston Dynamics vids, creepy and frightening.

This is a solid OAV and the production costs look high as it is solidly animated throughout. Shirow has a distinctive art style and whilst it would be honed and refined in later works, Black Magic M-66 is a solid work well worth 50 mins of your life.