Berserk - Complete Series (1997)

Berserk is a long-running seinen manga by legendary manga-ka Kentaro Miura. It is an incredibly dark and deeply textured tale centering on two men; the black swordsman: Guts, and the leader of the Band of the Hawk: Griffith. The first volume of the manga was published on November 26, 1990 by Hakusensha in it's Jets Comics collection. 

In 1992, after the publication of three more volumes, Berserk was serialized in Young Animal. The series was adapted into a twenty-five episode series covering the series' first story arc from October 7, 1997 to March 31, 1998. 

It should be noted that Berserk, the manga, is still running and still features some of the best artwork ever created for the medium. Miura is an undisputed master and Berserk is his masterpiece. The series gets progressively more supernatural as it goes forward and fans who began the series in the nineties are still eagerly awaiting it's conclusion.

The anime series below is an excellent introduction into the Berserk universe and covers the first major story arc of the manga, The Golden Age, extremely faithfully. As good as the anime is (and it is good), the manga is better, and so if you like the show I assure you, you will need to read the series, especially since (without giving anything away) the show ends extremely abruptly and at a very insane cliffhanger that if you are anything like me, will just encourage you to read through the entirety of the manga, probably as quickly as possible.

Wicked City aka Yōjū Toshi (1987) - Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Junji Itou - The Enigma of Amigara Fault

 

 

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky aka Ngai Kai Lam (1991)

After killing the drug-addicted lowlife who murdered his fiancée, an unlucky strongman (Terry Fan Siu-wong) is remanded to a corrupt prison where he's forced to defend himself against inmates and tyrannical officials, spilling gallons of blood and gore along the way..., Notorious for its splattery violence and hyper-stylized melodrama, STORY OF RICKY - derived from the Japanese manga 'Riki-Oh' created by Tetsuya Saruwatari - is directed by former cinematographer Laam Naai-choi, whose earlier efforts (THE SEVENTH CURSE, EROTIC GHOST STORY, etc.) rarely scaled the same dizzy heights of outrage and audacity. 

Shot on a shoestring budget in Macao, the film combines high octane bloodshed with "Carry On"-style humor (watch out for the incredible moment when a character uses his intestines as a weapon!), mixed with visual references to earlier exploitation fare such as THE STREET FIGHTER (1974) and THE FURY (1978), though the makeup effects are rudimentary at best, in keeping with the film's comic-book tone. Japanese actress Yukari Oshima takes second billing as one of the *male* villains (she's dubbed with a masculine voice), and fan favorite Gloria Yip (SAVIOUR OF THE SOUL) plays the hero's ill-fated girlfriend in a series of corny 'feel-good' flashbacks. But the film belongs to handsome, hunky Terry Fan, ripping his shirt off at the drop of an intestine and posing impressively for the various combat sequences. Clothed or unclothed, he's never less than magnificent to behold, and director Laam uses the actor's exaggerated studliness to lampoon the homoerotic spectacle which once fuelled 'golden age' kung fu pictures. (via IMDB)

Suehiro Maruo - My Youth (from DDT,1981-1983)