Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on August 2009

©2009, East Wing Holdings Corp. and SAJ. All Rights Reserved

Live-action remake, in English, of the classic 2000 anime about an ass-kicking, supernatural samurai demon-killer named Saya who is possibly one of those cinematically convenient human-vampire hybrids. Disguised as a schoolgirl, complete with sailor suit, she is enrolled at a US military high school in Kanto in the ’70s to ferret out and slash to ribbons some demons disguised as American schoolgirls. Lots of slashing to ribbons going on here. Gianna Jun makes Saya work, but the same cannot be said of bland Panasonic pitchperson Koyuki as some uber-demon. Nice chop-socky sequences, and not as bad as it sounds.