A Kite - Student At Day, Killer At Night
A KITE is a Japanese adult anime consisting of 2 episodes, both originally airing in 1998. The anime is written & directed by Yasuomi Umetsu.
The story follows Sawa, a young Japanese high school girl who had her parents murdered at age 12. She is trained to kill by her parent's killers, making her a high school student by day and contract killer by night. Sawa pretends to not know that Akai, her murder client, is the one who actually killed her parents, but gets trained under him to seek revenge one day. Apart from getting orders to kill, Sawa is also sexually abused by Akai, but endures, waiting for the right timing to avenge her parents.
Sawa lives in a very dark world, where she is unable to escape adults using their dirty ways to manipulate her. However, even in this ugly world, she meets one boy who she is able to trust, Oburi. Oburi, who is also a contract killer, wants out of this world as fast as he can, and tries to part ways with the organization. However, he becomes the next murder target for attempting to leave, and the one ordered to pull the trigger is Sawa. She is forced either choose love, or obey the laws of her contract.
A KITE was very highly acclaimed, because of its high level of completion on a low budget, and the gore scenes which had a certain heaviness to them. However, due to its high amount of sexual content, many countries banned the original version to air. So, they made an international version, with all of the sexual scenes taken out.
The story fully takes place in Japan, but judging from the artwork and American slum-like locations, you can clearly tell that Yasuomi was influenced by western culture. In fact, the movie saw a live action remake which took place in the US and Mexico, even starring Samuel L. Jackson as one of the cast members. KITE LIBERATOR, a sequel was released in 2008 as well.
Another fun fact, the Dominator weapon from the iconic anime "PSYCHO-PASS", is said to be inspired by the Red Club, Sawa's weapon of murder. Both guns possess the same bullets which explode a few seconds after impact.
Check out some images from the cult-classic anime above.
