A fairly typical V&V villain catalog, this one focused on baddies who operate in Japan, all with marked anime influence. Compared to earlier villain books in the series there are fewer whimsical entries (some of the older V&V villains could be downright goofy) but a bit less originality and variety. Out of twenty villains, quite a few are obviously lifted from anime - most of which was older even when this came out, 1990s and early Oughts - including a Knight Saber expy from Bubblegum Crisis, an evil Astro Boy, a Guyver, and a child Pokemon trainer who's wanted for animal cruelty. There are also some stereotypes including a vampire, ninja, catgirl, and no less than three different female cyborgs/gynoids with various memory and socialization problems. Villain levels range from 1 to 6, with a strong bias toward the 1-3 part of that scale.
This gets a rating bump from me for the very strong B&W artwork, which is nicely evocative and has a distinctive style. It's a shame that the artist, Brian Delandro Hardison, doesn't appear to have done much other work in the gaming industry and none at all for V&V. He's arguably the best illustrator the game has had outside of Dee and Willingham, and he's giving Jeff a run for his money here.
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