Black Magic M-66

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: In the near future, a crazed robot is accidentally unleashed upon a city and terrorizes its inhabitants while searching for its target (this time being the inventor’s granddaughter). When the military is sent in to stop it, they find out in quite deadly fashion that the cyborg is a lot more than they can handle. Yes, this sci-fi Japanese animation film is lacking in creativity, which is surprising considering it was written by Masamune Shirow, an anime icon in Japan. Everything that makes Shirow a master of scripts, such as unexpected plot twists, is noticeably absent in Black Magic M-66. It’s also much too humorous to be taken seriously, yet too bloody to be comedic. It’s a disappointing effort coming from someone of Shirow’s status. This was (and probably always will be) the worst work of his career.