Hentai @ The Otaku Fridge

Katawa Shoujo (Disability Girl)

noreply@blogger.com (L3nsman) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 02:05:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 10:05:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 02:27:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 02:37:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 10:49:00 +0000

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

New Improved J-List & My 2010 Holiday Wish List

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 06:03:00 +0000

It's been a while since I last updated this "Dark Side of the Otaku Fridge" and I figured I should give a few of my old favorite hentai sites a visit. Of course, the first site off the top of my head was J-List. I was in for a pleasant surprise. They improved their look, and how!

It's so easy to navigate my way around the website now. Plus, they seem to have added a few more non-hentai DVD offerings. Like this title I've been dying to see:

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Complete Box (Blu-ray Disc)
Just about everyone else -- except yours truly -- has seen this. I've only chanced upon a clip of the characters dancing and sort of found it quite hypnotic. The only reason I keep stalling is that I keep running into interesting yaoi titles...Hm.

Here are other interesting things to see (and stuff I plan to get hold of):

Lighting Warrior Raidy II: Temple of Desire
Well, I haven't played the first, though somebody already reviewed it here in the Fridge. Life was so much easier when I had a boyfriend who could buy the H stuff for me. Now that I'm on my own, well. How the heck do you buy these offline if you're a girl, right? Well, you don't. That's what J-List is for, if you don't mind the waiting time between Japan and your country of origin. =^.^=

Queen's Blade
I'm glad to see more DVDs in J-List's stock. I used to lament the availability of DVDs in their store but now it seems like they have also improved in this department. I've always been interested in seeing women in battle outfits. Queen's Blade seems to have a LOT of volumes that feature women from different periods. I hope this franchise does not disappoint.

It's Pocky Season!!!
I haven't met anyone who does not like Pocky. I eat all kinds -- yes, even the tomato-based ones. Hehe. It was so nice of J-List to put them all in one category so I wouldn't have trouble picking them out from a jumble of snacks.

Studio Ghibli Wall Calendar
2011 is less than a month away, so it's almost time to change our 2010 calendars. What better way to start each month off than to see the best of Studio Ghibli's shots? I actually couldn't decide between this and the Totoro one. Both are so goooood! Other readers may seem to prefer the more ecchi calendars in this listing, though.

Don't Escape! ~ Toubou Kinshi
And what is this wish list without a yaoi manga, ne? Honestly, there were quite a few BL manga in stock that I couldn't decide which one to pick. So I went for the compilation of six complete stories in one whole book that consists of 160 pages. Anyway, there are more yaoi titles to be found here.

Monotone Gothic Lolita Dress
Ok! This is a guilty pleasure! I've always wanted to wear Gothic Lolita / Maid's uniform on Halloween. I know it's way past Halloween but it was the first time I saw this on the website. The size is so me! I'd like to pair these with either thigh-high stockings or a pair of stiletto boots.

Hm. I think I just made myself a hentai holiday season wish list. (I dare not call it "Christmas wish list" for fear of thunder and lightning striking me.) Anyway, I had a great time perusing J-List's collections. I hope you guys give it a try, too.

Discode

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 08:56:00 +0000

Drama, Romance, Psycho-Erotica
2004 Studio9Maiami, Courreges, D3, Kitty Media

Cover Description:
Going through life is hard enough for a coed at her sexual peak in an academy full of horny boys, but it's even harder when she's got horny boy parts of her own. Miss Futaba finds it hard to sit quietly in class when something down there keeps her too distracted to think straight. Day in and day out, she's waiting for the classes to end so she can run off and relieve her pent-up desires. When a few others find out about her secret, her sex life explodes into new heights as every possibility is put into practice.

Discode is available in this store. Other titles are available here.

I feel for the hermie. >>> by skysenshi
Not exactly a new concept, since I've read a lot of ero manga that deals with shemales. It's been a long time since I've seen an animated version, though. I think the last time was in Cool Devices.

Hm. I don't think this title's bad. There are some parts that seem pretty sweet; I could name a few scenes from the first and the third episode that were quite touching. It's just that I don't think this is the anime for anyone who's looking for light-hearted fun. I feel sorry for the insecure hermaphrodite (especially when I found out that these people actually do exist IN REAL LIFE) and I wished with all my being that Futaba would end up happy. Well, I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. The emotional level of the story goes uphill, then goes downhill after the sweetest moment.

I especially love the credits, since the ending theme is pretty good. I like its simplicity and the old-fashioned texture of the music. The credits show various sketches that have been used in the conceptualization of this project. With this, you get to feel that at least there is artistic -- and not just sexual -- value in this endeavor.

By the way, episode #2 concentrates on the new girl Kyouka. It delves into her background so that the viewers could understand why she is so fascinated by Futaba.

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

Booby Life (Oppai Life)

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:44:00 +0000

Genre: College Dramedy
Credits: 2009 Y.O.U.C., Blue Gale, Digital Works, Kitty Media

Cover Description:
Naoto, your run-of-the-mill young dude with a thing for top-heavy women, is the luckiest bum in the world. Ayane, a busty babe he's known for almost all his life, has a thing for him and lets him have his way with her anytime he wants. On top of that, Chika, another one of his chesty childhood friends, has just a big a crush on him too. When she says to him, "My boobs belong to you," there's no way any guy with a healthy sex drive can resist. There's now only two hard things in Naoto's life now, and one of them is choosing between two gorgeous hotties!

Blah blah blah. >>> by skysenshi
Why do recent hentai titles start off with the same scene? It's always in the bedroom with a girl trying to proposition the protagonist while she sits atop him. Then again, probably 80% of all hentai themes done for men run the same way. Why do I keep hoping that the creators of Urotsukidoji, Midnight Panther and Kite will come back and breed quality into our new productions?

Like your generic hentai fare, Booby Life has two brainless girls fighting over an equally idiotic dude. The conclusion is, of course, just as banal as the entire premise of this 2-episode feature. Lots of long, inane dialogue in an attempt to deepen the plot. This is probably one of those RARE times when I'd request for a PWP. If you can't conjure a decent plot, just load it with lots of sex -- not bore me to death with blah blah blah. I nearly fell asleep!

In fairness to this title, however, they do deliver lots of H. You just need to skip many of the useless dialogues to get there. Booby Life (Oppai Life) is available in this store

Art/Animation: 8 Story/Plot: 3 Characters: 5 Sounds: 7 Ecchi Level: 8

Boobalicious

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:22:00 +0000

Genre: Comedy
2005 T-Rex, Milky

Cover Description:
Due to an accident, Wataru has lost his memories. Now he is in America with Rena, and she has promised his parents that she will take care of him until he recovers. Well, she isn't the only one that wants to help him out! Two boobalicious babes from Japan have followed Wataru to America and they too have vowed to find a way to have his memory recovered. The method: making sure he remembers how much of a boob-lover he once was by using their breasts as tools!

(4 episodes)

Boobalicious is available in this store.

I got sleepy. >>> by skysenshi
Forgive me if I may sound incoherent in this review. Boobalicious very nearly put me to sleep. Anyhoo, lemme just type away...

The art is not quite my type. Everyone looks bloated. The pace is pretty slow; good for those who are just starting to get exposed to erotic anime. It starts with softcore h-scenes and gradually progresses to more detailed shots of the characters' anatomies. At times, the sex scenes can get weird although they can also get interesting.

I noticed that the women do everything. Sheesh, if all this dude can do is sit there and receive...might as well just show us toys. He has zero personality. And the women fight over him. Yup, only in cliché male fantasies, ladies, only in cliché male fantasies.

There are some parts that are sweet, the rest are just messing with my head and bordering insulting. Like in episode two, the girls enter a "Big Tits" competition, wherein they must showcase their talents. By that I mean, they need to use their boobs to juggle things, do calligraphy etc. Half of me is amused by the silliness, the other half is aghast at the "depths" of the author's imagination.

Hm. A sudden thought came to mind as I was watching this. Could this have been authored by a straight male or...? Some of the jokes sound like they could've been told by my gay friends during moments when they want to be self-deprecating. That must explain the fascination with huge boobbies. LOL!

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

Itadakimasu

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 04:31:00 +0000

Genre: Josei, Comedy, Romance
2004 Yoshihara Yuki, Shogakukan, Inc.

Skysenshi's Description:
Naeko is a divorcée who works at a bridal salon. While she earns a living by matching couples for marriage, her love life is in shambles. For one, her ex-husband, who is her boss, keeps trying to woo her back. When his younger brother, the dreamy Ouji, enters the scene, mayhem ensues.

Skysenshi's note: Um...like Aisuru Hito, Itadakimasu is only available in German. But it has just recently been licensed, so you may want to check back for updates. In the meantime, you can check out Yuki Yoshihara's available books in this store.

Did Yuki Yoshihara feel guilty for Aisuru Hito? >>> by skysenshi
As Yuki Yoshihara mentioned in her Aisuru Hito end notes, many of her fans wanted Sakiko to be with the younger brother Natsuo instead of the older Chifuyu. This time around, Itadakimasu's protagonist Naeko romances the younger brother Ouji. Well, Ouji looks and acts like Chifuyu so it's like there's not much of a difference when it comes to the protagonists' taste.

I have no complaints, however. Yoshihara was very careful with this one: she did not develop the older brother's personality. Apart from being a playboy, there really isn't something else that can be said about him. Normally, this would be bad. But if you're a mangaka and you don't want your readers to develop feelings for a character that you did not intend to be the protagonist's love match, then this is the way to go about it.

The big difference is that Itadakimsu features an older-woman-younger-man love affair. It tackles a lot of issues that young pumas* undergo. Since Ouji is in high school, she has to compete with a lot of girls his age, while dealing with anti-aging woes. I find this manga to be really sweet, considering that in real life, most pumas get bored of their young boyfriends (because at their age, they're still hot, still considered young and with nearly none of the insecurities that burden cougars and kittens). Ouji is just the ideal man, I swear! And much as many younger women think that men like this don't exist, well...they do. It's just that they really have a taste for older women and sadly, older women don't take guys like Ouji seriously. Ah, the world is crazy! Thank goodness this is manga and Yoshihara has the talent to make things a whole lot interesting.

As per Yoshihara's tradition, Itadakimasu is funny, silly and very very sexual. The men are endearingly conservative and the central character is one horny gal. I just wish TokyoPop would keep licensing Yoshihara's works and not just in German.

*puma = an older woman, in her 20s up to mid 30s, who would date a younger man.
cougar = a woman in her 40s who goes after younger men.
kitten = a younger woman dating an older man.

Art: 9 Story/Plot: 10 Characters: 9 Ecchi Level: 7

Elfen Laid

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:44:00 +0000

Genre: Fantasy
Credits: 2005 Y.O.U.C., Production: Digital Works, Kitty Media

From Amazon.com's Product Description:
Theodora and Helena were the princesses of the elven nation of Burgundy. When King Uranus of Merovech invades, both elf princesses are taken captive. Theodora is a powerful warrior, but Helena's only talents are in the bedroom. To save her sister from Uranus' constant abuse, Theodora vows to lead his armies. But will she follow Uranus' orders to butcher the elven nations?

Hm. >>> by skysenshi
Oh. Gosh. This title can be too bloody, especially when the beginning scene shows how brutal war can be. (I'm thankful I was spared from seeing what war really does to children, but I couldn't say the same thing with regards to women.) I actually heard myself yelp.

The story, though set in a fantasy world reminiscent of Lord of the Rings (for normal people) or Brave Soul (for all the happy H peeps out there), is something I may have not yet encountered in hentaidom before. Here is a story of two sisters, one of them very strong and the other quite fragile. There is an attempt at depth here, and I saw it in Theodora's inner conflict -- between duty to her people and love for her sister. The writers did not just say that she's torn, they actually showed the warring sides of her strength and vulnerability through various symbolisms. The imagery are powerful but subtle at the same time. Transitioning from one scene to the next surprisingly seems to be carefully planned so I have no complaints in this area.

The antagonist is just as conflicted, which causes the plot to go into simple yet interesting twists. It's just so bad that there are only two episodes. There are so many angles that could be developed further.

As for the sex scenes...I had to do a lot of fast forwarding. I hate the very concept of blood in anime such as this, so forgive the prudishness. (I also don't see the need for blood in Theodora's case, since a woman warrior used to the physical rigors of battle would most likely not bleed when losing her virginity.) The details are very well done, though, and it doesn't hurt that the artwork is nice...

I'm aghast to actually realize that I would recommend this title. Just train your hand around the fast forward switch if you're feeling icky about blood. Elfen Laid is available in this store, which offers both new and second-hand copies.

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

Dark Future

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 13:39:00 +0000

Genre: Dark / Genre Bender

Cover Description:
From the public eye it looks like any other ordinary school, however, one club is secretly recruiting girls to make them their personal sex slaves and brainwashing their newly recruited males to enjoy one another. Which club is responsible for these demented activities? How are the other clubs being affected by this? One thing is for sure, the only thing that's left is a dark and hopeless future.

And I thought nothing could shock me. >>> by skysenshi
Volume 1 starts off rather tame...then...

It gets disturbing bit by bit...menstrual blood...Ok, I'm not too sure if men will actually want to see boys lick their combined jizz off a woman's face...then her menstrual blood. And well...the resident S&M Queen do other things that could make a guy scream, "Exit only!!!!!"

I'm speechless.

I somehow...don't know how to react. I've seen so many hentai titles but this one holds the record for so many firsts. In addition to what I've mentioned...there's bondage, piss, enema...I guess, I don't know how to react because I'm at a loss as to what kind of viewers Dark Future is targeting. (Straight men who will endure a bit of yaoi just to get to the gratuitous display of juicy female flesh?)

Ok...now that I've gotten some of my sanity back...I realize that this is a title that aims to be fair. Girls playing with boys (and how!), boys playing with girls. I have to hand it to the artists, though. Dark Future is one of the few hentai offerings wherein I actually appreciate the anatomy. I just had to do a bit of fast forwarding because some scenes can really get downright disgusting. (On the bright side, this isn't the most extreme h-anime I've seen. There was one that was so violent that I didn't last 5 minutes...since I managed to finish Dark Future, that would probably mean that it is still tolerable.)

At first I thought that the protagonists would be some sort of a teenage CSI team. It becomes clear in the middle of the first volume, however, that this is yet another blackmail title. This time, it's about a bunch of depraved students -- both male and female -- that run an orgy organization called the Relaxation Club. Their hobby is gathering private information on their hapless victims before ensnaring them. There is no real storyline here as many of the characters that appear are just remotely related to each other. Dark Future is just really a collection of the victims' encounters with the organization. It was only in volume 2 that it became clear to me: the protagonists are actually the members of the Relaxation Club. Their enemies are the rest of the school population, most specifically, the persistent investigative Publications group.

If you are brave enough, Dark Future is available in this store.

Art/Animation: 10 Story/Plot: 7 Characters: 6 Sounds: 7 Ecchi Level: 10

Hills Have Size, The

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Sun, 23 May 2010 00:01:00 +0000

Genre: Drama
2005 MUSE, Tinker Bell (original creator), Ken-ichi Hamazaki (director)

Cover Description:
Yoji has always been like a brother to his cousin, but all that changes when Yoji witnesses his cousin's wife masturbating one night. Unable to get the image of Kasumi's giant boobs out of his mind, Yoji makes it his mission to satisfy the unfulfilled woman.

Very sweet but... >>> by skysenshi
The Hills Have Size is actually one of those titles that I think has a decent storyline because it tackles a reality that not many people outside of Japan are aware of. I've read an article in Marie Claire magazine about lonely Japanese women visiting sex clinics because their husbands no longer see them as wives. There was one woman who recounted her tale of becoming a mother in her husband's eyes as soon as she gave birth.

This is Kasumi's story. Scorned by a husband who no longer believes she can satisfy him, she turns to sex toys and porn videos. Ryoji witnesses her pleasuring herself and starts obsessing about her. Of course, since this is an erotic anime, we all know he gets her before the first volume ends. This has somewhat of a fairy tale ending, wherein Kasumi recognizes the double-standard set by her husband and she finally ends up in Ryoji's arms. But like all fairy tales, the "lived happily ever after" aspect is really more of an open ending.

I was touched by the story. Truly, I was. There were just a few things that I felt could've been developed further. Like, what is Ryoji's job? He conveniently lives in his cousin's house for some strange, ill-explained reason. If he is going to steal his cousin's wife, he should have the means to live independently. I was also thinking, "This is romantic and all, but what about Kasumi's daughter?" The older woman/younger man thing could probably work if Kasumi didn't have a daughter that seems to have designs, albeit innocent, on Ryoji as early as the first half of the first volume. THAT really bothered me. Not only do I feel that it is inappropriate (the girl looks waaaaaay too young), I think this would've been more effectively delivered had that scene about her waking up her uncle been completely deleted. With that scene there, I keep thinking a lot of alternate scenarios. Who's to say he wouldn't touch Mio when she grows up? All the signs are there.

It also wasn't too clear with me what the characters' relationships are. Sure, it says on the cover that Ryoji and the husband are cousins. But Mio, Kasumi's daughter, calls Ryoji oniichan (big brother). It sounds like an honorific one would give to a parent's or sibling's friend instead of an uncle. And really...what is Ryoji doing in that household???

When it comes to the sex scenes, well, what I actually found odd is that Kasumi and Ryoji can do a lot of weird things and still manage to seem like a very sweet couple. By weird I mean: anal, peeing, pearls up the ass. Conservative (LOL) h-fans need not worry, though. There are lots of conventional things to be found here, like fellatio, regular vaginal penetration and...Ryoji is generous when it comes to cunnilingus. I've already mentioned sex toys and masturbation earlier. There are also scenes wherein Kasumi's sister fantasizes about Ryoji, which is a clever way of going through a harem route without having him cheat on Kasumi. One thing to note about the sex, though. Many of them are stills. It's the beauty of the characters' anatomies that compensate for these.

Oh, and...yeah, Kasumi's breasts aren't hills. They are mountains. I guess the creators were simply making a pun out of Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes...which is a horror movie, by the way, and nothing like the romantic package that this hentai title offers.

The Hills Have Size is available in this store.

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

Viper GTS (OAV)

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Sun, 16 May 2010 12:11:00 +0000

Genre: Fantasy / Comedy
2002 Kitty Media, Media Blasters, Masami Obari (director), P. Warrior (screenplay)

JLIST Product Description:
Media Blaster comes out with a colorful new anime titled, Viper GTS. It's about an underground world of demons, but not the ones we normally associate with. These are not ugly at all! They're succumbae demons who yearn for human spirit. Carrera, Rati, and Mercedes are demons that would do anything even when it means granting any wish in exchange for a soul.

Ogawa, in hopes of summoning a devilish spell to gain vengeance on those he hates calls on super-sexy demon, Carrera. In lieu of any thing he can possibly wish for, Ogawa chooses to be with Carrera. They explode in a fury of euphoric state in a plethora of sexual pleasures.

All the mean while an on-looker of angels wait to descend on these sexually charged demons. Sure there are plans for these demons to cross over to heaven, but at what costs. Find out all the devilish deeds they must face. It's an erotic adventure that'll make even the demons blush. Region 1, NTSC, Japanese and English audio. 90 mins.

(4 episodes)

Viper GTS the animated movie is available in this store.

I am biased...I LOVE IT! >>> by skysenshi
Ohohoho! I know I told you guys last year that I have already become jaded when it comes to animated porn that I would ruin your viewing experience. I think, there is still hope for me. Hehe.

Viper GTS is based on a game of the same name, one that I have actually played and enjoyed to the hilt. I am sad that that game is no longer out in the market, but I was given a pleasant surprise in its stead: the anime verson. I must warn readers, though. Since I enjoyed the game immensely, that might have resulted in me being biased in favor of the anime as well.

Though I don't remember much of the story, some of the scenes are vaguely familiar. I remember that Mercedes and Carrera had a rivalry, though it was mostly just in Mercedes' head. I also remember loving the "Devils versus Angels" idea, with the devils being mischievous but compassionate creatures. The rest of the scenarios seem to be deviations from the game plot. I don't really mind. Come to think of it, the story itself is pure silliness, but with a character as enchanting as Carrera -- who is domineering and submissive at the same time -- a storyteller can get away with a lot of things.

I kind of like the old school artwork of the game compared to this, but the visuals are just as dazzling. Mercedes seems cuter here, more vulnerable. Or it's probably the updated art playing tricks on my senses. The artists paid great attention to the sex scenes, while the writer made sure that the story does not fall too far behind. Then again, legendary hentai bishoujo games -- ones with stories that stand the test of time even when they are no longer manufactured -- are known for that.

What to expect in terms of debauchery? Let's see. The very first scene that greets you is lesbian sex, with Carrera acting as the seme. There's also anal (ugh!), shemales, uncircumcised penises (that's what the boys told me when I asked them why those didn't look like any other anime penises I've seen), and most of the conventional stuff we've come to expect from packages like this.

The best part: Every ending shows the girls in familiar poses. Well...I'm not really sure if I have seen some versions of these in the game before or they did something similar. If you ask me for a flaw, I'll just tell you that I wish for more of these lovely she-devils. Four episodes aren't enough. They just rock too much for that!

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

Ah! Those Bishoujo Games That I Cannot Play!

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Sun, 09 May 2010 00:15:00 +0000

I've actually completed reinstating ALL of the site's hentai bishoujo games last week (May 2, 2010). It was during this time that I had two realizations:

I still had a bunch of bishoujo games to play. They're all stuck in my closet.
The reason why they're stuck in my closet is that...I cannot play them. I am a Mac user.

It has been years since I last played a hentai bishoujo game so it's with great chagrin that I find myself in this position. Regular bishoujo games aren't a problem. I can play them on the PS2 or any ol' DVD player that functions. But the hentai ones? Ah, I'm being marginalized! LOL.

I can't even replay my favorite Casual Romance Club! Boohoohoo.

I am now on the lookout for great b-games that are friendly to Mac users. (Gosh, this is just as frustrating as looking for quality hentai josei titles, a good adult host, and countries that legalize gay marriages. Hegemony and marginalization are everywhere, I tell ya! Haha!)

Well, so far, these are the most recent titles that love us Mac owners:

Fairy Nights and Legend of Fairies (Surprise! Surprise! But these two games are OLD!)
Dream World II: Plagiarism
Creamy Angel Collection
Borderline 2.0 ~ Breathe ~
Borderline 2.0 ~ Frozen Beach ~

Notice anything? Besides Fairy Nights and Legend of Fairies, all the other titles are not even playable. They're merely CG galleries. Lovely drawings, but not interactive. Looks like I have my work cut out for me again. *Sigh*

The good news? Well, for those of us who own hand-held consoles (I have a Nintendo DS and a Sony PSP), there are H titles for these. With me being out of the loop for quite some time, I had to be told by a hentai illustrator, a student of mine, that I could just opt for the PSP or DS games. She -- yes, SHE -- worked on one of those during her internship and is going to lend me her copy next week. I keep forgetting the title and it hasn't been translated to English yet. She warned me that it had low review ratings, though, and even she had a hard time with the gameplay. We'll see how I'll like it...

In any case, these are the sorta mature bishoujo games that piqued my interest:

Well, that's just two. And I'm not even sure to what extent they are mature. I had four students (in Multimedia Portfolio) who worked as hentai illustrators, two of them are male and two of them are female. They told me that they think the reason why most b-games do not work on Macs is that there are no Mac users where they worked. They figured every other company had the same setup. Hm. If that's true...then...bummer.

Finding accessible b-games will now become this site's secondary mission.

(Neko-chan illustration by Niccolo Salonga. This figure was featured in May 2006. Reviving it for this post.)

Aisuru Hito

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Sun, 02 May 2010 05:08:00 +0000

Genre: Josei, Comedy, Romance
2002 Yuki Yoshihara, Shogakukan, Inc.

Skysenshi's Description:
College student Sakiko Kinoshita couldn't help but stalk her professor, Chifuyu Takashou. After all, she's a girl in love. But when Sakiko's mother suddenly finds herself destitute, college becomes an impossibility...so are the thoughts of ever hooking up with her beloved professor. Sakiko decides to take matters into her own hands and hits the streets, determined to sell her body if that would support her schooling. She then encounters sexy womanizer Natsuo...and a wacky love triangle begins.

(4 tankubon)

Skysenshi's shopping notes: I've posted about Yuki Yoshihara in one of my roars before. Back then, I lamented the fact that very few josei titles like this get distributed in English. Well, Aisuru Hito has already been translated in German and it's available in Amazon. One step further: Yuki Yoshihara's Butterflies, Flowers has already been translated in English. We're coming closer to getting recognized, ladies. We have to keep it going!

Yuki Yoshihara is one horny mangaka! >>> by skysenshi
A couple of years ago, I could've sworn that this was one of my favorite ecchi titles. I stopped reading because the manga series hadn't been complete then. When I recently hit Fully Booked (the biggest bookstore in the Philippines, comparable to Singapore's Kinokuniya), however, I was in for a pleasant surprise. Apparently, Aisuru Hito ended just last year!

I began re-reading my previous issues so that I could remember the plot again. Yep, Yoshihara's imagination is as bizarre -- and perverted -- as ever. I just kind of find the love triangle here a bit disturbing, for two reasons: (1) I am no fan of teacher-student relationships; (2) I am no fan of stories that involve siblings fighting over the same girl. The first reason is related to my ethics as a professor and the second one...well, it just seems so incestuous. Ironically enough, the mangaka also explores incestuous yaoi possibilities between the two rivaling brothers through one of the characters' (an aspiring yaoi mangaka) fantasies.

Despite my prudish misgivings about the entire scenario, I could not help but be amazed at Yoshihara's wit. Her characters are both silly and charming at the same time. Although there were many moments when I wanted to bash Sakiko's head in for being such a brattinella -- plus I'd often feel sorry for Natsuo -- I could not stop reading. The dialogues are fresh, hilarious, and more realistic than the numerous shoujo manga I grew up with. Oh, and...she peppers her pages with lots of sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Yoshihara is one horny mangaka, I swear.

So I sat back, told myself that this is payback for all those male-oriented hentai titles that dominate the market, and enjoyed the story. Heck, I had difficulty dealing with Sakiko's skewed morality (and creepy stalker tendencies) at first. I forgave her because her mother is a first class mistress who jumps from one rich man to the next. Who wouldn't be skewed, growing up in that environment? Don't get me wrong, I love her mother, too. Yoshihara's characters are always interesting, no matter how small their roles are.

Beyond the main story, there's something to look forward to at the end of every chapter. In these omake panels, Yoshihara would talk about how much she loves dogs but has funny encounters with her neighbors' cats. Sometimes, she'd also talk about her outlandish ideas for manga stories that end up getting rejected by the publishers. Side-splitting stuff.

Incidentally, Yoshihara mentioned in one of her pages that her fans all preferred Natsuo over Chifuyu and she had a hard time reconciling the ending because of this. I share her fans' feelings. Nevertheless, I adore this mangaka -- hentai imagination and all -- so don't be surprised if I recommend nearly all of her works.

Art: 9 Story/Plot: 10 Characters: 9 Ecchi Level: 7

Let's Talk About Definitions: Um...Hentai?

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:57:00 +0000

A Quick Update
Before I begin my little discussion, I would just like to inform you, dear readers, that I've already recovered ALL the old manga titles (ero games and anime titles to follow). I am so so so so sorry for taking so long. Too many things going on (and this entry is a little bit related to that). The good news is, a lot of the old school hentai graphic novels are available once again in selected online stores. The last time I checked (which is about two years ago?) they weren't being sold anymore. Thing is, some collectors were (finally!) able to let go of their copies so yeah...even if the titles are out of print, they've become available. Whew, I can imagine how hard it is to let go of Hiroyuki Utatane's Temptation. I didn't even want to return my borrowed copy.

Speaking of readables...

Origins: Evolution of the Word "Hentai"
As you all know, I've embarked on yet another journey to insanity recently, as if my adventures with my master's weren't enough of a headache. I'm taking up PhD studies in Communication Research. Information addict that I am (I refuse to use the word "nerd"), I also took up a few master's level cognates, beyond my required PhD units, to supplement my course work. Yes, I'm a nut job that way. One of the interesting subjects I'm taking up during this summer of 2010 is Eng 295: Contemporary Issues and Problems in Language and Literature in Philippine Setting. I nearly dropped the subject when I found out that it was about Linguistics, but I've never dropped a subject in my entire life so...

Anyway, our professor, Dr. Milagros Laurel, made the course interesting. She gave us a lengthy introduction: 3 days to discuss the history of the English language and the history of "Asian Englishes". Yes, if people would bother to research beyond Wikipedia, they might discover a wealth of knowledge from credible and validated research material. The Handbook of World Englishes by Kachru et. al. would be a good place to start. Why is this relevant to this particular website? Well, throughout our class discussions, Dr. Laurel broke all my preconceived notions about the English language, particularly the way Asians use (and have contributed to) it. One is my profound disdain for text language (I mean, heck! You have an entire QWERTY keyboard at your disposal, why type like you're using a cellphone??). She asked me, "If Shakespeare were alive right now, don't you think he would be using text language to relate to the masses?" She had a point. Shakespeare's audience weren't really the royalty. His early stages were set up near the Thames River, where everyone's boots would get filthy from the muddy banks.

Dr. Laurel passed around her copy of the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which showed not only a word's definitions but also the date when a word first came into print and which country was responsible for adding it to the English language. The American word "boondocks" came from the Philippines, the date of origin was during the American occupation here. The word was spelled "bundok" and originally meant "mountain". Of course, American soldiers stationed in the Philippine mountains wouldn't be able to pronounce bundok properly, hence the weird Americanized spelling. The meaning also changed to something provincial or backwards. It is this very same American trait of changing spellings and meanings that had some of the Japanese calling them "Crazy Gaijin". But is this trait exclusive only to Americans?

When it comes to the anime fandom, well, craziness abound. Once upon a time the Japanese word "otaku" was somewhat like an honorific, then its meaning later began to refer to people who are obsessive in a not-so-flattering way. It's now being used again in a somewhat positive (but rather geeky) light. Then there's the issue surrounding the word "hentai". Purists would figuratively crucify anyone who would use "hentai" as a noun referring to "erotic anime", when it's supposed to pertain to a perverted person. I unapologetically use the word "hentai" liberally. You would see this in how I rarely italicize it in my reviews.

Why?

When you say the word "hentai", what comes to mind?

Exactly.

Erotic anime, manga and video games.

We're already talking about semiotics here. That is how the word evolved. And the word "hentai" is now part of the American dictionary, with American usage that has slightly deviated from what the word originally meant. I use it the way thousands of Americans use it. Call me "Crazy Firipin-jin", if you will.

Some puritans are so obsessed with archaic rules that they cannot even begin to realize how dynamic and arbitrary language is. When a language stops being dynamic and arbitrary, it dies. Latin then is still the exact same Latin now. In any country you go to. Latin in the Philippines is the exact same Latin in Spain and the exact same Latin in Italy. It has never changed. That's why it's dead.

I'm already hearing protests of, "But we're teaching people to tolerate what's wrong!" Dears, if the users of Old English could hear us now, they'd be horrified at how bad our grammatical structures are. We say, "Our Father, who art in Heaven." They used to say, "Father Our" and their "heaven" was in plural form. A century ago, it was quite unbecoming to hear the word "awful" from a lady. Now, it's just a regular utterance. "Gay" used to mean "happy"...

And I invent words on almost a monthly basis.

This is also why I can never be a purist: it was never in my nature. I am an interdisciplinary person in every sense of the word -- from my thoughts down to my DNA. I have a mix of Chinese, Malay and Spanish in my blood (that alone already tells me I cannot be puritanical about my heritage). I own six versions of the Bible so I wouldn't get caught up in my parents' debates with other religious groups (this shaped my Gnostic moral convictions when I was growing up). Heck, I'm not even sure what my sexual orientation is! I went into college when I was about 16 or 17 years old, graduated with a BA degree in Social Sciences, majoring in Behavioral Studies. Wasn't content with that so I took up another degree: BS Information Management. Still wasn't content...so after my second higher ed graduation, I took up my master's in Information Management and now...PhD in Communication. My education is a convoluted mix of seemingly unrelated fields. The same is true with my professional background: marketing officer, web designer, web programmer, information architect, game developer, professor, assistant director in the academe, academic curriculum consultant for the Multimedia Industry. Still a convoluted mix of seemingly unrelated fields. Or are they really unrelated? I cannot be an Academic Assistant Director by day and a Communication Research student by night (or three years ago, a web designer on week days and an Information Management student on weekends) without reconciling the variances of these fields. My thinking patterns are based on the frames I form, stemming from these seemingly unrelated fields. They have coalesced in my head. And that, dear folks, is why I can never be a purist.

An interdisciplinary scholar accepts that knowledge can never be knowable in its totality, but can only be grasped through its parts. A simple example: 13 years ago, I met a young girl who was entering the Sailormoon Community knowing only the DiC version of the series. There were so many puritans at that time and they were cruel to those who were not aware of the original Japanese version. Of course, I had never been exposed to the DiC dubbing; we had our own version, which took so long to air so I ended up watching the undubbed and unsubbed originals. The poor girl was ostracized so badly in the community that it was almost traumatic. I explained to her that like everyone else, she was a fan, but that there were other fans who tend to get...err...fanatical in their knowledge that they become intolerant of other cultures and have closed their minds to other possibilities out there. The same can be said for people who are intolerant of grammatical errors, like I used to be (now, I'm so exhausted, I keep catching errors every time I read this). It took the Otaku Fridge Community's diversity to make me realize that not every country had the privilege of learning the English language.

Going back to these notions of "Crazy Gaijins" or "Crazy Firipin-jins", we're not the only ones that pervert another country's language, you know. Everyone else has been doing that since time immemorial. Case in point is this book my sister encountered on another Pinay's blog. It was a Japanese guide to Philippine slang and had an accompanying audio CD. Looks educational, huh? Well, the book starts out that way...until you read further on to find that most of the "slang" are all about sex and contained vulgar phrases that I never imagined would ever appear on print. (Gosh, I don't even use those words! They're just THAT unspeakable!) And in case you think we're all kidding, the blogger provided a link to the book's page in Amazon Japan.

I love my Japanese students and all, but we all have our quirks. This one came from their side of the world. =^.^=

(Neko-chan artwork by Niccolo Salonga, originally posted on the August 2006 front page of my old HN site.)

Hentai Section Revived and Separated

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:31:00 +0000

I never thought I'd see the day AGAIN, when the erotic section of the Otaku Fridge will be separated from the main site. I'm still not going back to calling it Hentai Neko, though. That site has long been sold (2007) and its current owner seems to have a different direction in mind for it.

It's 2010 -- well, as I write this it's only December 14, 2009, but you won't see this post till I launch in January 1, 2010 anyway -- and so many things have happened throughout the entire year that had me turning my life upside down again. The separation was triggered by two things:

Budget constraints. As I have mentioned in the main site, much as I loved tweaking the Wordpress content management system and testing its limits, it seems I have been remiss in tweaking the limits of my own wallet. 2009 was a year of life-altering events: Michael Jackson's untimely demise (plus Francis Magalona's, Cory Aquino's, David Carradine's, Farrah Fawcett's and Brittany Murphy's T.T), Typhoon Ondoy submerging so many of our cities, and the political unrest surrounding the fear that we'll once again be under Martial Law. I never imagined I could actually spend thousands of pesos on people (typhoon victims) that I am not related to and if you think about it, spending so much money on a hobby (maintaining my sites) seems suddenly trivial. So, as you can see, I'm finding a new home in a less sophisticated platform (yet another database migration; I swear, uploading HTML files via FTP was so much simpler). I feel like I've downgraded, technology-wise. Still, the important thing remains: Blogger is free. Not to mention, it's in sync with the rest of my favorite Google applications.
A radical cognate. Many of you who have followed my sites closely might be aware that I am in my second year of PhD studies. The onset of my second year was quite interesting; it was when I took up my first cognate. Cognates are elective subjects that are taken from a college outside of your own. I am studying at the University of the Philippines' College of Mass Communication and I took my first cognate at the College of Social Work and Community Development. The cognates' name? WD227: Gender and Sexuality under Dr. Guy Claudio. I volunteered to report about an article she wrote on Feminism and Pornography and boy, was I shocked. I thought feminists wouldn't want anything to do with pornography, since many believe it objectifies women, but it turns out I was wrong. There is a wing of feminists that declare it a sexual right, having that access to such material.

To make things more interesting, the student who did a similar report after me, narrated the tale of two women: Jenna Jameson (we all know her, of course) and May Ling Su. Both are porn stars but have led starkly different lives. As soon as I got home from class, I Googled May Ling Su and ended up commenting on her website. The woman is surprisingly intelligent -- being a graduate of Ateneo de Manila -- and we managed to discuss socially relevant issues like the Philippines' RH Bill. It was kind of surreal, having an online conversation with a true-blue porn star, but hey, I consider it a scholarly foray into the wilderness. (Although that's about the only thing I can do, since I can't imagine myself doing pornography.)

With these two in mind, how could I not separate the hentai from the non-hentai? If I wish to discuss adult material, including socially relevant topics like reproductive health and sexual rights, I can't very well put it there. Plus, Blogger has a rule about placing warnings on adult sites and I can't have that warning disrupting visitors of my regular anime site.

So the "Roar" is back up and I'm hoping it will expand further. Oh and...I miss seeing the kitty girls I commissioned my friend Nicco Salonga to do in 2006, so I'm bringing them back...as soon as I'm done fishing them out of my old emails. In the meantime, let's just make do with an image I used in July of an unknown year (perhaps 2005?).

Princess Waltz

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:08:00 +0000

GENRE: Bishoujo, Role-Playing, Hentai
PLATFORM: Pentium II or faster PC, Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/Vista
CREDITS: 2005 Zyx, 2008 G-Collections

Description (from the official Princess Waltz website):
Peach Princess and Japanese maker Pulltop are excited to bring you Princess Waltz, a tale of sword and sorcery and an epic romance that bridges space and time, drawing you into a struggle that will take all the forces of Eldhiland and this world combined to emerge triumphant. Hone your skills at the game's innovative card battle system to defeat mysterious minions of darkness, choose your path through the story wisely to avoid peril that lies in wait, and win the hands of the beautiful princesses of Eldhiland!

These are my kind of Princesses!! >>> by Trigon (06.08.2009)
You might think a game called Princess Waltz would be about beautiful princesses and romantic ballroom dancing. You would only be half right. Yes, there are six gorgeous princesses. They are even clad in long, enchanted Dresses complete with a glittering Tiara. However, the Waltz is not a literal dance but a figurative one. It is a dance of blades, a battle of wills, and an ancient, ritualistic conflict to determine the strongest woman in the magical realm of Eldhiland. Some of the battles in Princess Waltz put even the most hardcore action anime to shame!

Princess Waltz is an epic visual novel-style H-game (i.e. clickathon). It is fairly linear, with the player getting no meaningful choices until very late in the game. That said, the story and characters are excellent, drawing you into the intriguing plotlines quickly and never letting go. I found myself looking forward to playing Princess Waltz in the same way I might look forward to reading the next chapter in a good book.

For the vast majority of the game, you play the role of Fukamori Arata, a typical Japanese teenager whose life is changed forever after meeting the mysterious and strangely regal new transfer student, Chris Northfield. After some seemingly chance encounters, Arata finds himself thrust into the middle of the Princess Waltz. The purpose of this ancient ceremony is to determine the woman who would marry the prince, and, more importantly, bear a single son who would become the next Prince and then Emperor.

One of the things I really like about this game is that it is simultaneously familiar yet also interesting. The story set up is typical of your alternate magical world anime or game, yet there are enough twists and turns in the plot to keep your attention and keep you wondering what will happen next. Also, many things that seem like random chance are explained later in the plot, which is a refreshing surprise. If the story does have one flaw, it is that it – like many anime of the same genre – tends toward melodrama at times.

The characters in Princess Waltz are probably the game’s greatest strength. Much like the story, they are both familiar and surprisingly complex. Each has at least one twist in their personality, fighting style, background, or motivations that you might not expect from a character of that archetype. (Princess Suzushiro is my favorite example of this concept.) The main character Arata is probably the least interesting of all, seeing as how he is a complete moron. But even Arata is not as wishy-washy or weak as other harem-anime or H-game heroes. Even if you don’t quite believe someone falling in love with him at first sight, you could see how someone might respect his courage and dedication.

It is the supporting characters that steal the show though. Arata’s lazy and irresponsible foster mother Nanae is hilarious, reminding me fondly of Yukari-sensei from the anime Azumanga Daioh. His older foster sister, Shizuka, is one of my favorite characters. She is wise, serene, strong, and responsible. Oh, and did I mention she is absolutely gorgeous? I still sigh every time I see her image on screen. Arata’s cute childhood friend Nodoka and the other students start off a little annoying, but they quickly grow on you, too.

Generally speaking, the princesses are the coolest characters, though. The hot-blooded and proud Dragon Princess, Angela, is my favorite. Armed with lance and flame, she charges into battle, living only for the fight. She reminds me a little bit of Zaraki Kenpachi from Bleach, except far more refined, and, well, a red haired beauty. There’s also Suzushiro, the Earth Princess, with a small, adorable and polite exterior that belies vast inner strength. The cold, calculating, and clever Steel Princess Liesel is a formidable, merciless foe. Bright and cheerful Liliana, affectionately nicknamed “Lun Lun”, serves as comedy relief for most of the game, but they don’t call her the Princess of the Storm for nothing. The fearsome and savage Beast Princess appears mysteriously toward the end of the game. And finally there is beautiful, white-clad Iris, Princess of the Sword, who inexplicably appears whenever Chris is in danger. The player controls Iris in combat situations. I should mention more about Chris Northfield, the game’s other main character, but I do not want to give away any spoilers. Suffice it to say that Chris is one of the more tragic characters I have seen in a game in a long time.

The game is a strange yet effective mix of the magical girl and shounen action archetypes. Each of the princesses has a magical girl-like transformation sequence where they go from their street clothes to their enchanted Dress, with rousing music and brief but gratuitous nudity. However, the action that is described is much closet to a shounen anime; that is to say, the fights are knock-down, drag out, bloody brawls, complete with magical energy flying about and creatures getting smashed through stone pillars and the like. In other words, it’s awesome! I just wish they showed a little more of the action rather that describing most of the combat in words.

While the duals between Princesses in the Waltz are the best battles, most of the combat in Princess Waltz takes place against creatures called Guardeners. These strange, beast-like creatures guard the world from intruders and attempt to force them back to the world from which they came. Since all the Princesses are from Eldhiland, not Japan, they get attacked by these Guardeners from time to time.

The gameplay of Princess Waltz is sadly its worst feature. As previously stated, it is a clickathon, and although the story and characters are appealing, but it is still not much of a game. Luckily, the interface is solid, with an Auto feature, a Skip feature, a chat log, quick save, quick load, and a menu that allows you to change text speed and Auto speed. A few times, you get to control Iris in combat, which takes place as a fairly simple card battle game. You have the option of playing in Normal Mode or Easy Mode; or, as I like to call them, Easy Mode and Ridiculously Easy Mode. Let’s just say there is not much challenge once you learn the system. The combat would have been much better served with a more traditional RPG battle system, a more interesting card battle system, or even as a fighting game similar to the Street Fighter series.

While this is a bishoujo game, there is really not much ecchi content in Princess Waltz. On any given playthrough, there are three H scenes in the entire game. The story is strong enough that all of the racy content could be removed and the game would still be good. In fact, it might even be better, since the H-scenes seem rather forced and out of place. Nevertheless, the H-scenes are uncensored and reasonably explicit, with lots of bodily fluids flying around, if that’s your cup of tea.

The player does get to make some choices toward the end of the game, basically choosing which Princess he wants to help him out in the enemy stronghold. These choices are important, since they lead to a different final H-scene at the end of the game, and slightly different endings each time. You learn a little more about the princess you choose, sometimes clearing up some ambiguities that seemingly did not make sense previously. (For example, pick Liesel’s ending to get some insight into her personality shift between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.) The best and most complete ending in my opinion is the Beast Princess ending. The six mildly different endings enhance the replay value a little bit.

The graphics and character designs in this game are excellent. You immediately get a feel for each character at first glance. The different character poses and especially their facial expressions are extremely well done. That said, it would have been nice to have some animation rather than still images, especially during the combat and H sequences.

Sound design and music are also very good in this game. Generally speaking, the sound effects were solid and immersive, although sometimes slightly repetitive. The voice acting is top notch across the board, with even the minor characters voicing their roles admirably. The music is also rather good. The only drawback is that there are only 30 different music track and the game is very long, so you will be hearing the same music over and over. My favorite tracks are “Battlefield of Steel” which is the music player during the big Princess duals and “The Princess of the Sword”, the short music clip played during the transformation sequences. I also enjoyed the main vocal tracks, “Chance Meeting in the Moonlight” and “Dissonant Chord”.

I am not sure what I was expecting when I first starting playing Princess Waltz. I suppose my expectations were low, seeing as how it is an H-game and most such games are pretty bad. Well, I am happy to say that Princess Waltz far exceeded my expectations.

Note: This review was sent on April 13, 2009 but was posted on June 8, 2009.

PLAYER STATUS:
DIFFICULTY: Easy
COMPLETION TIME: 15-30 hours
HIGHEST LEVEL ACHIEVED: All endings viewed (including “secret” Nodoka ending)
RATINGS: Gameplay 6; Battle 5; Story 8; Visuals 8; Characters 9; Sounds 8; Ecchi Level 7; Replay Value 4

Lightning Warrior Raidy

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:08:00 +0000

GENRE: Bishoujo, Role-Playing, Hentai
PLATFORM: Pentium II or faster PC, Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/Vista
CREDITS: 2005 Zyx, 2008 G-Collections

Description (from the G-Collections website):
"Whew.... It's a good way off from the village.
...............
So this is the tower that's causing all the problems.
I shouldn't have volunteered for this mission after all..."

I am Raidy, wandering this continent of Else far and wide as an adventurer. I can freely bend the power of thunder to my will, so people have taken to calling me the "Lightning Warrior". Why am I standing here in front of this tower, you ask? The cause lies in the village of Saad that I visited recently. I got there to find it in decay, deserted and transformed almost completely into a ghost town...

Apparently it became that way due to the monsters living in this tower. They'd been stealing away all of the young maidens from the village, and none of the men who went to rescue them ever returned... a harsh and terrible tale. Being who I am I could't hear that story and stand by idle, so now I find myself here, facing the tower...

Lighting Warrior Raidy brings a fresh new look from G-Collections and maker ZyX, famous for titles like Sagara Family and Tsuki - Possession. You take the role of Raidy in this first person RPG dungeon crawl, aiding her on her quest to clear the Cubust tower of the monsters that dwell within and liberate the village of Sadd. Featuring hours of classic 3D RPG-style game play, dozens of beautifully drawn monster girls from artist Kazuma Muramasa, and strong yuri (lesbian) themes, a great erotic RPG adventure you're sure to enjoy!

Might and Magic with boobies? Not Quite. >>> by lensman (05.28.2008)
Lightning Warrior Raidy is definitely the most anticipated Hentai Game title this year. Sales seem to agree with me. Raidy became one of the best selling H-Titles going gold by pre-orders alone. It's fairly understandable though. Raidy is supposed to be a Hentai-RPG, a genre that, here in the english-speaking countries at least, comprises of mainly two games, "Knights of Xentar" and "Brave Soul" both of which are considered solid and highly replayble. Hentai and Fantasy RPG seem to go well together and yet no company is bringing the games over here. So when "Raidy" was announced, the whole of otakudom screamed with joy! Uber-Geeks like myself know that Raidy is essentially a remake of an old game made in the golden days of a computer named PC9800. Lots of Hentai Game making companies got started there by the way, and a google search for "Raidy" and "PC9800" will bring out some very interesting results, like the first 2D games made by a company named Illusion, way before the time of 3D acceleration cards. Raidy was a title that was way above the norm, combining Dungeon-Crawling RPG action with strong Hentai-Visuals. The title was supposedly good enough to spawn a remake and two subsequent sequels. The games were available to Japan but not in here... until now.

So now the game is here, ready to be played and enjoyed. How does it fare to the hype?

Read more to find out.

If you read the story synopsis, you probably know the plot. You are Raidy, a woman warrior with the power to command Thunder. She doesn't know how she got that power, but she used it to get by as an adventurer. During one of her trips she encounters a village where the women and men dissapeared within a tower that appear sometime ago. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to explore the tower, find what happened to the women and the men that went in there, kill the bad guys and get the heck outta there before the smell gets to you.

All in a day's work, right?

That's all there is to the plot by the way. There are no plot twists and no turning points. You find out what's going on, you kill the bad guys, and that's it. I have to say, having been an RPG fan since the days of Final Fantasy I on the NES, it was a bit of a dissapointment. Nevertherless, one can excuse the shallowness of the plot if they realise that Raidy was a title that really didn't expect much of its audience. After all, how much plot twists can the average hentai lover handle. They want tits and tentacles dammit! Not plot twists!

The fact that the company didn't expect much of its audience is also shown by the battle system. There is the "Attack" command, the "Defense" command, the "Spell" command, the "Item" Command, the "Escape" command and that's about it. The "Spell" command only activates Raidy's thunder attack, nothing else. Hence, the battles are overly simple: Just keep attacking, use a spell if the enemy is too powerfull, and heal if necessary. There is really nothing else to it.

At least the fights are fun to look at. ALL the game's enemies are drawn like cute women. Lets say the enemy you are fighting is a Minotaur. What you see before you is a cow-girl... I think you get the picture. Once you defeat the enemy, she gets undressed and takes a sexy pose, like is those "Degraded Hentai Women" types. Yes, I am not kidding.

Like all good dungeon crawlers, you get a whole lot of exploring to do. You have to explore the Dungeon Thoroughly, find the imprissoned girls, find any items hat might help you and THEN fight the boss before you can advance the level. If you try to fight the boss without finding the girls or the secret items you will find yourself watching a Game Over Sequence where Raidy is effortlessly defeated, degraded and sexed up. The whole thing is infuriating if you spend a considerable amount of time leveling up like most RPG players. All the levels in the world aren't going to help you if you don't speak to imprisoned girls properly or if you don't find that secret pair of earrings. So save often...

The problem with the whole exploration aspect of Raidy is that all the places look alike. Even the fake walls that you can pass through, don't have any distinguished features. Which means you will spend a lot of time bumping your head here and there, fighting monsters and feeling lost until you find the map and significantly reducing the frustration factor of the game. The game becomes MUCH easier once you obtain it. The whole "lost" thing does have a purpose though: it allows you to level up significantly so that you can handle the much-harder later stages, where healing up before every battle is necessary if you want to survive. Speaking of healing, there is no "rest" command anywhere, so make sure you save up on those healing potions. You will need them later.

The music in Raidy is fine... for about an hour or so. It's the same music for every stage except the last one, without any variations. It's also short in length, which means it won't be long before you get fed up with it and decided to shut it down and put something more moody on the stereo. The battle and boss themes are nicely made but nothing to shout about. Nebuo Uematsu this is not. The voice acting in the dialogue scenes is good, though I sometimes get the feeling that the Raidy voice actress is not up for it in there.

Where the Raidy voice actress shines is in the Hentai scenes, both the good ones where she acts self-righteously and the bad ones where she screams in pain and pleasure. The hentai scenes themselves are quite well drawn. It's mainly yuri S&M stuff with very little sex inside. There is an orgy scene and a couple of straight sex scenes, but it's fairly straight and nothing unusual. The best Hentai Scene by far is the last one, where you get to choose between the good and the bad endings. I suggest doing the good ending first and then going for the bad one. You will appreciate it more.

Both "Knight of Xentar" and "Brave Soul" had a good replay value. Heck most Hentai Games have a good replay value, what with your trying to find all the alternative paths and CGS and everything. Raidy is no different, right?

Wrong! Unfortunately, Raidy is a one-way game. You go, you explore, meet the girls, find the items, fight the boss, lose once intentionally to get the "Bad End" and then fight him again and win to get the good one and move on. There are no side quest, no alternative paths, apart from the very end which means that you will pretty much get all the CGs and scenes in your first playthrough. Shame...

So, in the end, is Raidy worth the hype? The answer is "most certainly not". It fails to meet the expectations of a an RPG-Playing otaku. Nevertheless, it's worth buying it, if only to give the incentive to the game companies to bring the far more superior sequels here as well.

Xtra Credit Xtreme

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 22:02:00 +0000

Xtra Credit Xtreme
Genre: Blackmail, Romance(??)
Credits: 2002 Discovery, Anime 18

Skysenshi's Description:
Music Professor Miyuki Hara is always bullied by her students. With each passing day she spends in school, she loses her confidence until she ends up wallowing in self-pity. Professor Keiko finds her in such a pathetic state that she offers to help the new teacher get along with her students.

Little does Professor Miyuki know the life of debauchery that awaits her...

I'll ruin this for you... >>> by skysenshi (10.12.2007)
WARNING: This is the first hentai title that I've seen in over a year. And because I now belong to the Academe, mustering any sense of objectivity will be difficult. What I'm about to say isn't going to be nice...

I chanted the words, "It's fiction! It's fiction!" in my head over and over while I was viewing this. Not just because I'm not into teacher-student relationships, for obvious reasons, but also because you're forced to kill your brain cells when faced with h-anime such as this.

The first episode was actually promising, I must admit. Despite the fact that the students were cruel and that Keiko was a schemer, I actually thought that the ring leader, Koh, would be transformed by an overwhelming feeling of tenderness for Miyuki. Or something to that effect. His bullying ends in episode 1, but that's only because episode 2 had a completely different story line. In episode 2, a higher authority takes over the role of master torturer and pimp. More stupid scenarios take place right before the yawning begins. Nothing here is remotely original, they just repackaged it in a more disgusting manner.

(I don't think I need to elaborate why it's stupid for a teacher to allow herself to be used like that in the name of "helping the students". You've read enough from my rants against blackmail themes. What baffles me is why Miyuki doesn't just quit and live in the red light district so that she could earn more. I have never seen her teach in this anime anyway, but I always see something plugged up her ass. She might as well get paid for it. So if I were in Miyuki's shoes and the ugly Headmaster Sugai threatened to fire me if I didn't sleep with him, I'd probably just laugh in his face and move to Ginza pronto.)

Forgive me if I prefer to use the word "hentai" and won't even use the word "erotic" because really...any sense of eroticism flew out the window the moment I saw Professor Miyuki shit her brains out.

Yep, you read right. This is the new generation of hentai, people. Tentacles are now considered outdated, because human excrement is in. Whoever is making up these things seriously needs to get laid. It gets hilarious after this, because one of the later characters actually had his penis injected with silicone to make it lumpy in different areas. It's not always outlandish, though. There are bouts of normalcy here and there, if you can consider threesomes and bondage normal. All in all, the only good thing I can say about Xtra Credit Xtreme is that at least they're a little less detailed when it comes to the fuglier men.

I don't even know why they attempted to put a story in there about Miyuki's fiancé and Koh's reaction about this news. The writers didn't pull through, anyway. An ending where Miyuki slits her throat or turns into a full-time whore would've been a bit more dramatic, given Miyuki's background.

Sigh. I told you I'd ruin this for you.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 9; Story 4; Characters 4; Sounds 5; Ecchi Level 10

Dark Love

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 13:26:00 +0000

Genre: Suspense
Credits: 2005 Teruaki Murakami (director), Osamu Momoi (screenplay), Green Bunny

Cover Description:
Tetsuya's investigation into a luxurious hotel turns over a nest of yakuza and a bizarre orgy cult. On rich silk sheets and velvet chairs, the rich and powerful participate in sex acts so depraved that just witnessing them is likely to turn a man into a monster. But the true purpose of this cult is a pact with evil energies that can literally turn Tetsuya into an inhuman demon.

Who left the fast-forward button on? . >>> by lensman
One of the more disturbing side-effects of being an avid Hentai Watcher for more than ten years, apart from developing a really mean right-cross, is that you reach a point where you are hardly surprised anymore. For instance I am pretty darn sure that Dark Love would have grossed me out a couple of years ago. Lets have a list of the perverse acts that transpire herein, shall we?

- Orgies? Check.
- Bukakke? Check.
- Enemas? Check.
- Golden Showers? Check
- Tentacle Rape? Check.
- Obligatory attack from the white-ooze? Check
- Obligatory Deflowering of Virgins (because every hentai MUST have a brutal deflowering)? Check.
- Obligatory Violation of 13-year-old-looking-girl-who-is-really-very-old-so-that-we-appear-not-to-be-pedos? Check!
- Other Perversions? Check, check and another check.

Oh, to heck with it. If you happen to think of a really disgusting and perverse situation chances are, you will find it here. I know for a fact that my friends were appalled when they watched it. Other people I know freaked out with it. But all I could think of was how cliche and unoriginal the story was: Lets see, we have a nice-guy-with-a-dark-side™ going into a Corrupt-Villa-Full-Of-Girls™. He is nice at first, then the girls get ahold of him and the Pimp-Within™ awakens and starts screwing girls right and left. He then proceeds to seduce a couple of Innocent Cute Virgins ™ in the same amount of time it takes you to read this sentence and turns them into whores after awakening the Inner Slut™. The girls then get gangbanged to make a point. Rinse and Repeat twice. The show ends with the Nice-Guy-Turned-Pimp™ getting pissed off at the master of the villa and turning into the Overfiend (oops, sorry, wrong show). All the girls in the show get tentacle-raped and the guy ends up ruling the place like god intended. Then we get a lame explanation about what the heck is going on and why the whole fuckfest was necessary and everyone lives happily ever after. The End.

You might have noticed from the screenshots that there is a distinct lack of non-H pictures. That's because I couldn't find anything non-hentai that was worth showing. Seriously, there wasn't anything non-sexual that was worth appearing on a website. The story revolves around the sex scenes. There isn't any dialogue worth anything. There isn't any non-sexual action that is worth showing.

Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. The sex scenes are raw and powerful, and unlike 99% of hentai where the women say how much they don't like the situation they're in, in Dark Love they revel in what they are doing. Some people may find it disturbing; others will find it erotic. It all depends on your tastes and stomach. One funny thing about them is that the action occurs so fast that there are times when you think that you've let the fast-forward button on. Seriously. I guess it's understandable, though. How else can you fit 10 sex-scenes in 60 minutes and still say anything that resembles a story?

In Dark Love, short, nice, fluffy fun for the whole family, and I liked it, despite the depravity. I guess that like the girls portrayed in the title, I've gone too far to the dark side.

Dark Love is available in this store.

Art/Animation: 9 Story/Plot: 4 Characters: 5 Sounds: 8 Ecchi Level: 5

Anyone You Can Do...I Can Do Better

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 08:04:00 +0000

Genre: Comedy (or at least, it tries to be)
Credits: 2004 Blue Gale / Digital Works / Y.O.U.C.

Larghaz's Description:
Tutoring a girl with big breasts is what a lot of guys dream about, and that's just what Yusuke was hired to do. But what happens when both mother and daughter start fighting over him? Watch and learn Yusuke handles this delicate situation.

Anyone You Can Do... is available in this store.

Who Ordered the Recycled Frame Special? >>> by Larghaz
One look of the two leading ladies and it's obvious that this title is based on the game "Milk Junkies"; but do not be confused with another title: "Milk Junkie".

The animated version follows the story of the game pretty well. Yusuke, is hired by Reina to be her tutor. Noticing her large breasts, he “blindly” accepts the job. The first time he for an appointment he meets Reina's mother who has even bigger cannonballs than Reina. What happens during the sessions is what you would expect. Yusuke teaches Reina for a few minutes and starts feeling her up. The next visit, Reina's mother seduces him. It boils down to mother and daughter fighting over the same man. Yusuke is then “grudgingly” subjected to a sex battle between the two to decide who he likes more.

Thankfully, these kinds of plots are only found in hentai. It makes me wonder what kind of simpleton comes up with two bimbos fighting over the same person and trying to one-up each other in terms of sex. Granted that a lot of guys would love to be in this situation; they can keep on dreaming. Not only is this plot unbelievable, it is also incredibly predictable. Just by listening to Yusuke's inner dialogues, we know what will happen next.

A character driven plot doesn't do well when the characters are as plain and one sided as these three. Yusuke is the generic pervert who will do anything as long as they have big melons. Reina is your typical mindless girl who will do anything for a guy she likes. The mother is incredibly lax even for someone who sees her daughter having sex with someone she just did.

The art style of the animation tries to follow the game as closely as possible, but comes a bit short. The faces of the characters definitely resemble the ones in the game. The girl's bodies are incredibly well endowed. Exactly what anybody can expect from a title literally translates to "Explosive Bust Mother and Daughter." A good thing for the artists is that both women have the same sizes so they can just change the heads. But the repetitions don't stop there.

If more proof is needed that Vanilla's animators are getting lazier, look no further. You see the same thrusting, rubbing, sucking, and fondling motions in every sex scene for both episodes. The positions are unimaginative and unoriginal; they border on boring. The best scene for this title would be the threesome between the three main characters and even that was half-assed. Screenshots from the game show the characters having sex in places like swimming pools and parks. That would've been a great addition to the poorly done love scenes. Unfortunately we are at the mercy of lazy animators.

The idiotic story, poor art, and redundant love scenes make it difficult to recommend this. People who are desperate to see two women with over sized funbags fighting over a perverse individual who obviously only likes them because of their bodies (see: their boobies) will definitely enjoy this. Fans of the game should definitely stick with the game and its sequel.

Art/Animation: 5 Story/Plot: 4 Characters: 4 Sounds: 4 Ecchi Level: 6

Beat Angel Escalayer

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 08:22:00 +0000

Genre: Drama/Fantasy
Credits: 2002 Alice Soft / Pink Pineapple

Larghaz's Description:
When the forces of Dailust are on the move, it is up to Sayuka Koenji's alter ego Escalayer to protect man kind. But she isn't alone in this fight. Madoka, her robotic "sister" who also acts as her maintenance supervisor, and Kyouhei Yanase are there to help her. Escalayer isn't just your usual Sailor Moon type super heroine; she's a cyborg. Inside her is the battery-like Doki Doki Dynamo that enables her to become Escalayer. The Dynamo needs to be recharged time and again, and to do that Sayuka must get sexually aroused. This is why they have Kyouhei.

Prepare yourself evil, for Sayka Koenji's heart beats stronger and stronger to become the world's protector: Escalayer.

Skysenshi's notes: Whoa! This anime must be making waves, seeing as it has figurines and music DVDs when other hentai titles only have DVDs. These are available here.

If Sailor Moon were hentai... and a Cyborg. >>> by Larghaz
When an H-anime has its own animated opening sequence it can only mean one of two things: either production is high quality or production is high quality but is still garbage. Fortunately for Beat Angel Escalayer, the latter is not the case.

Based on an H-game with the same title. The story revolves around beautiful bespectacled Sayuka Koenji who is a normal school girl. Until the forces of Dailust attack. She then does a Sailor Moon-esque transformation sequence to change into the pink-haired battle maiden Escalayer. What keeps her apart from other beat the enemy type female hero? Her Doki Doki Dynamo, the source of Escalayer's power. Sayuka's "sister", in a manufacturing sense, says the Doki Doki Dynamo has to be charged up to work. This is where Kyouhei Yanase comes in. He's Sayuka's childhood friend and neighbor. He's tasked to make Sayuka "Doki Doki" so that she'll be ready to fight evil. But as the story progresses Dailust reveals their trump card.

The art of Beat Angel Escalayer is just spectacular. The women look fabulous. The backgrounds look like they're taken from non-hentai anime. The animation is also top-of-the-line and truly adds to the overall "umph" that this show delivers.

In terms of sex scenes, Beat Angel Escalayer almost has something for everybody. It has love making, normal rape, tentacle rape, battle rape, hermaphrodites, close-to-lolitas and menage a trois. Most of the scenes have something to do with the story as the make Sayuka feel "Doki Doki" (excited). The genetalia are properly censored so they only cover the organs themselves. But that does not mean that the scenes are any less better, they still retain their intimacy and gravity.

Beat Angel Escalayer has an interesting story based from the original game, incredible art and animation and a well rounded variety of sex scenes that are incorporated into the plot which of course means fun for everyone.

Art/Animation: 5 Story/Plot: 7 Characters: 9 Sounds: 10 Ecchi Level: 9

Wicked Lessons

noreply@blogger.com (Beatrice Margarita Venturanza Lapa) — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 08:38:00 +0000

Title: Wicked Lessons
Genre: Suspense
Credits: Vanilla Series 2005 / Critical Mass

Cover Description:
Revenge never felt so good!

After Noelle's parents die suddenly in an accident, her older stepbrother Shuichi returns to take care of her – in ways she could never have imagined. Noelle is horrified when, on the very night of her parents' funeral, the stepbrother she remembered so fondly cruelly rapes her. Then, without explaining why, Shuichi forces Noelle to transfer to the prestigious Takamine College.

Each night as he ravishes her body, Shuichi pumps Noelle for information about the women on campus. Women like the curvaceously timid Haruko, the sexually talented Shirone, and the beautiful blond-haired bombshell Elena... Women who will be able to satisfy his insatiable desires – and provide him with the information he needs to avenge the death of his mother.

Wicked Lessons is sometimes available in this store. For other titles, check out these selections.

Tragic step siblings. >>> by skysenshi

This is probably like every other perverted family story you'll encounter. Dark secrets abound, although you'll pretty much guess what's going on. You, the viewer, get to "solve" who raped and killed whom...chase all the leads towards the cause of Shuichi's mother's death and eventually wring justice for your family’s memory. Despite the fact that this isn't a comedy, you may just find amusement from this title's premise: New professor starts ravishing every other girl in the campus to get to the bottom of his personal mystery. But then he encounters...Acid Pussy™!

Seriously now, for the first 53 minutes of Wicked Lessons, there's nothing much in terms of plot that a veteran hentai fan has not encountered yet. Even the sex scenes are just your standard H fare — blow jobs, dildos, kendo swords (which substituted for the usual mop handle this time), blackmail and other common h-anime methods. And like every other standard H fare, the rape victims start clamoring for the protagonist's cock five seconds after he violates them. He also manages to turn the tables on three campus bullies, which would probably fill the fantasies of men who had been tormented by stronger girls when they were still in school.

The last 4 minutes, however, salvages what could've been another forgettable title. It's not a groundbreaking ending, but it's bittersweet. Frankly — because I had become one cynical bitch when it comes to hentai — I didn't really expect Wicked Lessons to end this way.

Moving to the artwork and animation, Shuichi looks good. The females, with the exception of dark-haired Shirone, need a bit of improvement. Not a bad hentai package overall, but I suppose it just needs a few more episodes in order to help flesh out the characters further.

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