Toki-iro Kaima

This OVA is bizarre and is something that needs to be experienced ("seen" is too light a word) to believe. From what information I've been able to gather about its release, it seems that each episode of the "Toki-iro Kaima" OVA was bundled with a corresponding manga volume and CD single. The idea was that you first read the manga, then watch the OVA, and then conclude your "experience" by listening to the CD. This set of 3 mediums of entertainment was branded as an "Original Comic Video," and "Toki-iro Kaima" appears to be the only "Original Comic Video" that was ever made.

As the OVA ... itself is only one-third of this equation, it doesn't work as a standalone piece. It's not so much an adaptation, or even advertisement of the manga, as it is a recap of it. It certainly tells a story — it's not a music video or compilation of images like "Cipher the Video" or "Milk House Dreaming" — but only the major scenes are featured in the OVA. It is assumed that the viewer has already read the manga and knows the characters and can use their memory to fill in the gaps.

Despite the OVA's title, it actually covers content from the prequel manga, "Aoi Youma-tachi," as well. The gist of both of these manga is that there are high-ranking spirits called "youma" and low-ranking ones called "kaima." The main characters of the prequel manga are born between a youma (a dragon spirit) and a human, and in the sequel manga, the child of one of the main characters has human, youma and kaima blood. These characters get attacked by either the youma or kaima, depending on the situation. As one would guess, the main characters also have special powers that they use to fight their attackers.

Speaking of the manga brings me to another odd point about this OVA: the manga author's heavy involvement. The mangaka, Wayu Suzumiya, is credited as the director, scriptwriter, one of the character designers, theme song lyric writer, theme song performer, and voice actor for this anime. In the next episode previews at the end of each OVA, characters even break the fourth wall to talk to her. Ex: "Suzumiya-sensei, what's going to happen to me in the next episode?" etc. The final episode has a short extra anime at the end that introduces the author as a character, with one scene showing another staff member praising Suzumiya for her performance of the OVA's theme songs, and another that shows her wanting to skip out on writing manga drafts. There's a long message signed by her at the very end thanking the viewers and particularly the staff for their support, noting that it was her "directorial debut" and she caused a lot of trouble for the staff. She also states that the production schedule was intense and she was worried that they wouldn't be able to finish in time. I've seen some anime with similar messages at the end before, but never to this extent. It added a uniquely personal touch to the OVA. And how many other OVAs are out there that were directed by manga authors?

That brings me to the next point: the technical aspects of this OVA. Judging by the direction of this OVA, I think I can understand why most manga authors don't moonlight as directors. The pacing and scene transitions are bad, and there are awkward shots galore. But the worst part of this OVA, and what I will remember most about it, is the dialogue. The dialogue in "Toki-iro Kaima" is, bar none, the most terrible I've ever heard in an anime. There is no subbed version available, but the conversations are so odd that even if there were subs, viewers would probably think they were machine translated or randomly generated. As an example, here is a roughly translated example of a conversation between two cousins that have romantic feelings for each other (we'll get into that aspect later):

Boy: Don't worry. I don't like girls who weigh more than I do.
Girl: It's only about the difference of one hamburger!
Boy: Oh, do hamburgers these days weigh 1 or 2 kilograms?
Girl: Why do you always have to be like this?! I hate you! *runs out of the room*
Boy: *sitting in the dark in an empty room* Thank you.

All four episodes are full of awkward conversations like this. There are even some that are so casually explicit that they made me do a double take, like this exchange between a mother and daughter who are waiting for the son (brother), who is late in coming home for dinner:

Sister: Where is (her brother)? I bet he's having sex right now!
Mother: Well, as long as I don't become a grandmother, I'm OK with that.

And then there's this gem of cringe, between one of the main characters and a mysterious female transfer student, who, mid-conversation, suddenly bites the main character in the arm and sucks his blood:

Weirdo: I'm sorry; did that hurt? I do that without thinking to people I like.
Main character: That's a dumb habit.
Weirdo: Is it? *licks lips*

The dialogue goes beyond being merely cliche or poorly written; it's on a whole other level. I wouldn't venture to say it's in the "so bad it's good" territory, though, because at least the dialogue would be enjoyable if it were. It's almost like an AI or an alien learned how to write conversations by watching a bunch of anime, and this was the output. It all sounds vaguely non-human.

I could go on longer about the dialogue, but I think I've made my point, so I will move ahead to cover the other aspects. The character designs are generic — nothing special. The animation is not good, but I've seen worse. The voice acting is decent, but it's wasted on the bad dialogue. The music is... not bad. The background music is done by Kaoru Wada, a well-known composer who created the iconic soundtrack for "Inuyasha," amongst others. I believe this was the first anime he scored. While relatively unrefined at this stage, the music is reminiscent of his later works. The theme music, as mentioned, is largely written and sung by the mangaka, at times with duets with male singers/voice actors. These songs aren't bad, but sometimes they don't fit the scenes they're in that well. (In addition to ending themes, some of the songs are inserts.)

A brief note about the plot: since this wasn't intended to be viewed independently of the manga, it's hard to evaluate. I will say that despite being disjointed and lacking information, the plot does go from point A to point B, and the story is generic enough that it's not difficult to follow along and predict what's going to happen. Since the runtime of each episode is only 20 minutes, the episodes are relatively easy to digest, but neither the story nor the characters are that interesting.

As for objectionable content, there is surprisingly plenty. There's a sex scene involving a teacher and her underage student, there's a (very unnecessary) nude scene of a teenage girl taking a shower, and there are a number of spoken lines in the OVA referencing sexual content. In episodes 3 and 4, we are introduced to 2 cousins who are living together, and they are heavily hinted at being attracted romantically to each other, and are put in a suggestive position at one point. There is violence, but not as much as one would expect in an OVA like this. There are a couple of Go Nagai-esque demon transformations, some blood, some background characters getting killed off-screen, etc. But most of the demons just disintegrate when the main character looks at them (seriously), so the grotesque aspects are kept to a minimum.

This was a difficult OVA to rate due to its nature. As something to enjoy for plot, animation or character development, this gets a hard pass. The objectionable content also makes this hard to recommend to a general audience. But if you want to watch something one-of-a-kind — a supplement to a manga that literally has the mangaka's name written all over it, and unbelievably strange dialogue, then this is a must see.