The Screening Room: The Venus Wars (1989)

In this installment of The Screening Room, we’ll take a look at an anime movie from 1989, The Venus Wars.  The anime was adapted from a manga series of the same name that was created by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko – more known for his work with titles Combattler and Mobile Suit Gundam – and published by Gakken Co., Ltd. in Nora Comics in serial form.  The manga ran from 1987 to 1990, and was adapted to film in 1989.  The film was directed by Yasuhiko, produced by Bandai Visual and distributed by Shochiku Co., Ltd. in Japan.

The story goes that an ice comet struck Venus in 2003, stripping the atmosphere from the planet and forming acidic oceans.  Humans then begin terraforming the planet in 2007 and colonizing in 2012.  By 2089, the planet has two rival nations, Ishtar and Aphrodia, and war is looming.  A reporter from Earth for the Independent Press, Susan Sommers, travels to Venus to cover the story of the impending conflict.  She arrives in the capital city of Aphrodia, Io, and while she is meeting with her contact and informant an invasion force from Ishtar pushes into Io and rolls over the resistance.

At the same time, a roller-biking match between the Killer Commandos and the Venus Barbarians is interrupted by the invasion.  The members of the Killer Commandos, including the hotshot mono-biker Hiro Sano, evacuate the stadium and head to their garage to wait out the invasion.  Susan Sommers is picked up by one of Hiro’s teammates, Will, and brought to the garage as well.  The rest of the story revolves around Hiro and the members of the Killer Commandos, Susan Sommers attempt to cover the war, and the efforts of the Aphrodian Freedom Force to repel the Ishtar invasion force.

In North America, the film was released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1993 by Central Park Media and their publishing arm U.S. Manga Corps.  It was released on DVD in 1998 and again in 2003 by U.S. Manga Corps.  The rights were purchased by Discotek, and the film was re-released on DVD in 2012 with improved video from an improved source.  

The Venus Wars (1989)

Venus Wars was one of the earlier anime movies to be shown with frequency on the Sci-Fi channel, and was also one of the earlier anime movies to be available for rental at video rental stores due to the VHS release.  The film was well known to anime fans of the time, but is not considered to be one of the “must see” titles – films such as Akira or Ghost in the Shell – by most people. 

Some of the characters are developed well through the dialogue while others are rather simple, undeveloped, and static.  Since the film is an action movie at heart, the lack of character development is not as problematic as it could otherwise have been.  The English voice acting is hit or miss, with some characters being rather simplistic and cartoonish (yes, I called animated characters cartoonish). 

The animation is relatively smooth, and the artwork does a good job of conveying the gritty nature of the urban city of Io, the concrete and steel environment of the racing stadium, the barren, dusty, rocky desert, and the differing nature of the atmosphere and environment of Venus from that of Earth as seen in the blue shopping plaza in Io.

Music in Venus Wars was written and arranged by Joe Hisaishi, who is also well known for his work on the soundtracks for many Studio Ghibli films.  An 11 track soundtrack was released at the same time as the original film, and a digitally remastered version was re-released in 2005.  There was also a 10 track Image Album released in 1998.  The soundtrack features the music from the opening sequence, the ending credits, and several different scenes throughout the course of the film.  The Image Album includes remixes of several of the songs from the original soundtrack as well as additional tracks.

Venus Wars OST (1989) and Venus Wars Image Album (1998)

Additionally, a strategy-simulation video game loosely based on the manga and anime, Venus Senki (translation: Venus Wars), was released on the Nintendo Family Computer in 1989 in Japan only.

While I am personally a fan of the film, I would agree with the sentiment that Venus Wars is not one of the must-see anime titles.  However, if you’re looking for a good action movie that stands on its own, then I would certainly recommend watching it.  For both those who have never seen the movie before and those who have, it gives you the chance to experience one of the early anime titles that were available in North America and to relive some of the feelings from the young days of the industry.  Finding a physical copy of the movie should not be a problem, and it has also been available on Netflix.  Finding a physical copy of the soundtrack, Image Album, or Famicom game might be a little more difficult, but you can experience what the movie has to offer without those things.