Copyright © 1999 AIC / Pioneer

LEGEND OF BLACK HEAVEN (KACHOU OUJI) is a bit of an odd show. Conceived by Hiroki Hayashi (the director of the first EL HAZARD and TENCHI MUYO OVAs), BLACK HEAVEN takes a unique look at the "Earth man must save the universe" concept.
BLACK HEAVEN starts out ordinarily enough. Oji Tanaka is your typical Japanese office worker just trying to make a living. His wife and kid ignore him, his boss is always giving him grief, but he keeps on slugging through the daily grind because it is his life (or what has become of it). But his whole word gets smashed to pieces the day his wife throws away his last guitar. You see, Oji used to be the front man Gabriel Tanaka for the rock band 'Black Heaven' fifteen years ago. And the guitar that was thrown away was not only a Flying V, which is a very expensive instrument, but it was also his last link to a time in the past when he was truly happy.
That night while Oji is out drinking, trying to forget that his most prized possession was just thrown out, he coincidentally runs into Layla Yuki, a new employee at his office. I say "coincidentally" because the whole day, while Oji was working, Layla was following him around and spying on him. Layla tells Oji that she was a big fan of Black Heaven and tells him that she can take him to "heaven." Oji, thinking that he is going to have at least a brief affair with Layla, allows her to lead him to "heaven." But instead of ending up at one of the infamous Japanese love hotels, he is instead led to one of the new model homes being shown off in his neighborhood. It is inside this house where Oji is transported to a ship in outer space and is reunited with his lost Flying V. And once Oji has his precious guitar in his hands again, Layla asks him to play and Oji happily obliges.
As it turns out, Layla is really an alien soldier fighting a war in space. Oji's guitar playing, for some reason, activates an ultimate weapon which Layla's side can use to defeat their enemies. Oji takes all of this pretty well, considering the goofiness of the whole situation. He is just happy to be playing guitar.
Layla also has another mission besides getting Oji to play his guitar. Layla has been assigned to study Oji and find out why only his guitar playing activates the ultimate weapon. Layla is aided in this assignment by three girls named Kotoko, Eriko and Rinko who know even less about Earth culture than Layla does. In fact, the three girls act more like the Three Stooges than actual soldiers.
Complications arise as many of Oji's fellow office workers and neighbors begin to suspect that he and Layla are having an affair because they are usually seen together. Oji's wife, Yoshiko, also starts to suspect something when she sees the two of them walking around town together. Trouble is also brewing up in space as well as Layla's superior, Formalhaut, resents having to rely on a civilian to win the war.
The only really big mark against BLACK HEAVEN is the animation. (And the price as well—I have always thought $25 was kind of steep for a video, but that's just my own personal bias.) The animation for BLACK HEAVEN was, well, low budget. Really, really, really low budget. AIC/APPP, the animation producers for the show, reused a lot of footage as well as using many stills. Also, when there was some actual animation it looked really goofy. Some of the animation looked as if some guy took the cel and just moved it across the front of the camera. And like many of the newer anime out there, BLACK HEAVEN had a little bit of CG (that's computer graphics) which actually didn't look too bad.
The character designs were what you would probably expect from AIC. Many of the characters in BLACK HEAVEN looked like previous AIC characters. In fact, Oji looks a lot like Mr. Fujisawa from EL HAZARD, except that Oji has lighter skin tone and wears glasses.
One thing that I thought was fairly interesting about BLACK HEAVEN was that a western musician performed the opening song, and that the song was one that was not made exclusively for the anime—though I do believe that the lyrics for the song were added in for the anime version. The song is called "Cautionary Warning" and it's performed by John Sykes, who is known more for his work in bands like Thin Lizzy or Whitesnake than for his solo work like this song.
Also interesting is that BLACK HEAVEN makes references to a couple western rock musicians. In the show there is a reference to the band UFO, and in particular to the band's lead guitarist Michael Schenker who is Oji's idol and plays a Flying V. The title for the first volume is "Rock Bottom," which is also the title of a UFO song—and the title for the first episode, "Stairway to Heaven," is a Led Zeppelin song.
I thought the dubbing was pretty good. It's another fine production from ZRO Limit/Animaze Inc. I especially liked the voice for Oji. That particular voice actor does a good job portraying a world-weary working class hero who longs for the glory days of his youth. Also, I think this particular voice actor played Jet in the English dub of COWBOY BEBOP.
Overall, I thought BLACK HEAVEN was very good, but I think that many people will be turned off by its low quality animation. In this day and age of well-animated spectacles like COWBOY BEBOP, PRINCESS MONONOKE and ESCAFLOWNE, I think something as simple as BLACK HEAVEN will just get lost in the crowd. Another thing that might turn people off is that BLACK HEAVEN can get a little corny at times, and some bizarre sound effects were thrown in. But BLACK HEAVEN is something that you should check out. I'm not going to say that it rocks, because that in itself would be corny, but I will say this: hard rock saves space!

Released in North America by Pioneer
English dubbed, 100 minutes
Catalog #71294
Price: $24.95
Available now in the USA
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