A superheroine emerges in the form of Go Nagai’s original character but envisioned by one of the millennium greats of wild Japanese cinema, Kurando Mitsutake. 

Botan Hiiro is a young woman who as a baby, developed special powers after her parents were affected by a meteorite, which turned them into creatures known as Anarocs. Botan is what is called a “Man-Anaroc”. Under the tutelage of her uncle Ken Shishihara, Botan begins training and harnessing her powers. Twenty years later, Botan becomes a hero known as “Lion-Girl” as she targets Anaroc in the city.

However, the Fujinaga Shogunate, who rule the area on Neo-Nippon, consider Lion-Girl a fugitive. Meanwhile, Botan and Ken are hired to protect a young woman, Mayumi, from the Shogunate. Joining them is Marion, an ace Japanese-American cowboy who is quite the sharpshooter. Their mission is to bring them to a safe haven for Man-Anarocs by Ogi Agan. The Shogunate sends its top enforcer, Kaisei Kishi, who has his own group of mercenaries, to find Mayumi and stop them. 

For his sixth feature, the awesome Kurando Mitsutake (Karate Kill, Gun Woman) adapts Go Nagai’s story and characters and gives it the good ol’ American spin with an international cast, shooting it during the COVID-19 pandemic in Los Angeles. The idea is to perhaps to do an “anti-Marvel”, “anti-DC” film in this age of superheroes. 

While Troma Films have their own superheroes in The Toxic Avenger and Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD, Nagai has come up with a scantily clad heroine in a post-apocalyptic world in the vein of Fist of the North Star only to have pure Anarocs vs. Man-Anarocs, human-creature hybrids who possess powers and are given their powers when in the womb. 

Perhaps this film will have one of the most unforgettable opening scenes in films today. Set in a public bath, we see fully nude men and women staring at a young woman in the corner. Their faces mutate into that of Anarocs, each one looking like a cross between Demons and Slime City Massacre. However, is is the young woman in the corner that is our hero Botan Hiiro, aka Lion-Girl, played by a pretty good Tori Griffith. 

Damian Toofeek Raven is great as Ken, Botan’s uncle who becomes her mentor as seen in a flashback when he is forced to confront and face the fact that his brother-in-law, the leader of their clan, has been affected and asks him to protect and train Botan. He sports a look reminiscent to Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and pulls a Blade’s Whistler on our heroine. There’s also Joey Iwanaga, who plays the cowboy Marion, who we soon learn becomes Botan’s love interest and proves to be a very pivotal force in the war against the Anarocs. 

Swamp Thing himself, Derek Mears, is ruthless and clearly is having fun with his role of lead antagonist Kaisei Kishi. His group of mercenaries include the excellent David Sakurai, who plays the wonderfully named samurai “Yoshi-Toshi”. However, one of the most unforgettable scenes and performances goes to former pro wrestler Katarina Leigh Waters as the “Devil Gemini”, a half-man, half-woman Anaroc who plays a pivotal role in the third act. Her scene is just jaw-dropping as it brings a major case of “what the heck did I just see?” 

Tsuyoshi Abe coordinated the film’s action sequences and while Griffith and Raven make the most of their fight scenes, what’s even more interesting is that Kurando takes it upon himself to showcase the powers of heroes and villains by superimposing them on the top right corner of the screen with the name of the technique. For instance, Lion-Girl’s major power is the “Force Tornado”, and the name appears in both Japanese and English in the corner of the screens. When Mears becomes Anaroc mode, he looks like he came out of the auditions for Darth Maul combined with his armor, which resembles a bit like Darth Vader. 

Lion-Girl is a fun and wild epic and it is great to see a Go Nagai character come to life that’s a thousand times better than the failure that was Devilman. This movie was so much fun as a perfect piece of modern-day exploitation superhero cinema that I would be all in for a sequel! 

WFG RATING: A

Cleopatra Entertainment presents a Toei Video Company Limited/Dynamic Planning production in association with FLAG. Director: Kurando Mitsutake. Producers: Mami Akari, Gaku Kawasaki, and Masayuki Yamada. Writer: Kurando Mitsutake; story and characters created by Go Nagai. Cinematography: Toshiyuki Imai. Editing: Shinpei Yamanaka and Kurando Mitsutake.

Cast: Tori Griffith, Damian Toofeek Raven, Derek Mears, Joey Iwanaga, Shelby Lee Parks, Matt Standley, David Sakurai, Jenny Brezinski, Katarina Leigh Waters, Stefanie Estes.