Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness (Anime Series)

Whether it came from a lab leak or a wet market, there is no serious debate that the CCP regime in China covered up the Covid outbreak we are all still enjoying two years later. However, the folks managing the Resident Evil franchise apparently did not notice. In their new anime series, it is the American government that covered-up the zombie viral outbreak in Raccoon City and now the corrupt Defense Secretary hopes to provoke a war with China to distract the President. Fan favorite characters Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield must save the day in the anime series Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, directed by Eiichiro Hasumi, which releases tomorrow on DVD and BluRay.

Something bad happened in Penamstan six years ago. It started out like Black Hawk Down, but then the zombies showed up. The leader of the “Mad Dogs” unit barely survived. Now, he is known as the “Hero of Penamstan,” but he is uncomfortable with that title. Likewise, Kennedy would be uncomfortable to be called the “Hero of Raccoon City,” but it gave him enough credibility for the President to ask for him by name.

He and the Mad Dog commando will be investigating Sec. Wilson’s suspicions that China was behind the Penamstan incident, along with Shen May, a Chinese American officer, who still has highly-connected family in Shanghai. Meanwhile, Redfield turns up evidence of a suspicious biological agent is still infecting residents of Penamstan, but there are people in the administration who want to keep a lid on her allegations.

Since there have already been six Resident Evil films in the Mila Jovovich continuity, a reboot, and three anime features, so practically no time is given developing Kennedy and Redfield. You either know them or you don’t. Jason “the Mad Dog” is not much more than a stock character either. Although Infinite Darkness is packaged as a series, there are only four twenty-four-minute episodes, so it is really more like another anime feature cut into quarters. There is plenty of action, but it often looks more like a video game on-screen, which sort of makes sense, given its source material. There is also a fair amount of halls-of-power intrigue, but it is largely derivative and entirely half-baked.

In a perverse way, Infinite Darkness functions as a nostalgia piece for the early 2000s, when it was the left that raved over the unelected deep state pulling the strings from within the intelligence agencies and Federal bureaucracy. These days, it is the right that consumes deep state conspiracy theories, while the left blindly trusts the FBI and NSA. Weird times. Regardless, the narrative written by Hasumi and Shogo Moto absolutely drips with anti-Americanism. The zombies might be technical monsters, but it is Americans like Wilson and his Big Pharma allies who are the villains. Someone should remind them Japan and America are allies and we share a considerable geo-political rival in the Northern Hemisphere.

It is pretty cool to see Kennedy fighting zombies in the White House, which the animation team rendered pretty well. Unfortunately, it gets tiresome listening the demonization of China hawks, particularly at a time of genocide in Xinjiang and naked military aggression in the South China Sea. Hasumi and company might soon wish there were more of those hawks around. In any event, Infinite Darkness is the weakest link in what is otherwise the most successful franchise adapted from video games. Not recommended, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness releases tomorrow (12/21) on DVD and BluRay.