Shimai Ningyou

With their father working as a priest in the royal capital, Lester Clieford and his sister Mith have been living alone while attending school in a small neighboring town. Unfortunately for these two, fate has not been kind. Not only did they lose their mother at an early age, but Mith has been afflicted with a strange disease that has been weakening her over the past few years. That dynamic may be what formed the secret love that exists between these two, and even though they may hide it from one another they’re not fooling anyone, not even their classmates. That’s all about to change ... after her illness takes a turn for the worst against her already fragile body. What’s a guy to do if he loses not only his mother but his sister as well? I suppose it’s not called Necromancer for nothing…

Of course, as we all know, that route isn’t exactly all sunshine and rainbows. Bringing someone back from the dead is tough, and if you aren’t selling your soul to the devil you’re sacrificing other people to satisfy your own twisted ends. When Lester summons a sexy nymph to carry out the ceremony, she wants not only a “taste of his soul,” but also a virgin sacrifice. This doesn’t jive too well with Lester, who just wants his sister back but doesn’t want to do an equivalent exchange, so she concedes that the blood of a virgin will work just as well. That’s where the poor and unsuspecting Lady Pusel comes into the picture. She’s a girl of noble blood who recently transferred to his school and quickly befriended him due to their similar social status. Looking back I’m sure she regrets that move as she’s unwillingly restrained and violated by a desperate Lester who just wants his sister back. The best part of all, at least for Lester and his sister, is that once all the forced sex and virginity stealing is over with; Mith’s spirit will have a whole new body to inhabit. Thus circumventing any of that pesky related by blood business.

At only one episode in length, Necromancer is a surprisingly self-contained OVA that actually starts and concludes its entire storyline in the short time it’s given. This keeps you from running into the always annoying “to be continued” razzmatazz that never quite materializes and also keeps the pace from dragging. Given those two pluses, Necromancer actually doesn’t turn out too shabby. Its medieval setting in a new world of mystery and magic gives it a solid foundation aside from the infrequent sex scenes that really only show up towards the end. Naturally it doesn’t really have time to develop much given its short duration, but what we do get is enjoyable enough to keep us interested as much when they aren’t having sex as when they are. Well, at least it’s close anyway.

Even though the sex scenes are more sporadic than one may prefer, the ones you do get are fairly well done. At the start of the episode you basically have a couple instances of students having a little fun on school grounds, but as the OVA comes to its climax things get much more fun. Between Lester sexing up the lustful demon and going at it with the unwilling (at first of course) Lady Pusel, it does give us enough of an exciting time to make it all worthwhile. That is, as long as you don’t find the inconsistencies in the finer details and character designs too distracting. The animation stays about average throughout though, so it shouldn’t be doing much for you either way. What really irked me with this release is that, given there is no English dub; I am forced to watch their mangled subtitles without any recourse. With misspelled words galore, you have to wonder if anyone actually proofread this thing at all. “Good, who fever is down.” O.o

Aside from a few problems, Necromancer is a fun little title with better than expected production quality and a couple sex scenes that really bring the whole thing together. The subtitle mistakes are annoying yes, but they don’t really inhibit one’s enjoyment, and the inclusion of some nice bits of music really serve to round out this release as one of higher substance and quality than not.