The Guyver: Dark Hero - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Guyver 2: Dark Hero



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:




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Movie
There are very few things I hold dearer to my heart than Anime and Manga (though less Manga; that’s my wife’s favorite; I lean a bit more into the anime world), and I have a love/hate relationship with Guyver. Not because I don’t enjoy the material, but because it has such rich, vibrant lore that it's been butchered so badly, or left to rot, thanks to bad direction and, in the case of the manga, fate. The original manga was created by Yoshiki Takaya back in 1985, and it was fast turned into an OVA series that became an instant cult classic. The curse was that Takaya was very slow moving with his manga, and the original OVA was limited to the first few volumes of his works, meaning it cut off before anything major happened. Then it was revived in 2005 for a reboot series (which was my introduction to the series), and while it stuck to the Manga much better than the OVA, it lacked that “bite” the OVA had. And not only that, it was limited to the first 10 volumes of the Manga for its first season, and the powers that be had to wait till at least Volume 25 (only 23 were released at the time) to get enough material to adapt for a second season. And by that time they realized that the reboot wasn’t gaining enough traction, so they abandoned the project.

But rewind a little bit, back into the early 90s, where the powers that be decided to do a live-action film in 1991. A little indie production that decided to LOOSELY (and I mean very loosely) adapt the original story, changing the hero to a white guy named Sean Barker (Jack Armstrong in that first film) who got a super-powered alien suit left here by an ancient race of beings who were trying to turn humans into super-powered foot soldiers for their interstellar war known as Zoanoids (mutated humans with incredible power). However, they mysteriously abandoned the project millions of years ago, leaving relics on Earth, and a secret organization known as Cronos, who were recreating Zoanoids in order to rejoin their master in the skies. HOWEVER, the ancient creators also left a bio suit, which, when bonded to a human made said human even more incredible than the Zoanoids. Thus Sean Barker getting ahold of the suit and having to defeat Cronos.

Fast forward a year, and Sean (now played by David Hayter, who famously voiced Snake in “Metal Gear Solid”) is on the run from himself. He’s defeated Cronos, but the suit has a mind of its ow, and continues to drive him to seek out villains and tear them apart. Desperate to get rid of the suit and get back to his normal life, Sean packs up and heads out into the hills, where he runs across a hot archaeologist named Cori (Kathy Christopherson) who is studying artifacts up in the hills that look a LOT like the mysterious images that Sean sees while he dreams. Hiding his true identity from them, Sean decides to join the expedition and find out what he can about his mysterious dark passenger, only to find out that Cronos is alive and well in other portions of the globe, and is drawn to the same symbols that Sean was. Now it’s a race against time to figure out who can gain access to the ancient secrets first, and which side will gain access to the planet.

The first Guyver film was hilariously campy, and more of an Americanized version of the original couple of volumes, loosely based at the very least. But the second film takes a more serious approach to the source material, trying to link the Guyber unit to the creators, and the zoanoids as well. But let's face it. The movie is just as campy as the original, just not intentionally so. It’s hilariously over the top, with dialog that is on par with an adult film at the time, mixed with what is essentially an R-rated Power Rangers movie set in the Guyver universe. Everything is over acted, over choreographed, and sadly limited by a budget that must not have exceeded 20 bucks, and as much cocaine as the staff could snort while on set. The bioboosted armor is way underpowered compared to the manga, and this is a PAINFUL watch. Though one that is very much a part of my childhood, and much like watching the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, is so bad that it’s almost good. Almost, if you’re on some mind-altering substances at least.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Toy Robot Video (via arrow) gave us 2 different versions of the film. The first is from the original elements, and the second is an “enhanced” version that appears to have used some sort of AI algorithm to help with the remastering. There’s no info online or from Arrow’s booklets that gives us any major information, other than a blurb that states,s “This film is making its Blu-ray debut with a new master from the best surviving film elements”. So my best guess is that the source material was in pretty bad shape, and the enhanced version was using digital trickery to get it to look a bit better. Comparing the two discs, the enhanced version does seem to be a bit clearer, with more apparent detail to the eye, but it also suffers from more DNR and some waxy faces that belie AI tweaking.

Both transfers are pretty “meh” looking, with lots of blocking built into the master, and crummy detail levels. Smearing is everywhere, and fine details range from “that’s OK” to “holy moly! That looks bad!”. Black levels are murky and off-kilter, and colors are a bit on the warm, ruddy side. The weird part is that neither image really resembles “Film”. Instead, it looks extremely digital, with portions of it looking like it was shot entirely on green screen and then characters were cut and pasted into the sets. Grain is thick and heavy, and I noticed more than a few instances of noise spiking. It’s not so horrible that it’s unwatchable, but this is a rough looking transfer that Arrow likely didn’t have a lot to work with for. So it is what it is.







Audio:

The original version of the film sports a 2.0 DTS-HD MA track, while the Enhanced version gets that same mix, plus a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track as well. And while the 2.0 mix is certainly perfectly acceptable, the 5.1 upmix (which is what I’m guessing it was, as I believe the film was released in stereo back in 94) blows it out of the water. Not by a whole tone of clarity and or what not, but rather it’s super hot (like 3 DB’s over normal), and the surrounds are utilized nicely. Sad, ly the 5.1 mix is a bit of a blunt instrument, focusing on overly hot mixing and aggressive action to cover up the fact that there’s not a lot of nuance to it. Bass is punchy, but fairstraightforwardard and one-note-ish, but dialog is clean and clear, with some moderate surround usage for the budget score. It’s not bad, and actually doesn’t have a lot of digital artifacting or distortion. It’s just a sledgehammer of a mix rather than a scalpel, and it shows if you listen closel.y










Extras:

Disc One: Original Cut

• Text Interview with Guyver Creator Yoshiki Takaya
• Behind the Scenes Footage
• Production & Behind the Scenes Stills Gallery
• Artwork Stills Gallery
• New 2026 Trailer
• Archival Trailers

Disc Two: Enhanced Version

• Second Chance
• The MacGuyvers: Producing More for Less
• Audio Commentary with director Steve Wang
• Audio Commentary with associate producer Wyatt Weed & creature performer Ted Smith
• Audio Commentary with Donavon Thompson of The Guyver Geek Channel and Dom O'Brien, author of Budget Biomorphs

Final Score: ​

Sadly, Guyver will never be completed, nor likely to ever get another movie or another TV show. The original creator abandoned the manga before it was finished back in 2016 due to some health issues (massive stroke) and a death in the family that forced him to take up his family business. Thus the incredibly fun body horror/action manga that had SOOOO much potential, will be left unfinished forever. Which is heartbreaking considering how much I loved the original OVA and the 2005 TV reboot. It was just getting to some great plot points when it was forced to end, and now it looks like it never will be finished. The live-action films are horrible beyond belief, but so horrible they’re almost good. Dark Hero is much darker and more serious than the first, but it still is in that D- grade film class that it just can’t escape. The Blu-ray from Toy Robot is pretty solid considering how bad the source material was, but the extras are phenomenal. But to be fair, as much as I want to recommend this to experience, this is something that only the fans will want to pick up. The rest of you, rent this first.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: David Hayter, Kathy Christopherson, Bruno Patrick, Christopher Michael
Directed by: Steve Wang
Written by: Nathan Lang, Steven Wang, Yoshiki Takaya
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1 (Enhanced Version Only), English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English
Studio: Toy Robot Video
Rated: NR
Runtime: 127 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: September 8th, 2026

Recommendation: For the Fans