Baoh Must Live! Baoh is based off a pretty good manga series. Unfortunately, they didn't translate it over to well to the anime form. Though the animation is pretty good, most of the plot is thrown out the window. Baoh is a parasite that the government has created that when injected into a host when work its way up to the brain and attach. When the host is harmed or adrenaline starts to pump, Baoh takes over the host body, creating the host to become superhuman with superpowers. When the host in this anime takes over Ikuroo, he comes underattack from the government after he has escaped. He must protect a young girl, who herself has a precognitive gift, from getting killed by the governments loose cannons. The anime is short and is only one episode so everything happens quickly and violently. Not an anime for kids.
So-So BaOH is a much older anime so I wasn't expecting very much when I bought it. It turned out pretty well in the end. The animation is pretty modern looking in comparison to other anime made at that time. The story line is quite different and the best part of the show. BaOH is a parasitic worm developed by an unethical scientific organization (Doress) trying to make new weapons to sell. This worm burrows into the brain and takes control of the hosts body whenever it is threatened. Surprisingly, the worm seems to share the hosts feelings and helps those whom the host loves. But beware the people who get in their way! The real problem with BaOh is that the villians are drawn rather like GI-Joe figures. The fight scenes resemble old T.V. action shows for boys back in the 80's. During the fights the screen will freeze when a "new" attack is performed and they will actually write the name of it on the bottom of the screen. They explain the "specifics" of it and it is always cheezily referred to as a "phenomena." For example BaOh Shooting Bees-Stinger Phenomenoa : BaOh's hair becomes spine-like and shoots out like darts. The name of the attack is better sounding than the description! Besides, who needs a description when you can clearly see his hair flying all over the place on the screen. The violence is repetitive and shows an unneccessay amount of brains and muscle tissue. This was common among 80's shows, so I'm not surprised. There is very little variation among the killing; melting fleshing from bones and exploding eyeballs, splitting down the middle, and head and arms being ripped off. In aditton Walken, one of the villians, highly insults Native Americans. He makes them seem like violent neanderthals. To be fair, the transformed BaOh is cool looking, particulary the dog one. My favorite part, and perhaps the redeeming one, is the relationship between the main characters. Ikuroo was nearly killed in a motor accident, and while he lay in the hospital he was given over to one of Doress's scientists. He injected Ikuroo with Baoh and tried transporting him to headquarters by train. Also on that train was a young psychic that Doress wanted to use. Sumire, the psychic, escaped and ended up taking Ikuroo with her. Doress will do anything to get Ikuroo back or if it must, to kill him before the worm can mature. They kidnapp Sumire and Ikuroo will do anything to get her back. The show was way too short for any real character development but the ending makes watching it all worth it. Sumire leaves Ikuroo all wet so that later she can hang him out to dry. What a conniving little girl she is. Go Sumire! A word of warning, make sure you watch all of the credits, there is more at the end of them. Although there are problems with this anime, its so cheap that its well worth the investment. I've seen a lot worse for more.
I'm a new Baoh fan Reason to get this movie. It has: action, drama, gore blood, profanity, emotion, great animation. This is a great classic 80's anime just like "Akira".
Solid anime thriller with sci-fi theme and nonstop action BAOH is a compact anime sci-fi action thriller about a teenaged boy injected with "Baoh," a parasitic worm which gives him a series of steadily accelerating super powers and bio-engineered weapons which he uses to defend himself against the onslaught of agents and assassins sent to kill him after he escapes from a top secret corporate-government project. Made in 1989, it has exactly the kind of detailed and boldly drawn comic book-style illustration and fluidly animated scenes of violent action that make so much anime of the mid-to-late 1980s so distinctive. When the boy goes into defensive "Baoh" mode, he dispatches his heavily-armed pursuers in the most spectacularly gory fashion this side of NINJA SCROLL. For those who need a break from such carnage there are scenes with the boy's cute and spunky sidekick, Sumire, a nine-year-old girl whose psychic powers make her a target of the bad guys as well. When the girl is eventually abducted and held hostage, "Baoh" launches a one-man assault on the organization's secret headquarters.
My only complaint is that, as a single OAV volume running just under 47 minutes, it's way too short. It's based on a manga that was published in English (by Viz) in two volumes and it follows the look of the manga and the overall storyline very closely. The anime leaves out various incidents that would have filled out the story, explained things a little more, and given it a little more depth. If they'd simply filmed everything in the manga they would have had a very satisfying 90-to-100-minute feature-length film or two-part OAV. Still, it's a consistently enjoyable work for fans of this genre and one which rates repeat viewings.
My Favorite Anime!! Baoh is short, sweet, to the point, bloody and violent. Two thumbs way up!!
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