75 were impressed!
15 Would like more from the story structure
5 Were not impressed with the depth of the visuals
5 Couldn’t place the genre of the content
The meta aspect of writing a review about a show about writing reviews isn’t lost on me, but Ishuzoku Reviewers is just too important not to cover. While a lot of people will write the show off as outright hentai, I feel it’s a bit more complicated than that. Right off though if you’re a viewer who is repulsed by the very concept of fan-service or if you have a prudish sense of humor then stay very far away from this program. There’s nudity, there’s moaning, and there’s sex every episode so if that’s not your cup of tea then please exit stage left.
The show follows the human adventurer Stunk and his elf friend Zell as they quest to make love to every species of sentient girl in the world. A hermaphroditic angel named Crimvael gets dragged along on their quest and regular characters make guest appearances as well such as Kanchal the halfling and others. The adventurers quickly find themselves in a unique situation as they quickly start making revenue off their written reviews of establishments they visit. Basically, Ishuzoku Reviewers is another in the long list of monster girl anime (although there’s more standard fantasy races present like elves, succubae, and halflings) except it cuts all the bullshit typical ecchi stuff and gets right down to how hanky-panky works between different species.
Now my initial impression of this show was that there was definitely a wide range of ways things were going to play out. A lot of times when anime and sexual content is involved there’s a lot of opportunity for really not okay things to happen, but honestly this show is just a pure comedy anime that parodies and pokes fun at the r-18+ side of the industry. Sex workers in this universe almost all have succubus blood in them, the main characters are definitely visiting red-light districts so it’s not like we’re in a bizzarro sex world like in some hentai, and it’s a very high fantasy universe with lots of magical advancements.
I wouldn’t quite consider this show outright porn but it definitely goes farther than being ecchi (especially if you’re watching the uncensored version). There are fairly graphic scenes with topside nudity, but in the same episode the show will go out of its way to present a scene that’s intentionally unsexy. Self-awareness is the name of the game with a comedy plot broaching these subjects and there’s lots of fun scenarios and subjects that the doujin savvy would be familiar with.
Visually the show is very impressive honestly. Most everything is very well drawn and animated with large city crowds not resorting to stock CG assets. There’s the same reoccurring 8 polygon ceiling fan that bugged me, and the quality of the sex scenes were sometimes lacking in frame count, but I wasn’t really watching this show for the sex anyway.
Let me be clear here. If you’re watching this show to get off, you’re likely going to be disappointed or you’re very starved for content. A Google search will serve you light years better than what’s offered here. No, what Ishuzoku Reviewers offers is an extremely graphic comedy plot. Sex is the subject, but not the content. It’s the play on concepts and subverted expectations that are enjoyable when watching this show and, in that regard, I was treated to a unique experience to say the least. While funny though, the story is adapted from essentially a gag manga. Episodes progress very formulaically and while there’s groundwork for a story that establishes more compelling interactions between characters the anime season simply did not go into depth with that content. Instead choosing to graphically imagine the sex scenes described in the usually text-based write ups of the reviewer’s reviews in the manga. On that note, if you want a tamer experience you could read the manga.
Ishuzoku Reviewers is special in that it serves as a litmus test for the normie sensitivities of the west. Every once in a blue moon a show slips through the cracks and catches the attention of the average entertainment viewer, how that audience reacts is important to the continued release of entertainment from the east. Unfortunately, your Attack on Titan, Promised Neverland, and Kimetsu no Yaiba fans weren’t quite ready to accept a show like Ishuzoku Reviewers. All that said if you’re a completely indoctrinated degenerate like myself then this show has a lot to offer you as a viewer and is a pretty entertaining experience.
