Goku the ex-cop-turned-private-eye is distracted from his ordinary job (retrieving apartment keys for ladies with jealous boyfriends) by the sudden "suicide" of an ex-partner in a strip joint. At the scene of the crime, Goku learns that the local crime lord Hakuro owns the strip joint, and that this is suspiciously the fourth in a string of police-detective suicides. Angered by the police chief's ineffectiveness in handling Hakuro, Goku decides to take justice into his own hands. Enlisting the aid of his old flame, a sexy cop named Yoko, Goku infiltrates Hakuro's fortress and discovers the truth behind the suicides. However, while trying to escape, Goku loses his left eye.

Inexplicably, he wakes to find himself strapped to a table in an operating room where a mysterious voice informs him that his eye has been replaced by a cybernetic implant, giving Goku god-like powers over anything electronic. Armed with this artificial eye and an extendible fighting stick, Goku returns to wreak vengeance upon the evil Hakuro.

Bottom line, this anime is fun to watch. But although "Goku: Midnight Eye" succeeds in delivering its dark vision of humanity overwhelmed by technology, creator/screenwriter Buichi Terasawa fails to offer an answer to the tough questions he poses, postponing issues he may address in future "Goku" installments, and biding time with raw action. His hyper-modern setting is littered with the futuristic conveniences provided by computerization and cybernetics, but the resulting city slums are no less filthy than the urban sprawl of today. The only one who seems to rise above the scum of the streets is the crime lord Hakuro, who obtains his wealth by selling biological weapons to third-world dictators. Terasawa's vision asserts that advances in technology do nothing to free mankind; indeed, they only seem to push man deeper into the mud. But how does one pull his self back out? "Goku: Midnight Eye" makes no attempt to provide the much-needed answer to this question. The story begins bleak and pessimistic, and ends bleak and pessimistic, with only the dim promise for future revelations in the next chapter.

The main problem with "Goku: Midnight Eye" is that, given this hopeless scenario, it seems frivolous to introduce a hero to fight it. But, since without a hero we have no story, Terasawa drops in this hapless private eye and gives him the impossible task of bringing down Hakuro. And indeed, on his own, Goku fails miserably at his first attempted infiltration, getting captured, beaten and maimed in the process. So how can Goku succeed against these odds? Divine intervention, perhaps. The mysterious voice that inexplicably rescues Goku from Hakuro's minions, then implants him with an omnipotent eye and arms him with an invincible fighting-stick, is never explained, explored, or even questioned. It's as if God himself walked into the story and pressed a win button for the hero (or the hero knew the secret cheat codes for the game).

Here, Terasawa's theme emerges: mankind is so dependent upon computers, that to give a man command over computers is to make that man a god. Goku's omnipotent eye empowers him to, at last, strike against Hakuro, and the action suggests that there is virtually no limit to Goku's abilities. However, once introduced, this rather incisive theme gets lost in the meandering combat sequences which comprise the latter portion of the film. The only acknowledgement paid to this theme is Goku's bitter statement that the eye could let him do anything. But "what good is it? It couldn't save Yoko."

Also, at times "Goku: Midnight Eye," in its dark ministrations, crosses the bounds of good taste. Early in the story, Goku spies a stripper who dances with handlebars on her back and poses as a motorcycle. He later meets her as the laser-breathing vampire who speaks only in feral grunts and runs around on all fours while a midget rides her back. When Goku defeats her, he lugs her head around as a trophy. Seedy? Okay. Necessary? Probably not. Oppressive in atmosphere and riddled with unanswered questions, "Goku: Midnight Eye" gives plenty of style, but ultimately sinks into the fatalistic swamp it creates.

Love it? Hate it? Buy it.