Reviews for Love City

Interesting movie we got here, despite it’s clichéd synopsis of the esper guy who has his limited powers and only can use a great amount of power when cornered like a mouse. I’m sure I’ve watched something with a similar synopsis before. The thing about Ai City despite it’s clichéd synopsis and corny title is it does have more inside than meets the eye, especially it’s visuals, the animation is pretty good and provided some very interesting scenes and allied to the esper/psychic nature atmosphere of the anime, it had some very good scenes in it. It tried to include a wide concept into one hourand half, due to that, some stuff was compressed and left outside of the anime, some other stuff was left unexplained [spoiler] I’m still am trying to figure out what happened there. [/spoiler]. But due to it’s crazy aspect about espers and psychics, I think that the random crazyness of some scenes can be left aside, and better than that, can be widely enjoyed.

A pretty decent 80s anime movie that will please your hunger for the sci-fi genre of it’s time.

Rate; 6.7/10

Sometimes, people criticize something saying it doesn't make sense. With anime this happens a lot. You can say that sometimes people just don't get, or didn't want to, but sometimes, when someone says something doesn't make sense, it's because, yeah, it doesn't make any sense. Ai City is a good example. Imagine an anime whose script didn't have any sense of pacing, without explaining or exposing anything to you jumps right to an action scene which you can get engaged or excited because you're still wondering what the hell it's going on. That's your first scene. Yeah, didn't sound very promising, but don't worry, the restis worse.

But the premise, if it wasn't for the weird story telling, if there's some story to tell here, is actually pretty conventional. There's an evil scientiffic organization that creates superpowered humans, the most powerful one, who's a little girl, escapes, and the organization want her back. Yeah, pretty cliché.

Flash-backs are used pretty commonly on anime, and sometimes can be really helpful to understand characters' motivations, make them more synpathetic and give us clues about the plot resolution. But here? Flash-backs suddenly interrupt, and many of them, until they end, you won't know they were flash-backs, making it even more confusing that it already was.

But the worst part is the climax, when, suddenly, cheap and misinterpreted phylosophy starts to get throw to viewers eyes and minds, showing that the screenwritters didn't have any idea about what really those phylosophy tesis where, which is pretty funny because it's actually really basic. Many animes has attempted to talk about the darkness in human nature, but dear God, this it was the most cheap, clumsy, hammy and poorly-written example.

Evan in the more shallow aspects the movie can't redeem itself. Animation and soundtrack are pretty dated, and even the cheesy nostalgia factor can save the music. Ai City is a pretty obscure title, and it's perfectly understable why. The few people who had seen it rather erase the memories they've watched it, and i'm one of them.

Totally messy action movie with sci-fi, comedy and a bit of romance thrown in. It has potential but eventually the story organization is so bad it's just gonna leave you confused and exhausted. From scene one it's hard to tell who the main character is, there is a protagonist but the screen time is divided between his sidekicks and the bad guys as well so there are lots of characters which gets needlessly confusing. To make it worse most of them aren't really interesting or important. At the 1st half the story is shallow yet fun, the bad guys want to kidnap the hero's girl and thegood guys try to protect her. her memory was long erased and the movie starts with her believing the hero, her ex lover, is her father and he plays along with it. this was an interesting story line which disappointingly didn't reach a climax to wrap it up.

The last act of the story is incredibly scattered and lacks of reason, just one big wtf full of deus ex machina and there are maybe 4 "final boss" fights. It gets to a point, several times indeed, that is laughably weird and effortlessly explained.

The over all production was actually fine, I love the art and coloring of characters and locations, character design of both good and bad guys were nice, the animation is good and also the music had a nice trashy 80s feel to it to fit the cyberpunk mood.

Even as an 80s nostalfag I really couldnt get into this. Its trainwreck, really. Its like they took every bad cliche of the time and threw it in a pot and this came out. Plot is all over the place and the soundtrack is really bad. They also repeat the same tracks too much for a 90 minute movie. Also, way too many flashback scenes. Again, this is a fucking 90 minute movie. We dont need this. It does have some pretty colorful psychedellic scenes though, and the first car chase sequence was pretty cool. But franky, only watch this if you have OCD about seeing every 80scyberpunk movie/ovas out there. If not, stay away

I read the manga version many many years ago.....since then I forgot the name of that already, I tried to search without a clue for long. Once in a while, I came across with this anime version and recognized the plot and the characters. Thanks to the awesome Internet (and MyAnimeList), I could finally put my long-time search to an end. This anime version is somehow different than the manga version, and I am not going to include so here. And I want to say that, this Ai City anime kind of makes me like the bad guys more than the good guys, which isa rare case to me.

Despite the fact that Ai City was made in the 1980's, there were some revolutionary sci-fi ideas being added to make this a unique classic.

Lastly, I just want to mention again that, I was able to retrieve the manga name of Ai City, all because of my discovery of this anime version.

It was so bad. Especially that riot of colors would make you have an epileptic seizure. I watched it because it was an old anime, but I got really bored halfway through. It was bad enough that it was like a ridiculous series, with ridiculous music coming out of nowhere, but it was even worse that it just went straight to the point and couldn't explain it properly. The ending was completely ridiculous, what did you do, you said, emulating Neon Genesis Evangellion and making something like that, but instead of mechas, having cyborg-like people in it?  My eyes and head seriously hurt. Give meback my hour and a half. No, it would have been nice if it had been properly edited and explained. Because it was trying to tell something interesting. They tried to make a futuristic production with a cyberpunk theme, but they couldn't.

Türkçe

Çok kötüydü ya.Hele ki o renk cümbüşü insanı epilepsi krizine sokar o derece kötüydü. Eski bir anime güzeldir diye seyrettim ama yarısında acayip sıkıldım. Saçma diziler gibi olur olmadık her yerden saçma sapan müzikler fışkırması ayrı kötü, bodoslama konuya girmesi ve bu konuyu adam gibi anlatamaması çok daha kötüydü. Sonuysa tamamen saçmalıktı naptınız Neon Genesis Evangellion'a özenip o tarz bir şey olsun ama içinde mechalar değil de cyborg tarzında insanlar mı olsun dediniz.

Cidden gözlerime ve başıma ağrı girdi. Bana bir buçuk saatimi geri verin. Hayır adam gibi kurgulanıp anlatılsaymış belki güzel olurmuş. Çünkü anlatmak istediği ilginç bir şeydi. Cyberpunk temalı fütüristik bir yapım yapmaya çalışmışlar ama becerememişler.

I won’t sugarcoat it: Ai City is the kind of anime that sharply divides its audience. Some will love it. Others will utterly despise it. And which camp you fall into depends on a deceptively simple question: why do you watch anime? Are you here for a clear, straightforward narrative? For atmosphere, visuals, and music? Or for a balance of both? Your answer more or less decides your verdict. Released in 1986, Ai City is a movie adaptation loosely based on the manga of the same name. It’s based on the cyberpunk sensibilities of its era. You will find neon-drenched cityscapes, urban decay, shadowy power structuresand more, all while blending in ESP elements reminiscent of psychic sci-fi manga like Akira, which had already been serialized years before Ai City hit the screen.

The film is directed by Mashimo Kōichi, a creator with a long résumé across OVAs, TV series, and TV specials in various roles. Here, though, he genuinely nails it, at least for most of the runtime. Ai City delivers some genuinely impressive sequences (especially for the mid-80s before Akira could change the landscape of the animation) and a narrative structure that pulls you in fast. For roughly the first two-thirds, the film is gripping: psychic-powered humans known as Headmeters, clandestine organizations vying for control, and lawless streets glowing with neon colors as biker gangs and thugs tear through the city.

The chase scenes, of which I counted at least three, are a standout. They’re fluid, energetic, and stylishly animated. While some quieter moments are less detailed, the overall balance works in the film’s favor, resulting in a consistently engaging experience. The cast of characters is surprisingly strong too; even the comic relief never feels intrusive or annoying.

Things get complicated in the final third. A cascade of twists radically recontextualizes the story and introduces new themes and questions with almost no warning. For some viewers, this narrative swerve will feel like a betrayal, undermining everything that came before. But this circles us back to the opening question. If you’re the kind of viewer who values coherence, closure, and clean answers, Ai City may leave you frustrated.

Personally, I appreciated the ambition even if it left me scratching my head. I’m firmly in the “visuals first, story later” camp, and on that level Ai City delivers strongly. If, however, you dislike stories that invite interpretation rather than provide resolution, this might not be the city you want to visit.

Story: 1.5/2

Direction: 1.5/2

Animation: 1/2

Characters: 1.5/2

Music: 1/2

Bonus points: 1/2

Final score: 7.5/10