Virgin Punk is the most gorgeously animated 35 minutes of ultraviolent anime I've ever seen. Every frame has an unreal level of detail. The action itself is smooth, clear, and impressively choreographed. The direction is likewise a masterclass in visual storytelling, and more than a bit of rotoscoping has been used to keep character movements as fluid and realistic as possible. The word “eye candy” feels like it was invented to describe this film. Yet, impressively, this film has depth behind its outward beauty.

Despite all the action, explosions, and gunplay, this is a psychological thriller at heart. The anime feels like witnessing a Ghost in the Shell crime story from the point of view of a victim—in this case, a girl who's had her brain put in a robot body against her will and is a slave to the man holding her off switch. It's an utterly terrifying concept, and this is shown visually throughout the story.

There are more than a few shots of Ubu's naked robotic body. While she may be 25 in mind and the body itself synthetic, the fact remains that it is based on her actual 14-year-old body. Rather than titillating, the nudity in this film is shot to feel deeply uncomfortable, showing the disturbing level of control Mr. Elegance has over Ubu. He has not only enslaved her but also has full control over everything about her appearance. He can dress her as he wants or not at all. She has no privacy, and he can walk in on her at any time—in the shower or bed—and do anything he wants with her body. She is his doll and nothing more. It's sick and terrifying—which is the point.

There are only two places where Ubu has any control over her life. The first is inside her head. Her thoughts remain her own, and it was her mind as much as her physical skills that made her a high-level bounty hunter in the first place. The second is in those rare moments when she is out in the field hunting illegal cyborgs—that's her chance to start making plans to fight back against her captor.

What's interesting is that there's an extra layer to Mr. Elegance's actions. While he no doubt has enslaved Ubu for his perversions, the impetus for doing so was someone else threatening her life. If he hadn't done what he did to Ubu, she would almost certainly be dead. He saved her life—even if it was for all the wrong reasons. However, why Ubu was being hunted by another person at all remains one of the anime's looming mysteries—and one that will no doubt be explored further in later chapters.

All in all, if you've seen director Yasuomi Umetsu's classic works like Kite and Mezzo Forte, you know what to expect from this film. Visually, you get top-tier action centered around young girls with big guns, and thematically, you have a story with an older man attempting to control a younger woman. This all comes together into something violent, disturbing, exciting, and strikingly memorable.