Tropical Kiss

This H-Anime is rather story and character oriented, which would be fine if this was a regular anime, but it's an adult anime. The actual sex scenes that are in it (about 20 minutes into it) are pretty decent, good animation and very, very nice character design. It's pretty straight forward soft material so don't expect anything crazy. I think this H-anime would be better if they focused more on the sex rather then the story. There's a reason most of us are watching an H-Anime instead of a regular anime.

Overall though it's still pretty decent and worth watching and the ... few sex scenes it did have were quality.

8/10

The story itself has sense other than other hentai movies which focuses mainly on the sex rather than putting sense in the story as well.. I find this movie very interesting and it stands out because it's 50% story and 50% Sex so it's well balanced and good.

My first review, reviesed after watching ep2.

This is a 2-ep Hentai series, presented in omnibus format (1ep for each selected heroine).

Plot/Pacing 8/10

A relatively decent plot for a Hentai. Also, a good balance between plot and H-scenes. Gotta love some of the antics that the girls plan. Thankfully, the plot and events is different enough for the different heroines. Some of the pacing is obviously rushed, due to the short format.

Art 7.5/10

... Good overall, but some derps. Rant ahead:

For example, there’s inconsistency in camera angles and object inclusion (a bamboo tree) on an open deck area. Also length inconsistency when Hinata’s hair is tied vs untied. Some of the building interiors are unexpected colours. There is also the usual inconsistency in bust sizes depending on how much clothes the person is wearing.

Soundtrack/Songs 7/10

Your usual light pop/electronica for BGM and cheerful cookie-cutter stuff with multiple female VAs for the ED. Nothing too special

Character Design 8/10

Good character design, although I thought some characters could be axed because they were too similar and didn’t do much.

Some “breaking the 4th wall”
“ou nou! I didn’t get enough screen time!”
something about NEETs

Overall 7.5/10

One of the slightly better H-animes. Suggested watching for this genre.

Surprisingly, despite being a major ecchi fan, I haven't really watched much hentai. I decided to give this a try though after seeing a random MAL post about it and the title intrigued me a bit.

Some reviewers here are complaining that the hentai focused a little too much on the story and not enough on the sex. The way it looked, from my perspective, was not so much that there isn't enough sex in this, but more that they spaced it out a lot. So the first fifteen minutes of each episode usually does not have a sex scene in it. But then the last ... fifteen minutes will have like 4 or 5 in quick succession. Most of the sex scenes are fairly short, you won't have 5-10 minutes of thrusting before the characters finish. I'd say most of the sex scenes are rather 1-3 minutes long.

The artstyle, angles, and clothing are one area where I feel that this hentai stands out. The skirts are kept very short with the girls having relatively long legs. This gives plenty of opportunities for clear panty shots and compromising positions, especially during foreplay sequences.

Which leads me to another thing I liked about this hentai a lot. I've complained before that a lot of porn out there has no foreplay whatsoever. And I do wish this hentai lingered on the foreplay a little longer, but what we do get is still pretty good.

Another thing I liked a lot about this hentai is that its all very sweet. I suppose the name "Tropical Kiss" is a pretty good indication of that. But there's actually a good bit of sweet moe moments in this hentai too along with an overall cheerful and light-hearted atmosphere to go along with the resort, tropical, beach vibe of Aloha, the place where the characters are located. I'm also not really a fan of extreme kinds of porn that try to freak you out, so I appreciated the vanilla, more softcore nature of this hentai.

I'd say perhaps the easiest way to describe Tropical Kiss is that its a hentai made for ecchi fans. The vibe of this reminded me a bit of Kiss X Sis, which is one of my personal favorite animes. So if you tend to enjoy softcore over the hard stuff, I'd definitely recommend giving Tropical Kiss a try.

Note : The series order on hanime(https://members.hanime.tv/videos/hentai/tropical-kiss-ova-1) in my opinion makes more sense from 3 → 2 →1 narratively.

If you open up the Beginner’s Handbook to Hentai, under “Good Hentai” you will most definitely see Tropical Kiss listed amongst them. While on the surface, Tropical Kiss seems to be a mediocre hentai standing solely on the pillar of Collaboration Works pedigree and production quality, however you’d be a fool to believe Tropical Kiss is the same as all other Collaboration Works such as Mankitsu Happening or Eroge!. While Tropical Kiss is up to par with other works in its producer’s catalog, where it shines is ... in the storyline and character relationships providing much more depth than those mentioned previously. I wholeheartedly accept that many only look at hentai as nothing more than ammunition for their meat cannons however hentai is still art, or at the very least entertainment, and thus I give much more credit to engaging hentai that keeps me postfap.

Story : 8

While this show is no Euphoria with its winding and convoluted plot, it certainly is nothing less than great storytelling. Tropical Kiss gets massive props for taking the risk of not making their entire show a montage of sex interspersed with paper thin plot threads to create the illusion of a cohesive plot which is rather brave when the mere thought of a hentai that isn’t all about sex can send many horned up degenerates reeling.

Tropical Kiss follows our typical MC-kun as he meets various girls he has had relations with in the past with each episode focusing on his relationship with each girl. While the other characters also reveal an interest in our MC-kun, they’re routes are not explored due to budgetary constraints however keeping faithful to the source VN they are portrayed as viable routes for our MC-kun to conquer. This decision to focus on individual routes rather than balancing multiple routes in each episode was a critical one in the success of this show as we have much more time to become attached to each girl through dialogue and flashbacks as well as general character interaction that exposits a great deal about MC-kun’s past experiences with each girl while withholding certain bits of information that trickles out as each episode progresses until we fully understand the relationship between MC-kun and the girl. This approach leads to a compelling narrative which eggs the viewer on to keep watching and to fully uncover the past with each girl. While the narrative sags in the second episode, the bulk of the narrative draw this show has comes from the first and last episode which delivers in spades and sated my thirst for compelling character development.

Animation and Art : 8

As expected of Collaboration Works, Tropical Kiss keeps up great animation and art not only during sex scenes but also in all other scenes with visual gags and important character scenes.
While a few motions seem recycled, for the most part the motions feel like a breath of fresh air with more or less realistic body proportions and well designed characters reminiscent of other Collaboration Works hentai. Not much to be said except that the animation is solid with great aesthetics to boot.


Dialogue and Character : 8

The strong suit of this show, that puts it above other similar hentai, is the character development and relationships which I gushed over in the Story section. Our character backgrounds are established rather efficiently and through the dialogue we naturally understand the character dynamics of the show. Towards the end of each episode, the prevalent theme of the past is reflected upon by the characters and through their more recent interactions we see real growth from the characters apparent in their newfound voices and actions.

MC-kun is as likeable as any hentai MC can be, breaking the mould of hentai MC’s with a bold move to cut off his naturally eye covering bangs. Truly a spectacle to see a hentai MC’s eyes but this is the new world we are living in. While not being anything remarkable, he isn’t some freaky sadist or an ugly bastard so he is more than satisfactory as hentai MC’s go.

On the other hand, the girls in the series reflect the more complex side of character relationships and instead of each girl being placed in a box like ‘Tsundere’ or ‘Yandere’, they’re defined by their previous relationship with MC and the past complications they’ve experienced resulting in more depth from a hentai than you’d expect.

Comedy : 8

You don’t really expect to be laughing in a hentai but this show manages a couple laughs here and there, especially in the 2nd episode.The girls competing for MC-kun always result in back and forth banter between them, strengthened by the chemistry between the characters results in the romcom type comedy that is pretty enjoyable.The comedy knows when to come into focus, sit in the background or disperse entirely according to the tone of different scenes making the viewer more invested in more serious scenes that develop the characters. Comedically where Tropical Kiss shines is in it’s wackier situations that serve as side plots in an episode that they try to normalize all the while adding to the ridiculousness such as Matsuri’s determination to fuck her way out of obesity and diabetes or the iconic water fight where balls exploded and clothes come off.

Conclusion

Overall Tropical Kiss truly shows strength in it’s restraint, not adding any gratuitous sex scenes while prioritizing a narrative that uncovers the true nature between our main characters while taking the time to focus on each with their own episodes. In terms of humor, the show is not a stand out however it gets some chuckles here and there which makes you stay postfap or even prefap, knowing it’s place in the show as to when it is and isn’t needed in a scene. The characters are well done and while the story is nothing special it’s still a hell of a lot more interesting than your typical hentai plot. Tropical Kiss is a fairly good hentai that stands high on by mastering the fundamentals while slightly shaking things up resulting in a safe bet when you need to get it going, there is no rape or ugly bastards or piss or shit so by all hentai standards you won’t get traumatized.

Well this is funny. My second review in MAL is a hentai. That's saying something. Oh well, here we go.


Story: 6 (Fair)
Pretty decent. Nothing out of the ordinary. It's hentai after all. We didn't come here to be emerge in a good story. The story of Tropical Kiss is straight forward. It's not bad, but not very good either. It's serviceable for the actual "plot".


ART: 8 (Very Good)
It's one of those hentaies that has a good animation when delivering the "plot". It's not the generic loop animation that most hentaies would do to save up time or effort which makes them boring. This one ... though, the "plot" is interesting and money shots are well executed.

The only complain that I have is the amount of plot present (especially in episode 3 having just 1 segment or 2 if you count the epilogue) or some scenes are way to fast for you to fully see the "plot" happening (episode 1 "plot montage"). Yeah, we want more of that well animated "plot", please.


Sound: 7 (Good)
Good. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. The music is fine. Sound effects are OK as well. I couldn't remember anything that would put you off regarding the sound design (unless you don't like the voice actress, but I doubt that).


Character: 8 (Very Good)
Each episode is self-contained and portrays a specific route based on the visual novel. Meaning each episode will lean towards a specific girl to progress the "plot".

The girls here falls on anime stereotypes. If you don't like the stereotypes, you're not gonna like this one. And each girl's design matches their stereotypes (of course, why wouldn't they).

The minor complain that I have is two girls having similar "vibrant" hair color that got me confused a bit. The only thing to distinguish them is by hair style, mannerism and of course voice acting. Again, a minor complain. I like both of them.


Enjoyment: 8 (Very Good)
Yes, I did enjoy Tropical Kiss for what it is. I just wish there were more episodes or a bit more plot.


If you like a decently animated hentai then go watch this one.