Jan 20, 2011
Increasingly often of late, after watching hentai, I find myself asking, "What was the point of it all?" Of course, there's nobody around to give me an answer, so I just make something up on the spot. Most of the time, the answer is the sex. Other, rarer times, the answer is the story or the characters. And then there are the times when I just shake my head, unable to conjure up a decent answer.
Debts of Desire is an example of the lattermost. Its appalling visual presentation utterly destroys its sex appeal, and its inability to link events together
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in a logical way makes the feeble attempt at a story into a joke. Yet despite this, Debts of Desire is not strictly an abominable mess. Sure, it's pathetic, but it's not a TOTAL failure. Sometimes it's amusing to watch. Sometimes it's grippingly dark. And, every once in a while, some character acts in a way that seems surprisingly real. Most of the time, though, it's just exactly what you've seen before, only more poorly executed. MUCH more poorly executed.
Debts of Desire takes a simple and often-used idea in hentai - blackmail - and tosses it randomly up into the air, just waiting for it to fall...somewhere. Anywhere. So here's the low-down on the story:
Story (3/10):
Masaki is cramping his rich dad's style, so his dad threatens to disown him unless he can do something competently for once in his life. His father gives him the task of collecting on some old debts. This gives Masaki a BRILLIANT idea: he can blackmail girls at his school into sex by waving their parents' unpayable debts in their faces!
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I have no idea how this is supposed to accomplish Masaki's task. I don't even think he plans to, I don't know, condition them into sex slaves to be sold to repay their parents' debts. I've seen other hentai do something like that. Debts of Desire is not other hentai; it does not seem to have that kind of foresight. That is kinda telling of how bad the plot of Debts of Desire is.
Anyways, his maid agrees that this idea is GREAT, and he proceeds to blackmail one girl into sex, and then he runs into a childhood friend whom he...doesn't really blackmail into sex. He kinda guilts her into it. Then he tries to more-or-less-gradually subordinate these girls into his obedient slaves. And then the ending. Oh boy the ending. I'm not going to spoil it, but it comes kinda out of nowhere, starts to give you a warm, fuzzy feeling of satisfaction, and then resolves strangely. Or not. You're probably already familiar with anime's special talent for endings. In any case, it's the most amusing part of this title. Okay, pretty much the only amusing part of this title.
If Debts of Desire is about anything (deeper than blackmailing girls into sex, that is), then it's about how being a jerk will come back to bite you (pun intended, but you'll only get it if you watch). Unfortunately, it is incapable of establishing any sort of thematic groundwork more subtle than yelling: "it happens, so watch out!" I could perhaps argue that it's a look at how rape can wreck a person, but the second episode tosses that perspective out, turning the case into sex-you-didn't-know-you-wanted. Debts of Desire seems to have a problem committing itself to anything, be it theme or plot or even mood.
Character (5/10):
The main character is similarly erratic. One thing can be said, though: he is an unlikable, manipulative jerk. This does not make him fun to watch; in fact, it makes him hard to tolerate. He will play any role to get sex with as little resistance as possible, but he doesn't do this in a way that is remotely clever. He is not smart. In fact, it's possible that his plan makes no sense because HE never thought it through that far. As in-character as that would be, I hesitate to credit the narrative with that kind of...complexity.
There are a few other characters, with little to say about any of them. The stars of the sex of Debts of Desire are a blonde-twintail childhood friend character (Mai) who will do anything to help her love, and a cheerful, brown-haired beauty (Mizuki) whom Masaki blackmails. Mizuki is the most well-developed character in this title; she goes so far as to TELL us about part of her personality! Strangely, though, what struck me most about her was her sense of resolve (an episode 1 exclusive feature!). Also, the final scene of episode 1, which I interpreted as her coming to realize the full weight of her situation. This scene almost managed to say something thoughtful. It lasted for about 2 seconds, and then the thought was abandoned.
And then there's the maid. Best character in this title by FAR. This will only become apparent right before the very end.
I guess I should talk about the sex. Hentai, sex, seems relevant. But first, you need to know something about how the show looks.
Art (2/10):
Debts of Desire looks terrible. And that may be a compliment.
Debts of Desire has only three visual aspects that are passable: line-work, colors, background art. None of these are very good, but they at least aren't bad. The character designs would be passable as well, except that facial designs are hideously reused even among the main players, and there are just...problems, not the least of which is how frequently the characters go off-model. Cinematography? Debts of Desire doesn't know the meaning of the word. Animation? Only in the vaguest sense. Debts of Desire uses every, I repeat, EVERY animation shortcut in the book, almost at every opportunity. Panning? Check. Talking heads? Check. Minimal movement? Check. Minimal detail? Check. Looping? Check. Repeated footage? Check. Sliding images to replace motion? Check again.
The sex scenes improve on one of these aspects just a tad: cinematography. We actually get some significant angle shots! Other than that, the sex is totally uninteresting. All the shortcuts mentioned above can be seen in the sex. One particularly jarring example is that many times, even in full-body shots during sex, large segments of the characters' bodies would remain motionless while others move. This looks stupid, and it just MURDERS the sexiness. So, what about the composition of the sex itself? Boring, generally. It's hard to describe the sex positioning, since we are given such limited camera shots. The second episode improves on this by occasionally zooming the camera out far enough and for a great enough length of time to kind of show off the full positioning. The notable exception is the final sex scene, which has so much movement, so many full-body shots, and so many different positions that it might be mistaken for a scene from a hentai of MIDDLING quality. It's still looped to the end of the earth and back, but wow, what a difference. The animators must have really loved Mai.
Anyways, as for type of sex, there's a wide variety. Vanilla, cosplay, bondage, toys, masturbation, oral, anal...pretty diverse, but none of it particularly interesting due to the poor quality of the presentation. As I implied, the genitalia are not drawn with much detail at all, and bodily fluids are not as...forthcoming as they are in more recent productions. In terms of consensuality, Debts of Desire is all over the map, but I'd say generally dubious or ambiguous.
Sound (6/10):
What little strength the sex scenes have is provided mostly by the voice acting, which is, as far as I can tell, pretty good. Nothing extraordinary, though. It's just that I noticed that the voices are pretty expressive. There aren't a lot of moans and such during sex, but there's a good bit of heavy breathing, and a fair amount of talking. The sound effects were generally weak. Really weak. The only thing I remember about the background music is that I occasionally used it to figure out if a sex scene was intended to be creepy or happy or sad or whatever.
Overall (3/10):
Debts of Desire is not a hentai that I think is terrible by merit of being utterly abhorrent in some respects but decent in others. Rather, Debts of Desire is just pretty bad all around. It fails as erotica. It fails as porn. It fails as a story. It fails as entertainment.
It's just not worth your time, unless you really want to either A) figure out what's up with the ending and the maid, or B) understand that pun I made earlier when trying (and failing) to talk about themes. If you want a blackmail hentai, try After Class Lesson. They kinda play out the same way, but After Class Lesson has a larger cast, more explicit sex, and, most importantly of all, way, way better art.
Erodude's Righteous Final Judgment: Avoid. There are just too many better hentai.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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