Produced by the prominent studio Milky, Dark Tours is a 30 minute OAV that falls under the Hentai and Horror genres, but is barely average as the former and disappoints as the latter.
STORY: 5/10
The story follows Rina (also called Annaka), a young tour guide who leads a small group of tourists to a secluded forest village that is said to be haunted by the vengeful ghost of Tamiko, a woman who was sold to a bunch of men to cover debts and who suffered a horrible fate. As far as romance goes, there are a few hints of the birth of a possible relationship between Rina and a nice guy tourist, but that sub plot goes nowhere and is brushed aside at the end.
The first plot twist happens at around 23 minutes and the second at 27. There really is little content that falls under the Horror category, save for a brutal turn of events at the end. You’ll most definitely be disappointed if you’re looking for a good scary story and no explanation is given at the end for what happens, but the fair quality of the H scenes can still make the movie enjoyable for us pervs.
ART: 5/10
The art style features heavy hairdos and tries to depict the characters in a fairly realistic manner, which is somewhat reminiscent of the 1980s’ typical style. There are up to 3 shades per color and the art is at its best during the H scenes, but overall it feels average for a 2004 release.
Animation quality is sometimes jerky but otherwise looks fine. Some of the breast jiggling is actually pretty fluid and erotic. The voice actors often have a hard time matching their lines with the characters’ lips movements, but you can blame the lazy animators for this.
SOUND: 6/10
For once, the English dub sounds a lot better than the Japanese one. The English voice actors and actresses sound more professional and better fit the characters’ moods and facial expressions. Moans during H scenes are fine, show a hint of pleasure and are not annoying at all.
The soundtrack is noticeable yet unimpressive. Most tracks are slow and simple and gently add to the scenes’ mood but at times use instruments that don’t fit the setting at all (smooth sax during a gang rape? I don’t think so). Sex sound effects are also exaggerated and unrealistic at several moments: fingering a lady even sounds like the breaking of bones in one of the scenes.
CHARACTER: 5/10
Tamiko the ghost looks like a regular woman. She has a pretty face and haircut, a slender body, small B-cup breasts and wears a nice red yukata with a white flower pattern. Her beauty makes her a treat to look at.
Rina, the tour guide, has long, heavy brown hair and changes hairstyle at one point. She is not the prettiest of all the female characters, but she has a healthy shape, long legs and a fine D-cup bosom. Despite being the main character she doesn’t do much for a majority of the movie.
The other tourist girls look more or less similar to the above two while the male characters who take part in H scenes are all rather tall and fairly muscular jerks.
ENJOYMENT: 6/10
The first sex scene involving Tamiko is part of the legend and therefore fits in just well, but some of the other scenes involving the tourists serve no purpose or only qualify as ecchi. Despite sex playing a role in the awakening of Tamiko’s ghost, these scenes merely happen because some of the tourists are horny rapists and nymphos, or because the studio felt they had to include them to qualify as an H title.
There is no censorship, but the female genitals are rarely shown. They are still fairly detailed in close up shots. Genitals are often covered in lube or saliva, which adds a bit of eroticism to the scenes.
There are 4 sex scenes and they feature:
1: (Tamiko + many men) rape, pussy and breasts licking, spit roast, cumshot (whole body), vaginal penetration, breasts grab, doggie, cum inside, blood.
2: (Tourists: 2 girls, 2 guys) rape, gag, pussy fingering, breasts grab, vaginal penetration, doggie, cum inside.
3: (Tourists: 2 girls, 2 guys) vaginal penetration, doggie, threesome, cowgirl, DP.
4: (Rina + tourists) rape, breasts licking and sucking, pussy fondling and fingering, vaginal penetration, cowgirl position, doggie, throat fuck, blood.
Most memorable moment: There is one cool-looking scene where Rina is standing half-naked and covered in blood. She looks pretty badass in that moment if you ask me.
OVERALL: 5/10
Dark Tours ultimately fails at conveying a spooky, let alone interesting, horror story. The regular scenes are outshined in art and animation quality by the H scenes. Those were actually fairly enjoyable to me thanks to the beauty of the female characters, even though I’m not particularly fond of insipid rape scenes. Overall I’d say this title isn’t really worth watching as nothing will impress you about it and you might even be disappointed by the poorly-exploited horror theme. However I’ve seen much worse.
