Kara no Shoujo

Reiji is a private detective. One day, he receives a strange offer from a girl, "Please look for... me. True me." At that time, a series of abnormal murder cases happen and Reiji is offered to investigate it as well. There is a girls' high school Yukari, Reiji's younger sister, goes and two female students are missing. Tokio, vice principal of the school, offers Reiji to search for them. As a result, Reiji receives three offers at the same time. To collect information, he starts working at the school in disguise and meets Toko, who asked him to look for real her before. "Hi, nice to see you again, sir." The killing never stops.... A spiral of tragedy.... What breaks through this tragic condition might be a girl's smile....

(Source: Himeya Shop)

Kuchiki, Touko Main

Aji, Sanma Japanese

Tokisaka, Reiji Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Tokisaka, Yukari Main

Mizusawa, Kei Japanese

Tsukishima, Orihime Main

Mizusawa, Kei Japanese

Yosomiya, Tsuzuriko Supporting

Takashiro, Shuugo Supporting

Mizuhara, Touko Supporting

Yoshida, Miumi Japanese

Takashiro, Natsume Supporting

Tanaka, Ryouko Japanese

Stella, Maris Supporting

Yasuda, Mio Japanese

Hazuki, Kyouko Supporting

Kawaragi, Shiho Japanese

Hamasaki, Daigo Producer

Misumi, Ran Director, Storyboard

Sekimachi, Taifuu Script

Shimotsuki, Haruka Theme Song Performance

Reviews

Feb 28, 2012

superflatchest

Mixed Feelings

Coming into “Kara no Shoujo” (no pun intended), I had very little experience with hentai and its ilk. Aside from a few amateur doujins and the Bible Black series, I haven’t really watched or read very many hentai. In short, I’m not well-versed in the finer nuances of the genre. My hentai rating system, if I were to have one, would consist of two options: “Got a boner” and “did not get a boner”. Incidentally, if I had to give this series a score, it would be “half a chub”. With that being said, I do have some experience with watching anime, and I’d ... like to think that I do know what makes for a good one. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that I’ll be reviewing “Kara no Shoujo” in the same way I’d review a non-hentai anime. Okay, moving on…

“Kara no Shoujo” was originally an eroge developed by Innocent Grey and published in Japan sometime in 2008. Despite being notoriously hard and linear, the game managed to garner plenty of praise for having excellent production values, an interesting hard-boiled narrative and for generally being “fucking awesome"(TM). Furthermore, like most visual novels, the game is pretty long; I sank a good ten hours just trying to finish the game. With a game of this length you’d expect the OVA to run for at least four or five hours, right? Well, not necessarily.

The hentai adaptation of “Kara no Shoujo” is split into two 27-minute episodes, which roughly equate to about an hour of total runtime. If you factor in the EDs of each episode, you’re left with about 50 minutes to squeeze in (approx.) 10 hours of visual novel gameplay. To compensate, the OVA tries to simplify Kara no Shoujo’s plot, ignoring much of the events of the first half of the VN. This, in my opinion, is the OVA’s biggest and most glaring flaw. Through much revision and rewriting, the hentai version of “Kara no Shoujo” is distilled to a husk of its former self. The reason this is, is because of the ambitious nature of the VN. The plot is grand in scope and encompasses almost every single character with a sprite. Furthermore, the VN’s narrative meticulously connects every character in a way that makes each essential to the story. In simplifying the plot, the OVA adaptation becomes riddled with plenty of plot holes that make the mystery in “Kara no Shoujo” feel more like ambiguity. The result is an awkward patchwork of sex scenes and plot that are barely coherent and poorly paced. Moreover, characters become stilted and lack any depth or development; we get no insight into the characters motivations or their intentions. Everything about the characters is flat and obvious; in effect, they are pretty much just tools to further the plot.

It’s not all bad, though; there are lots to like about this one beside the story and characters. For one thing, the OVA still has the strong production values that the VN was known for. The art is actually really good, and it looks exactly the way you might imagine it when playing the VN. It also does a decent job of building ambience, as the torture scenes are appropriately uncomfortable and macabre; there’s one scene, in particular, during the very end of the OVA when they enter the killer’s hideout that I found especially creepy. Audio-wise, all the voice actors you loved and fapped to in the visual novel reprise their roles. Likewise, the VN’s jazzy and often haunting OST returns, even if it is sparsely used. Finally, the actual H-scenes are pretty decent, if not sparse and inconsistent. There are about 3 scenes in both episodes, which some people might find too little (though, personally, I didn’t mind). Out of the three, I’d say the last one with Toko was probably the best, mostly because she gets fucked over (literally and figuratively) in the VN, so it’s nice to see a semi-not-sad ending with her. All in all, solid production values keep this one watcheable and, at times, even enjoyable.

Honestly, it’s a shame that the hentai adaptation had to radically modify the VN’s story. Part of what made the original VN so great was the sheer madness and unpredictability that came along with the various twists and turns it threw at you. Even though I thought the VN ultimately took it a bit too far with the twists, I could still appreciate the meticulous way everyone was connected and the massive ambitions the game had. Unfortunately, none of that is present in the hentai adaptation. Watching a sex scene is infinitely more satisfying than reading about it, but it feels like a lot of the mystery and intrigue was lost in translation. Personally, I think it was the length of the OVA that ultimately did it in. I would have loved to see a 12 episode hentai as ambitious and narrative-driven as the visual novel was, though I guess a two episode hentai with decent sex scenes will suffice.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 6, 2014

ace0fspad3s

Mixed Feelings

First i'd like to say that I have completed the visual novel with 100% scenes unlocked/dialogue read. The visual novel is much better story wise and if you are interested in the story (as by the visual novel) then skip the following paragraph.

This is definitely just a 2 episode hentai that you won't really get anything from. If you're looking for something to fap, its your fairly standard hentai. Now this is not much an adaption of the visual novel at ALL, however if you want to just have some visual material for the h-scenes then this is all that it serves.

(Visual Novel)

If you received ... a bad taste of the story in the OVA then its understandable, It is physically impossible for them to condense all the content from the game into a 2 episode OVA and make it good.
If the story even slightly interests you after watching the OVA, then I STRONGLY recommend the visual novel. They chopped the story up in this OVA but its told MUCH better and has a LOT more depth. The characters are well done in my opinion, and the protagonist doesn't feel lifeless as he does in the OVA.

Conclusion:
This OVA = Pretty standard hentai, nothing new here. I give it a (6/10) in comparison with other hentai, Nothing great but nothing that didn't seem outright bad to me. Pretty much gives no context to the story and changes it quite a bit.

VN = Good story, while it does have the h-scenes but your stereotypical VN h-scenes so nothing too animated. Good story (8/10), if you like h-scenes there's not as many but there is some for most of the female cast, if you only want to watch animated h-scenes and don't need story then just stick with the OVA.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 27, 2015

ForgottenSoul

Not Recommended

This is an anime based on a PC game from a few years back. Having heard positive things about the game, I tried to find it on Steam, to no avail. After searching for a download, I found out about the anime, and decided to give it a shot.

What I imagine is the storyline from the game (the detective trying to find the killer) was drowned out by the main character pausing the plot every five minutes in order to have sex with nearly every girl that appeared in the anime, despite his mention at the beginning about having never found love again after his ... lover died.

The story itself is quite interesting, but the detectives method of "finding clues" usually involved inserting a certain part of his body into a woman as payment for information, and these scenes made up around half of the anime.

All in all, this could've been half the length and shown a really good gritty detective story in a short half-hour OVA, but instead decided to turn it into an hour long hentai with hints of detective work dotted between our MC getting his freak on.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Kara no Shoujo Episode 1 Discussion Tanoo - Nov 1, 2011	14 replies	by sinzan »» Oct 19, 2022 6:28 PM
	Poll: Kara no Shoujo Episode 2 Discussion Tanoo - Nov 1, 2011	9 replies	by MxS7HGS »» Sep 7, 2022 2:06 PM