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Oct 17, 2010
Everyone should admit it: we've all got our own tastes. Instead of vainly trying to ignore these tastes, it's really best to acknowledge them. And here I do so: I have my own tastes. Why bring this up? Because I'm about to make a rather bold claim.
Lucky Draw Triangle ~Miharu After~ has the sexiest pair of hentai heroines I've EVER seen, and it has some of the sexiest sex I've EVER seen. On top of that, there's not really any rape or lolicon, which makes me totally comfortable with it. This should be my favorite hentai ever.
And yet, despite
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this, I can't bring myself to think of Lucky Draw Triangle as a masterpiece. Why? Because of Nameless Male Protagonist #38567049. He has two impossibly attractive girls lusting insatiably after him, all because...um...he is a master of the art of inconspicuousness? Sure, he's moderately attractive-looking, but I can't forget this one scene where Futaba comments on NMP#38567049's wonderful facial expressions during sex, and HE LOOKS LIKE HE JUST DIED FIVE MINUTES AGO. In fact, he pretty much acts as if he were dead. As in, he basically doesn't act. He seems to be the definition of a human sex toy, except capable of occasional banal dialogue. As much as I love Miharu and Futaba, I feel a bit uncomfortable watching them lust after what is essentially an inanimate object.
Yes, if only NMP#whatever had a personality, I could love LDT~MA~ with all my heart and gonads. But, alas, I cannot. And, on that sad, depressing note, I move forward to the break-down:
Story (6/10):
Girl likes guy. Guy likes girl. Girl gets amnesia. Guy wants to cure amnesia. Girl's sister puts the moves on guy. Girl gets the moves put on her by guy. LOTS AND LOTS OF HAPPY, SUPER-SEXY SEX.
That is all. Seriously, it doesn't matter much, as LDT~MA~ is just a sex-fest. A glorious, consensual sexfest. If you're trying to watch hentai purely for engaging, complex stories, you've obviously made some sort of horrific reasoning error. As far as the story goes, it is solid but far from extraordinary. At least it doesn't NOT make sense, right? Although, really, in real life amnesia doesn't quite work the way it does in LDT~MA~, but since when has amnesia EVER been given a realistic treatment in anime? That's a rhetorical question; I'm sure it has been done at least once.
Art (10/10):
Oh dear lord, PoRo (the production studio) knows how to make me happy. Sharp lines, bright colors, designs that are slightly modest in the grand scheme of hentai. Animation is fluid, oh so sexfully fluid, and the seximatography is wonderful and pretty darn hardcore. Lots of positions, fluid animation, arching, wiggling, throes of passion, and it's all vanilla sex. My god, this is my hentai nirvana, as poor a combination of words as that phrase is. Words just cannot describe what I think of Miharu, the sex scenes, and Futaba (in that order), which perhaps explains why I am failing so hardcore at this review. To round out the art section, the backgrounds are colorful but pretty darn boring, BUT WHO CARES LOOK AT THE HOT ANIME GIRLS!!! Seriously.
Sound (9/10):
In all honesty, I was too busy looking at the HOT ANIME GIRLS to pay attention to anything but the sex SFX (read: BGM? What BGM?), which were juicy and wonderful, as were the moans. But I find this to be typical of hentai. Oh, and Futaba talks a LOT during sex. It's kinda weird, since our Nameless Male Protagonist says nothing. It's awkward cause it's hard to remember that he's just the most realistic sex toy ever. Oh, and female voices are a bit on the high-pitched side, but any watcher of moe-ish hentai will probably be used to that by now.
Character (7/10):
Miharu is our main female lead, and she's amazing. Sexually liberated, playful, not really shy; a huge contrast to her amnesiac self and most other romance heroines (hentai or otherwise). I think she'd be a fun character even outside of hentai.
Futaba is Miharu's sister and rival in love and...well...kinda selfish and manipulative. Not very much so, but it's hard to get a reading on her.
NMP#huh is NMP#huh (his name may be Ushio in this anime). He is spectacularly bad, even for a Nameless Male Protagonist. Not only does he basically not exist most of the time, but also when he DOES exist, he cheats on his girlfriend and later sorta forces her into sex. No one is really unhappy during any of this, but it's still a bit unsettling. If this were a more serious show, I'd kinda expect Miharu to be seriously psychologically screwed up even when she recovers her memories. And for that there would be no forgiveness, since Miharu is a little sexy ball of sexy awesomeness. Sexy. Yay.
OVERALL (9/10):
It's easy to see that I love this hentai far more than it deserves. That's because I think it is hot beyond all belief as well as not disturbing for the most part. In light of that, I generally forgive it for its flaws, which are many in the writing department. Oh well; this will simply go down in my books as legendarily sexy. The only thing in my opinion that is comparably sexy to LDC~MA~ is After Class Lesson (with its also-super-sexy Akari Mizuno), but After Class Lesson is also a bit disturbing and/or uncomfortable.
This could all change if PoRo manages to somehow engineer a RAGE ending, or to totally screw over Miharu (Miharu in the act of screwing is GREAT; screwing over Miharu is DOUBLEPLUS UNGOOD).
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 17, 2010
I highly doubt I will ever have the pleasure of watching a hentai as excellent as Suika ever again. Suika consists of three short, dramatic, variably supernatural, and somewhat melancholy stories with small amounts of sex. In terms of quality, these stories are a cut above pretty much everything else I've seen in hentai, and the sex is not too shabby either. The sex is not terribly explicit, but it is definitely well-drawn and had a decent budget put into it. Were it not for these sex scenes, it could probably pass for a collection of short, non-explicit OVAs, and it would
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be fairly well-respected, at least for 25-minute shorts.
As it stands, Suika probably won't garner the respect it deserves, since it is neither the most erotic of hentai, nor the anime with the greatest narrative elegance. It is, however, probably the HENTAI with the greatest narrative elegance, and I have to give credit where credit is due. Anyways, let's break it down:
Story (9/10):
Suika consists of three short, melancholy stories with a touch of the supernatural. These tend to be varying amounts of low-key and dramatic, and are the main portion of each episode, i.e. Suika is NOT primarily about sex. It's mainly about young lovers getting through harrowing situations, usually by getting together. In my opinion, episode 2 is the best, followed by episode 1, and then episode 3 (I like to call it the lolicon episode, and that doesn't float my boat spectacularly well, if you know what I mean: sexual innuendo totally intended). Episode 3 also seemed very rushed, probably because building a romance from scratch is nigh-impossible to do in one episode. Anyways, if you pay decent attention, you can see how all three episodes tie together.
Suika is surprisingly gripping. Also, it can be surprisingly depressing. Or hopeful. Anyways, this diversity of emotion is a sign of good storytelling, I think.
Art (8/10):
The art is great, albeit rather generic in overall style (if it ain't broke, don't fix it, perhaps). While the animation itself is not as stunningly fluid as some recent productions, it gets by, and the sex itself is solidly animated, with a minimum of looping. Speaking of sex, it is very, very vanilla: no kinks, which can be good, bad, or neutral, depending on personal tastes. Vanilla is fine with me. The overall artwork is sharp; the colors are bright; and the background scenery is pretty detailed and colorful. Character designs are modest (which I personally like), and all the main players look good (both male and female). Also, there are no outrageous hair colors to be found (if you don't count albino as outrageous), so if you don't like living in a pink bishoujo ghetto, this is one of your best stops on the railroad to sexville.
Sound (9/10):
The background music of Suika is generally very pleasant, light-classical pieces, mainly solo piano. This kind of BGM really successfully enhances the mood. I have little to say about the voice acting, other than that it's the typical, solid, Japanese performance according to my native-English ears. The sound effects are typical but understated, like most of Suika. It fits well with the content, especially since the sex is rather (refreshingly?) vanilla. Oh, one thing, though: DEAR GOD THE CICADAS!
Character (9/10):
Suika, unlike many hentai, actually has these. There is no one you want to punch out, except those who get punched out (you'll see what I mean, especially the literal interpretation in episode 2). The male protagonists have actual hints of personality and lives beyond being glorified sex toys, and the women are pretty lively, and in some cases surprisingly lovable. All the characters have pretty understandable motivations, which makes the story flow much more smoothly than is often the case in hentai, even flowing nicely into sex scenes for the most part (the exception pretty much being episode 3).
OVERALL (9/10):
This is the closest I've seen to a masterpiece so far (I've seen about 70 hentai in all at this point), so I do say I enjoyed Suika rather much. Were it not for the fact that episode 3 fell a bit short (I find lolicon to be a bit on the creepy side when played this straight), I would call this a hentai masterpiece. I was pretty much hooked from beginning to end. The storytelling was fantastic and the sex was nice; what more can I ask for in a hentai? It does help, however, that I like this sort of innocent, softcore-ish fare as much as I like hardcore hentai titles, but for different reasons. If you're looking primarily for awesome sex scenes, this is not the place to look. I'd go check out After Class Lesson, Body Transfer, Stringendo, or anything by PoRO (I recommend Lucky Draw Triangle, as it is the least RAGE-inducing of their works that I've seen).
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 14, 2010
I've seen a fair amount of hentai, and, with a name like "Shojo Auction," I thought I had a pretty good idea what I was in for. Namely, cute girls being sold into sexual slavery, which would basically play out as a rape-fest.
Boy, was I wrong, and, boy, did that make for a pleasant surprise.
Shojo Auction, instead, is kind of like a coming-of-age tale of three women, except it's still totally a hentai. We see three women, each with different reasons to sell their bodies, somehow triumph over some past wrong to which they were subjected. Granted, this isn't so much through
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any sort of character-centered intelligence or noteworthy scriptwriting; it just so happens that the shojo auction itself miraculously puts these girls in just the right positions to settle old scores and move on with their lives.
Since no one can resist a good terrible pun, let's talk about the right positions. These girls get in all the right positions, if you know what I mean (you totally do). The sex, while not as drippingly explicit as some hentai made recently, is pretty good overall. There's a lot of looping in the sex itself, but there's a fair diversity in seximatography, as I now like to call it. This applies primarily to the type of sex (we've got footjobs, blowjobs, anal sex, vaginal sex, a bit of lesbian sex at the end, a tiny little bit of bondage (of the MALE, actually) at the beginning, and rape during a flashback). There are many changes between positions, but they sometimes occur a little too rapidly/frequently for my tastes, although the diversity is still welcome (positions include 69, doggie-style, missionary, and many other styles I don't know the semi-technical names of). Two of our heroines seem to have very similar physical characteristics, barring hair color (of course). The two main males are somewhat more diverse, for what it's worth (not a lot, really).
Anyways, the sex is pretty hot and surprisingly happy, which is, in my opinion, perhaps the best part. The guys and girls are pretty darn willing right from the get-go, which is a refreshing change of pace from what I've seen a lot of recently. I may just not be looking in the right places, but, well, I've made my point.
In terms of aesthetics, this hentai looks pretty good, although it definitely looks older than it is (by about 4-5 years, I'd say). Lines are bold, colors are pretty bright (but relatively realistic in hue). The girls are on the well-endowed side of normal, or, alternately, the slightly under-endowed side of the typical, non-lolicon hentai breast-size absurdity. Males are somewhat average-looking: neither extraordinarily hot nor ugly. Overall, I like the art, and find it fairly low key.
Sound-wise, it's pretty typical for hentai. Good moaning, oohing, aahing, squelchy sounds of intercourse, etc. Voices are typical, and none are blatantly annoying. The script-writing is more believable than your average hentai, for what it's worth, which is, admittedly, not a lot. Strictly speaking, the BGM was forgettable. As in, I don't remember it; not really a bad thing, to be honest. More attention left to focus on the delicious sex.
Speaking of sex and really substandard transition sentences, people (and animals) have sex (okay, one could argue that some plants have sex, but let's not go there now). The people having sex in Shojo Auction are a bit different from the usual suspects, in that the females are surprisingly empowered, and the men are just fine with it. I think this is good. In fact, the sexual empowerment endears the characters to me somewhat more than usual. I'll outline the main ones here.
Rongai is the main male protagonist. He's a bit of a pushover, but seems to be a cool, calm, and collected character. I don't dislike the guy, which, sadly, is a marked improvement over many hentai.
Shirohebi is the main female protagonist and totally the star of the show. She will find a way to get her way, no matter what, but she isn't totally ruthless about it (just kinda overbearing). She also has altruistic tendencies, and is intent on helping her clients see the silver lining in their situations. She's also rather kinky and something of a nymphomaniac. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing.
Then we have each of the three girls to be auctioned. Each has a bit of a different personality, and each has a problem that, by the end of the series, will be solved in some way or another. I find Umi to be the most fascinating of them, in the way she reacts to realizing that she's been given the opportunity to gain control of her life. Unless you like yandere gaijin or broken birds, in which case you may like the other two better. I just found Umi's story to be uplifting, which says a lot since it's coming from a hentai.
These stories of personal triumph make for a surprisingly good story, fairly saturated with pretty hot, normal, happy sex. As such, I actually enjoyed this hentai quite a bit. Take it out for a spin if you're in the mood for something uplifting in your daily dose of hot, animated sex.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 4, 2010
Once in a while, when I finish a hentai, I'll just sit there, staring at my screen, thinking, "What the heck did I just watch?!" My watch-through of Discode was definitely one of those times, although I think a large part of that reaction was due to the ending, which is either some sort of dialectical masterpiece or just a total middle-finger to all those with an optimistic view on human nature and/or relationships. I'll leave that discussion for later, and first address the technical merits of this fine futanari work.
EYE CANDY:
Overall, I think the art is pretty sharp, with bright color schemes
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and attractive body types of the slim variety (when compared to other hentai, where breast sizes approach the truly absurd). The facial designs have a few stylistic quirks to them, in that the faces lack noses most of the time, and the eyes have a strange, Code-Geass-esque liquidity to them. The whole of the main character design aesthetic seems to be somewhat cutesy. I say somewhat, because there's a vibe that is so very un-cutesy to this whole thing. In terms of animation, it is pretty mediocre outside of the sex scenes, but the sex itself is quite varied and fluid, not to mention pretty darn hot, with lots of dripping and arching in the throes of passion, which is all a big plus, assuming you're into this sort of thing (futanari) at all. I saw Discode censored, so I can't comment on the explicit detail, but the sex cinematography is pretty kinky, so the uncensored art is probably appropriately explicit. Yummy.
EAR CANDY:
The sound is competently done, with all the right moaning and panting during and immediately after sex. The soundtrack itself is on the eerie side, which I suppose is fitting. There's not a whole lot else to comment on. What I mean is that I wasn't paying that much attention. So sue me. Oh, and be prepared to hear a lifetime's worth of "Gaman dekinai!"
INTEREST CANDY:
By which I mean character. A tough topic for hentai, since it tends to be devoid thereof. The characters do their jobs, so to speak, in that their personalities don't scream discontinuity. The characters have sex a lot, and it seems to flow pretty naturally, so I guess they're fine for a piece meant to titillate.
We've got three main characters: Futaba, our cute, shy, nymphomaniacal, dick-girl lead; Kyouko, our cute, short-haired, outgoing, manipulative, nymphomaniacal supporting lady; and Kagekiyo, our cute, blandly righteous male lead and primary love interest. One might argue that the character interaction is rather interesting, in that we see the cumulative effects of sexual manipulation play themselves out on various archetypes. I'm a bit skeptical of such deeper analysis. Discode is hentai, after all, and this show, in particular, is pretty clearly just meant to arouse.
***************(Minor Spoilers May Follow)**********************
BRAIN CANDY:
This is where I talk about the story or lack thereof, for those who can't figure out my severe-boredom-induced section headers. In Discode, we follow our unusually endowed heroine (Futaba) as her equipment and strong sexual urges are discovered and manipulated by her frighteningly interested junior (Kyouko). We also watch Kyouko herself and her sexual desires and escapades, as well as watch the budding romance between Futaba and male lead Kagekiyo. Then everything goes plummeting off a cliff in the last five minutes or so, as we bear witness to the full extent to which Kyouko has considered Futaba to be nothing more than a new sex toy, more-or-less destroying Futaba's life in the process.
Most of the story is simply constructed in order to lead from one sex scene to another, which is not a huge problem, since the sex is very hot. However, the story could also be interpreted to focus on Futaba's journey of self-discovery as she begins to accept her penis and her nymphomaniacal tendencies and finds a few people who accept her as she is, despite her peculiarities. It is perhaps this perspective that makes the ending so infuriating. Basically, the last half of the last episode is an exercise in breaking the cutie. This is just depressing, as the end of the first half of the episode focuses on her success in finding someone who accepts her, and is actually very, very uplifting (especially considering how messed up the rest of her sex life has been). Granted, the cutie-breaking is partially telegraphed (there's obviously something amiss, uh, more than usual), but it still feels weird and uncomfortable.
***************(No More Spoilers Yo)**********************
The ending may be a warning about letting our sexual desires rule us. It may be a statement that no human is a saint, no matter what we may mistakenly believe, and that happiness is an illusion. Or it may just be a twisted outcome that isn't meant for deeper thought. In any case, it's rather unsettling. Unless you really like orgies, and I mean REALLY like orgies, you might consider quitting watching the show after the happy sex is done.
GONAD CANDY:
Speaking of sex, Discode has a variety of sex: there's exhibitionism; there's typical hentai pseudo-rape; there's more-or-less consensual sex; and there's happy consensual sex. There's masturbation, oral sex, inner-thigh sex, anal sex, and vaginal sex; there's lesbian sex and heterosexual sex. A large portion of the sex is of the more-or-less consensual variety, mostly involving Kyouko pressing herself on a not-so-unwilling Futaba. Personally, my favorite is the happy sex near the end of the first half of episode 3, which is disappointingly rare in hentai, and HOT happy sex is even rarer. All of the sex is quite well-animated, so there is cause for much rejoicing.
CANDY-IN-GENERAL:
Overall, I enjoyed Discode a fair bit, but the eerie, manipulative tone and the unsettling ending make it fall shy of excellence. I would have liked a happier ending, in which case I might have forgiven the tonal discomfort as serving to make the happy ending more potent. As it stands, Discode's main enjoyment factor is in the hot sex with cute characters. Oh, and with a dick-girl, of course.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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