Katawa Shoujo (Disability Girl)

2010 Four Leaf Studios

Description:
Hisao Nakai is a normal high school student, currently in his final year of high school. One day Hisao receives a letter from parties unknown in his locker and waits at the written place for the sender. The person who wrote the letter turns out to be his crush; while speaking to her, he suddenly collapses. He awakes in a hospital bed, and is told by the doctors that the reason he collapsed is due to arrhythmia, a rare heart condition that causes his heartbeat to sometimes become irregular. Due to this, his parents have enrolled him in Yamaku, a school for disabled students of all kinds.

Katawa Shoujo is available for free at http://katawa-shoujo.com/

A game worth way more than the price of admition. >>> by Lensman (04.04.2012)

It’s a commonly known secret among internet reviewers that writing reviews about bad stuff is generally more fun. When you write about stuff you like, you actually have to struggle to find flaws and nitpick a product that you might actually care about. Furthermore, reading a “Good Rating” review can get pretty tiresome and boring to the reader as you tend to repeat yourself. Writing about something bad though is another matter entirely. The reviewer can rant, go on tangents, he/she no longer has to pull punches and the end result is, most of the time, something that is genuinely fun to read.

So, it’s no wonder that, as I was away a long time from reviewing anime and games, that I was looking for something awful to get me back into track. Katawa Shoujo seemed like the perfect candidate for the job. I remember that my thought process went something like this:

“OK, so we have a game with a guy who suffers of cardiac arrhythmia as the main hero, and you get to choose between a blind girl, a deaf girl, a girl with no arms, a girl with no legs and a girl with severe burn wounds. All we now need is a midget and a psycho lesbian and the politically correct choir can go on slut-walks, do performance art and read poetry at Starbucks. What? This was made by people who came together on the image boards at 4chan? This is going to be great! I am going to pick apart this baby for all it’s worth!”

So I downloaded the free game. And I played. And played. And laughed. And cried. And played some more. And I ended up getting angry knocks from my roommate inquiring what the hell I’ve been doing in the computer room for three straight days.

I tried to be cynical about this game. I really tried. But, goddammit, the story and the characters eventually won me over. The story and the writing was so good that I genuinely wanted to give Hanako a hug, hold Lilly’s hand, play Risk with Shizune, pat Emi on the head, fingerpaint with Rin and have Kenji’s love children. Wait. What?

What makes this story unique is that the disabilities of the girls are addressed in a subtle and careful manner. They are not shoved in your face and they are not the focus of the story. Instead the main focus is on their characters and what makes them tick. You won’t see them as “cripples” you will see them as them as “the shy girl”, “the mother figure”, “the dreamer”, “the athlete”, “the overachiever”. And even then, even when you recognize the character archetypes that they are based on, archetypes that have been (over)used in Visual Novels for years, they still manage to catch you by surprise.

In fact, and that’s one of the biggest merits of Katawa Shoujo, If you go in the game and follow conventional Visual Novel logic (i.e. be a Chivalrous White Knight, protect the women, and sleep with anything that moves) you are in for a few nasty surprises as there is more to the girls of the game than meets the eye. The onus is on a more realistic and equal approach to relationships rather than an ideal one. Choices that seem insignificant actually have an enormous impact, and you really have to think about what you do and say instead of blindly following a path.

The writing and the storytelling is indeed top notch. If I have to nitpick something though, it’s Kenji’s character. He is the main comic relief character, a half-blind conspiracy nut that believes there is a war coming between “real men” and “evil feminists”. My objection to him is more an ideological one. As is painfully obvious from my previous Rapelay review I am not a big fan of feminist organizations like “Equality Now” and I consider myself a “counter-feminist”. Kenji is a stereotype of a “Men’s Right Activist” or rather what most people think of the term “Men’s Right Activist”. To present such a character in a game, will inevitably lead people to get the wrong idea about the Men’s Rights Movement and “Counter-Feminist” theory.

Still, despite (or because of) all that Kenji is a likeable and otherwise intelligent character who is capable of incredible insights as well as a true friend to the protagonist when he needs him. The thing is that the game heavily implies that there is also more to the character than what meets the eye and I really would have liked the game to explore why he thinks the way he thinks and why he has such a bad view of feminism and feminists. Heck, I would have absolutely loved a separate Kenji path in the game.

Visually, the game looks great. The character designs are absolutely gorgeous, and fit their personalities really well. Some people on the web have complained about the fact that they were made by non-japanese people, hence they are sub-par, but fuck them, they know nothing. What really impressed me are the opening animations of each girl’s path, which summarize the girls conditions and the conflicts that you will face in their paths. Props go to Mike Inel on doing such a stellar job and I am now officially a big fan of his work.

The audio is for the most part also rather good. Classic mood music dominates the game, and it even plays a vital part in giving you a large emotional punch in some of the endings. While definitely not as good as other high-end productions, it certainly adds a lot to the atmosphere something extremely important, as there is no voice-work to accompany the character’s reactions and interactions with each other (more on that later).

OK, I’ve gushed over the story and the characters enough. Since this IS a hentai review, it’s time to answer the question that is in most people’s minds: Is the game fapable?

Well, after a long and arduous discussion between Otakufridge’s FARTs (Fap, Adulation and Review Team) which mainly consist of me and the other member which shall not be named, the conclusion was reached the game is indeed fapable with sex scenes that were very nice, tasteful, and well drawn. Furthermore, they serve to provide -gasp- some actual character development rather than just some more masturbation fodder for the masses. The game’s realistic approach to sex and relationships is also at play here and provides some pretty nice and accurate depictions of sexual contact that add to rather than subtract from the story. Though there is an option to turn the sex-scenes off, it’s highly recommended that you don’t do so.

If there is something that subtracts from the sex-scenes and the overall is the lack of voice-work. OK, I understand that this was done in order to put the game out faster and to keep it free, but I really would have liked to listen to what the girls sound like especially during their more intimate moments. The lack of voicework is especially jarring during a scene during Lilly’s path (note: Lilly is the blind girl), where the protagonist is asked to feel rather than watch during a sex scene in order to introduce him to how she faces the world. Somehow, I think the whole scene would have worked better with a voice and a few sound effects.

So, in overall, if you haven’t gotten the hint already, Katawa Shoujo is a great game in its own right, a visual novel in the truest sense of the word that really transcends the genre and takes it to places you really didn’t think it could go. Like Crescendo and Kana Little Sister, Katawa Shoujo is an intense emotional roller coaster ride that needs to be experienced in order to be fully appreciated.

Now, are there any talented professional voice-actors that are willing to voluntarily do voice work for this excellent game? Come on people! The Four Leaf Studios people gave you an excellent game for free after 5 long years of development, it’s the least you can do! Seriously, I would gladly pay for a voiceover DLC for some of the hentai scenes, if not all of the game’s dialogue.

Anybody out there? Hello?

Art/Animation: 9 Story/Plot: 10 Characters: 10 Sounds: 8 Ecchi Level: 7

RapeLay

GENRE: 3D Eroge
PLATFORM: Windows 2000/XP 1.4 GHz Processor, 128 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended), 8x CD-ROM, 32 MB DirectX 9-compatible video card, DirectSound-compatible soundcard
CREDITS: 2006 Illusion Soft




Lensman's Description:
(Yes kids, we are finally doing it!) You are an obviously sick and evil man who gets off by harassing little innocent girls on the subway train. One day the unthinkable happens: one of the girls you assgrabbed starts screaming "pervert" and you get promptly arrested. Fortunately, you are a wealthy man with plenty of connections (like most evil perverts) and you get away with it by doing just one day in prison. But one day in jail is one day too many for you, dammit! You obviously have to teach this girl a lesson. And the best way is to rape her and her all-female family into submission. Hilarity does not ensue.

Skysenshi's Note: This game has been so controversial that it incited international outcry. Illusion Soft has long ceased distribution. You can read their message to their customers in foreign countries here.

Move along, people! >>> by Lensman (07.30.2010)
So here's how it goes: something that only a handfull of people know and care about offends you so you go on a long and costly campaign to get it banned. In the end you succeed but you end up making the "something" famous by giving it free publicity and making it more of a problem than it was to begin with. Eventually, people start to actively seek out the thing you banned in order to see what the fuss is all about. It goes viral, thanks to the beauty of 4chan and Internet piracy, and more people end up installing it on their hard drives than ever before. Great job moral guardian! Google "The Streisand Effect" next time before doing anything.

Yeah, rape is a very prevalent theme in Japanese dating games (AND Japanese pornography), and I am sure you can produce some sort of graph showing a co-relation between rape game sales and actual occurrences of rape in Japan. But, here's the thing: co-relation does not necessarily equal causation. If "A" (rape game consumption) is somehow co-related to "B" (actual occurences of rape) this doesn't mean that "A" causes "B" . It may also mean that "B" causes "A" (that people with rape tendencies find an outlet in rape games) or that there is a third factor "C" which causes both "A" and "B" (eg a culture that represses sexuality and promotes rape as "erotic"). By just banning a game, you don't solve anything. You might even make the problem worse by closing down an avenue of expression that prevented people with actual rape fantasies from actually acting it out in reality (Studies show that Pornography has a negative effect on the actual occurence of sex crimes). In order to be really effective, you have to look at the broader picture find the real cause of the problem and attack it accordingly.

Some people may also claim that while rape games have always existed in Japan, Rapelay is a "more realistic depiction of rape" and therefore more dangerous. Let's have a closer look at this claim, shall we?

Rapelay: You see a girl in a mini-skirt and you pray to God. The Almighty Lord rewards you by blowing a strong gust of wind on the highway which blows the girl's skirt upwards. Hallelujah, praise the Lord!
Real-lay: God fucking hates you. Your attempts to get down on your knees and pray cause the suspicion of the subway's security crew which promptly arrests you for being a religious extremist. You spend the rest of the afternoon getting closely acquiantated with officer Smith's gloved hand as he conducts a cavity search to see if you hide any explosives inside your rectum.

Rapelay: You invite a few friends over to gang-rape the girls.
Real-Lay: You have no friends. If you did, you would probable be able to get laid in a normal way and not have to resort to playing Rape Games. In the unlikely scenario that you actually do, and persuade them to come over, the girls will keep teasing you about how much more proficient and hung they are.

Rapelay: If you get a girl pregnant, you can easily make her have an abortion. If you don't do it the girl pushes you under a train.
Real-Lay: What's the fun in pushing you under a train when you can pay child support instead. Have fun being a financial slave for the the next 20 years asshole.

Rapelay: You can easily get away with brutal rape due to your connections.
Real-Lay: Tell that to a guy named Strauss-Kahn. Even if you do manage to get away with rape in this post-feminist, post-Duke era there's this little bit called "Vigilante Justice". The girls pay 200 bucks for someone to break your legs and stomp on your balls for good measure.

Rapelay: You get to rape a girl while in reverse-cow position.
Real-Lay: Consider the physics for just a second. She's on top, you're flat on your back. It's physically impossible to restrain and rape someone while doing this. Who writes this stuff?

To cut a sad story short, if you go out and start raping girls just because you saw it in a video-game, you obviously have some serious issues and you rightly deserve all the hell's punishments that will inevitable come your way.

OK, rant over. I'm supposed to be reviewing this, aren't I?

If you follow the hype you know what the game's all about. You are a sick rapist plain and simple and your goal is to "break" the girls of the game by having them do various stuff. For instance, managing to bring a girl to orgasm in less than 30 seconds in public triggers the "Shame" indication, while managing to talk the girls into doing something triggers the "Talk" one. Once all indication are lit, the girl is "broken" and you can do what you want with her. Break two girls and you get to have a threesome with them. Break all three and you can mix and match as you like...

And that's about it. That's all there is to the game. There is no ending, no reward. You just get to rape the girls over and over and over until you are sick of it.

The 3D graphics are still looking great today, and the boob-physics are always a pleasure to watch. The voice-actresses do a terrific job of screaming help, faking orgasms and pretending to lick stuff. So it's a good fap game at least.

But seriously, what's the point? There's ton of better (and more offensive) stuff out there, that at least have endings and meanings that this game certainly doesn't have. Why play a 2GB game that eats up resources and hard drive space when you can (illegaly) download and English-Patch something like Dark Love instead? Sick as it may be, at least it has a climax and a conclusion to the whole story.

Move along people, there's really nothing to see here. This game isn't even worth its downloading time. If you want to illegally download a banned game worth playing try playing Terranigma instead*.

_{*Terranigma was actually released in Europe and Australia but not in the USA due to its heavy religious subtext, which actually plays a major part in the plot. This is also why it's not out on the Virtual Console. Seriously though, it's a great action-RPG with one of the most poignant endings in Gaming History. Play it NOW!!!}

RATINGS: Art/Animation: 9 Story/Plot: 1 Characters: 1 Sounds: 9 Ecchi Level: 8

Asia Carrera: The genius porn star turned hentai seiyuu

A couple of years ago, for my master's class in Women's Development, I was asked to report about Feminism and Pornography and how many Third Wave feminists are inclined to fight for the right to express their sexuality. During this period, through a classmate's own report, I came across May Ling Su -- an internet porn star, business woman, and graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University. Her intelligence shone through her blog, as she expertly responded to judgmental questions about what she does. Of course, anyone with a one-track conservative mind would probably not understand where May Ling Su is coming from. As for me? I was thankful I saw the other side of the "sleaze" industry and found it an interesting topic of discourse.

Then, a few days ago, a friend opened an online discussion about how women in this industry are possibly not smart enough to get a decent education so they could arm themselves for better jobs. Apparently, the conversation sparked when she and her friend began talking about Maria Ozawa. This led me to think about Sex-positive Feminism and eventually to one of the most intelligent porn stars of all time: Asia Carrera.

As of this writing, Asia Carrera, born to a Japanese father and a German mother, is 37 years old, weighs 128 lbs., and is about 5 feet 8.5 inches tall. Most hentai fanatics would probably recognize her face on the covers of Inmu and Shusaku, as she has been the voice actress responsible for giving life to the English versions of the characters.

"Who is Asia Carrera?"
The more suitable inquiry should be: Who in this side of the anime stratosphere does not know Asia Carrera? Heh.

She would not have been chosen for these roles if she weren't an accomplished adult video actress:

• Adult Video News (AVN) Awards 1995, Best Female Performer of the Year
• AVN 2000, Best Couples Sex Scene
• AVN Award 2000, nominee for Best Actress

These, among other activities, earned her a place at the AVN Hall of Fame. (I was actually amazed, when I wrote about Ebisu Muscats, how the porn industry flourished so much that they have their own awards in the US and Japan.)

But did you know that Asia Carrera had a full academic scholarship from Rutgers University and is, in fact, a Mensa member? For those who didn't know, you'd probably stop in your tracks upon reading this. Then the next question will hit you a mere split-second after:


"How the hell did she get into pr0n???"

She actually answers this question in her official website, asiacarrera.com:

My parents wanted me to go to Harvard and be a doctor or a lawyer, and I wanted to play piano and hang out with friends.

Needless to say, my parents and I butted heads. My father was born in Japan, and my mother was born in Germany. They were from the "old school", strong on discipline, and overachievers themselves, so they were in no way being hypocritical with their demands on me. (My dad went to Caltech on full academic scholarship for math and physics. He's the biggest nerd I know)

I was grounded for every "B" I got, and beaten for getting anything lower than that. I was not allowed to socialize at all, or go to parties, because they said there'd be time for that after I got into a good college. Well, I did what any red-blooded American kid would do, I'd sneak out. And get caught. And get beaten. And get grounded again. Without launching into too much detail, let's just say I was unhappy. (I tried to kill myself a lot) (Asian kids everywhere have e-mailed me to verify that this is standard practice in Asian households - what a relief to find out I'm normal, huh!)

*Sigh* I'm a huge fan of the Tiger Mom, actually. I believe that she instills discipline so that her kids will grow up to be responsible adults that do not think the world owes them everything. This, however, is the other side of Tiger Mom's upbringing...though I think this is more the result of the Tiger Mom (German) + Tiger Dad (Japan) combo.

Am I complaining? Well, in this situation, I think the Tigers instilled incredible resiliency in their child even if she rebelled. She survived so many unfavorable circumstances and but emerged very much empowered, sans the self-entitlement of many spoiled brats.

For all that, I salute Asia Carrera. She could actually be one of the activists for Sex-Positive Feminism.*

(If you want me to write more about Sex-Positive Feminism, what it is and the issues surrounding it, do drop a comment. Thanks!)

Banana Mango High School - Ebisu Muscats

This is why I loooooove Japan. They can come up with the weirdest combination of things and expect these to be a commercial success. I'm talking about 25 Gravure and AV idols turning into a girl pop group that call themselves the Ebisu Muscats.

They can't sing. They can't dance. (Which is funny because if they're porn stars, aren't they supposed to be able to move well?) But they sure as heck became contagious. Why else would my male colleagues be so hooked that they'd even dance to the Ebisu Muscats' Banana Mango High School single? Disturbing, yes. So instead of watching my male colleagues, which permanently damaged something within me, I just view the real thing.



I can't get over how these girls can't perform, but I'm still surprised at how I keep humming this song in my head. I watch it over and over -- just to get rid of the images of pervy men dancing to it.

By the way, Rio is just so cute. I even looked her up and found out that she's part Japanese, part Portugese. I'm sooo not an AV fan, but I just like staring at her face.

When the single was released, she was 23 years old, even though the song is about naughty high school adventures. Well, the lyrics did cause me to scratch my head in wonder. Japanese boys don't seem to care, though, and even old men are tickled pink by the word play. I don't blame them. With Rio making cute faces at the camera while mouthing the lyrics in such a provocative manner, anyone will forget reason.

This is a cover of one of her DVDs. You can buy these precious Rio adult videos here. Pretty, isn't she?

Once upon a time, Rio used to be fresh-faced and totally looked Japanese. Seems like she's now capitalizing on the other half of her heritage. Go, Rio! In any case, I searched for information about her and found out that she did a lot of...um. Porn. Well, she's an AV star. What else are AV stars supposed to do?

Anyway, if you're interested (and I don't really want to see her spread her legs and ruin the kawaii image in my head), you can take a peek at Rio's visual "portfolio". She even has her own calendar! No wonder her handlers see the need for her to expand her horizons. I just hope they see her potential well enough to give her singing and dancing lessons.

Ebisu Muscats music can also be bought at Amazon.com.

Edit (03.15.2011): So I tried watching one of Rio's adult videos out of curiosity. 5 minutes into the film, the fugliest guy appears and starts kissing her. I kind of threw up in my mouth. A few seconds later, I turned off the player. I don't understand how the prettiest porn actresses in Japan are paired up with dudes that look like they dove into a septic tank before the shoot. Really. I think I'll just stick to reviewing anime hentai.

Boku no Pico

Drama, Yaoi
2006 Katsuyoshi Yatabe, Natural High



Cover Description:
The first of its kind, Boku no Pico tackles a boy's sexual awakening when a salary man mistakes him for a girl and seduces him. A PG version has also been released.

Safe Boku no Pico DVDs and merchandise are available here.

Wrong. Wrong. WRONG!!! >.< >>> by skysenshi
If you notice that I only took "safe" screenshots, it's because I want to concentrate on the adults and pretend that Pico and his sexual playmates are 18 years old and above. Upon reading the official website, my suspicions about this being a yaoi shotacon had been verified and I fervently regretted finding out the truth. That being said, I do hope people over there in Japan (and whoever is reading this site) can separate fantasy from reality; that Pico et al. are fictitious. Maybe that's why Boku no Pico merchandise are available at Amazon.com. (Then again, they thankfully have PG versions.)

My protests aside, I noticed that the characters seem more like lesbians than gay boys. I say this because of the complex nature of their relationships. (So much drama!!!) Plus the fact that they have multiple orgasms. Masturbating women also turn them on (see above screenshot). Oh and that they can switch from top to bottom and back. Most male seme dislike being uke. In fact, one of my gay friends threatened to punch the lights out of a partner who suggested that he try being uke.

The opening and ending credits are fun, though. If only this series weren't hentai. *Sigh*

The completely ironic thing about all this is that I would never have discovered Boku no Pico had I not received this video link from a homophobic friend. The video warns everyone off the title. Yet I friggin' borrowed the complete set out of curiosity anyway. Suffice to say that curiosity killed the cat. Bah!

Art/Animation: 8 Story/Plot: 6 Characters: 5 Sounds: 9 Ecchi Level: 7