Joseph Luster
November 7, 2007 
When Baoh first arrived stateside, store shelves offered a Mother Hubbard-like selection of anime (then still under the colorful moniker of …Japanimation’) titles, and Yokoyama Hiroyuki’s 50-minute parasitic child landed comfortably in the sub-genre of “really short and violent” OAVs. Sporting a few differences from the original manga by Araki Hirohiko,
Baoh tells the basic story of the titular parasite, which has been implanted in Ikuroo, a young man who eventually escapes the confines of the twisted organization Doress, hardly aware of the destructive power now growing in his cerebellum.
Like many heroes of the ’80s, Ikuroo’s sights turn to vengeance and destruction as Doress nabs the young girl Sumire who has aided him thus far, and is wanted for her own keen abilities. His explosive and unstoppable power constantly escalates through the duration of the video, and director Hiroyuki knows enough about pacing a dumb action-fest to keep everyone’s attention for the full running time (though you’d have to be severely spastic to waver much).
Fans of gore and ridiculous action will enjoy Baoh for what it is, a fun albeit short OAV with slick animation and heads that pop like gum bubbles. On the other hand, this disc will likely be reviled by anyone wanting to dig deeper into Baoh’s story. There’s not really a layer resting under the “evil scientist creates the ultimate weapon and pays for it” level, but it wouldn’t be the same if there were. Who can really fault a video for kicking sense out the door in favor of man vs. machine, dog vs. tiger, and hideously infected malformed man vs. unrestrained muscle-bound Indian action?
The overall look of Baoh has held up surprisingly well over the years. The animation is still slick and the bodily fluid eruption per-minute ratio is high by today’s standards, as well. Every death is accentuated with cascading crimson and faces melt like Toht’s in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
From the mutt-skull popping beginning to the bedrock-crashing, psychic Native American brawlin’ finale, Baoh puts its guts in the driver’s seat and leaves any form of concrete, interesting narrative gagged and bound in the trunk. Stock scientific babble tells a tale not many will care to hear, but the real meat is quite literally in the over-the-top violent action scenes, and if you want more than that then you’ve come knockin’ on the wrong genetically-implanted-psycho-parasite’s door.
