Forsaking the fun of single life and all the sex involved, Natsumi takes a husband but finds she can’t leave all of her past behind.

What They Say:
This feature details the life of a happy housewife. She, however, lived on the edge in the past meeting many people and therefore experienced a dark chapter in her life. She has worked hard to forget her dark past but her mind and body will not allow her to do so completely. She has done a good job of controlling herself until one day her husband brought a friend over to the house and that particular friend happened to be someone that she had a fling with during her wilder, darker days. The lust that was caged for so long has now broken free…there is nothing holding her back now!

The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language track in stereo encoded at 192kbps. The mix included is the only language track available on the disc and it’s pretty decent but there isn’t a lot involved with it beyond dialogue. Other than some ambient music in a few places and some incidental sound effects, this is pretty much a dialogue and moan driven mix and it carries that job off pretty well and without much issue. We didn’t have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.

Video:
Originally released in 2004, the transfer for this OVA is presented in its original full frame aspect ratio. The source materials for this look to be in good shape with a clean and clear look to it and one that is free of problems such as cross coloration or much in the way of aliasing. The transfer here does look a bit soft though and not too detailed in some areas but a number of shows from Milky tend to exhibit this. Colors look good throughout and the pinks and purples, in particular, have some good depth to them. Only a few areas such as some of the background scenes looked like they had much in the way of posterization or minor blocking/gradient issues.

Packaging:
The cover for this release looks quite good with the visual of Natsumi in her little pink sweater and yellow apron being molested from behind by two men. Her expression is the kind that mixes the bit of fear of the situation with the actual enjoyment of it. The cover is very heavy on the shades of pink and they, along with most of the other colors, just look really great here. It’s an attractive and eye-catching design particular for those who favor this kind of material. The back cover is a bit more mellow though it keeps with the pink and has a lot of white space as well. There are a few shots from the show, nothing explicit, and a decent summary of the premise as well as mentioning its manga origins. The production information is clearly listed and the technical section is spot on. No insert is included with this release nor is there a reverse side cover.

Menu:
The menu layout is simple but effective as it uses the artwork of Natsumi from the front cover and plenty of pinks and whites to soften the overall image to good effect. The navigation is quick and easy to navigate, especially as they do a good job of making it as seamless as you can with the DVD menu software. Access times are nice and fast and due to there being only one language and set of subtitles, our players’ presets were pretty much a non-issue with this.

Extras:
There are no extras included but the extras menu does feature the ipod/psp instructions as well as a sex-only selection.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One of the things I find enjoyable about the adult anime genre itself is seeing all of the various subgenres that come out of it. The “housewife” genre is one that has at times been quite good, such as Taboo Charming Mother being a prime example. Insatiable is the latest entry from that genre and it follows some of the things that seem to be established within this area.

One of the areas of appeal is that it typically features women who are a bit older than the schoolgirl tarts that populate a lot of the other subgenres. This shift away from the school setting brings in some more interesting premises I think or at least not quite as much of the same thing. One of the things that seems to be common among them is that they all have deep purple hair. I can’t actually complain about it though since I find it to be an attractive feature and one that helps to keep the show within some kind of sense of reality. Insatiable brings us the latest woman with the purple hair whose life has undergone some changes.

In the first five minutes or so, we get treated to a series of brief sexual encounters featuring a short haired Natsumi as she lived her single life strong and loved every minute of it, finding sex wherever she could. But as time went on she wondered if she shouldn’t try to change her ways some and she found herself a husband through an agency that deals with that. It’s hard to say that the two of them are passionately in love with each other, but they’re compatible and get along, both outside the bedroom and inside. They’ve lived this way together for a bit now, as evident by her slightly longer hair style and the way she seems so comfortable as a housewife. But as she tells us, she’s started thinking more of her old ways and wondering if she is missing it more than she realizes.

Her relatively happy domestic life takes a twisted turn however when her husband brings home an old friend for dinner. He’s said little about having friends in the past and one like this seems strange but she’s glad to know that her husband has someone like that in any case. To her surprise, after the evening starts to get underway, she realizes that he’s one of the guys she had an affair with some time ago and he hasn’t forgotten. Before she realizes it, her husband has passed out from what little he’s drunk and the friend, Megumi, is now making sure to have his way with her by ensuring his silence to his friend. Natsumi, already tipsy from her drinks, finds she’s all too willing to do what it takes to save her husband from this.

Natsumi now finds herself caught up in Megumi’s web again and forced into doing his bidding after he gets an incriminating picture of her. She’s apprehensive about what he has her doing but at the same time she’s quickly falling into finding it to be exactly what she’s needed, but there are some blatantly obvious secrets being passed around as she falls into her next encounter with him, but they are secrets that are kept for now. Insatiable is actually a fairly slow show in its initial progression but it does do it right by tantalizing us from the start with a number of strong but brief sex scenes. Once past that it takes a bit of time to get going properly again but the payoff is good as Natsumi is very emotive in her scenes and gives in to everything after a few half hearted denials.

Insatiable in terms of its design is interesting. While the actual locations and set designs are straightforward pieces that don’t stand out, the characters themselves feel a bit of, but not in an entirely bad way. The three characters that make up the bulk of the show are ones that you could say are based off of very standard designs but the men are given a bit of a harder edge and somewhat curious style for their eyes while Natsumi herself is familiar but also different in her facial and hair design. It’s hard to pin down exactly if they work or not. Natsumi’s more domesticated version of herself feels a bit odd after seeing her rough and tumble nympho side which is part of it I’m sure. The animation quality itself is pretty good though and it’s consistent throughout with much in the way of problems or repetitive sequences.

In Summary:
Just going by the cover artwork, I was expecting something a bit more familiar and predictable but Insatiable surprised me with its character designs and by the way Natsumi was so open about her sexuality in her past. Often we get characters that are either prudes or just inexperienced and then they find their way. For her, she’s found her way and has tried to deny it but now finds that it may be the salvation she needs. While it isn’t a stellar production, it’s one of the better ones out of Milky that we’ve seen recently and it doesn’t answer everything, as obvious as it may be, in the first volume. It’s got us curious to see what it really wants to do next and how it will go about it.

Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles

Content Grade: C+
Audio Grade: B
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: A-
Menu Grade: B+
Extras Grade: N/A

Released By: Japan Anime
Release Date: September 26th, 2006
MSRP: $24.99
Running Time: 30 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.

Hayama is far from done in toying with Natsumi and has decided to push her limits just a little bit more.

What They Say:
This feature details the life of a happy housewife. She however lived on the edge in the past meeting many people and therefore experienced a dark chapter in her life. She has worked hard to forget her dark past but her mind and body will not allow her to do so completely. She has done a good job of controlling herself until one day her husband brought a friend over to the house and that particular friend happened to be someone that she had a fling with during her wilder, darker days. The lust that was caged for so long has now broken free…there is nothing holding her back now!

The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the show in its original language of Japanese. The stereo mix included is the only language track available on the disc and it’s done in a PCM 1.5mbps format. It’s pretty decent but there isn’t a lot involved with it beyond dialogue. Other than some ambient music in a few places and some incidental sound effects, this is pretty much a dialogue and moan driven mix and it carries that job off pretty well and without much issue. We didn’t have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.

Video:
Originally released in 2005, the transfer for this OVA is presented in its original full frame aspect ratio. The source materials for this look to be in good shape with a clean and clear look to it and one that is free of problems such as cross coloration or much in the way of aliasing. The transfer here does look a bit soft though and not too detailed in some areas but a number of shows from Milky tend to exhibit this. Colors look good throughout and the pinks and purples in particular have some good depth to them. Only a few areas such as some of the background scenes looked like they had much in the way of posterization or minor blocking/gradient issues.

Packaging:
The cover for this release looks quite good with the visual of Natsumi in her little pink sweater pushed up so we see her bra and cleavage as well as the sexual look on her face. The cover is very heavy on the shades of pink and they, along with most of the other colors, just look really great here. It’s an attractive and eye-catching design particular for those who favor this kind of material. The back cover is a bit more mellow though it keeps with the pink and has a lot of soft white and yellow space as well. There are a few shots from the show, nothing explicit, and a decent summary of the premise as well as mentioning its manga origins. The production information is clearly listed and the technical section is spot on. No insert is included with this release nor is there a reverse side cover.

Menu:
The menu layout is simple but effective as it uses the artwork of Natsumi from the front cover and plenty of pinks and whites to soften the overall image to good effect. The navigation is quick and easy to navigate, especially as they do a good job of making it as seamless as you can with the DVD menu software. Access times are nice and fast and due to there being only one language and set of subtitles, our players’ presets were pretty much a non-issue with this.

Extras:
There are no extras included but the extras menu does feature the digital copy instructions.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first installment of Insatiable was fun as it was reminiscent in ways of Taboo Charming Mother with the character designs and being an entry in the “housewife” subgenre for hentai. The opening episode set things up in an interesting way where you had the very sexual housewife who was pushing down her wants and desires to appear more innocent in order to please her loving but somewhat basic lover of a husband. It’s something that fits into a lot of marriages to varying degrees and it was different to see a show that has the husband somewhat actively involved and not just off on some business trip while she gets taken advantage of repeatedly.

The second installment, which does bring the show to something of a close, has Natsumi really having conflicted feelings about the previous encounter. She’s deeply in love with her husband, but he’s not giving her what she really wants and she’s simply not asking for it. She feels warm, close and connected with him, but her mind is wandering to when Hayama simply did her in a way that made her lose complete control. And since she doesn’t want him to know what she did for him, and for herself, she’s giving in to Hayama’s request to visit him on a rented boat with a few of his friends for an afternoon. Forced into wearing a very revealing (and not all that attractive) bikini, she finds herself with Hayama and three male friends as well as a female friend who is the wife of someone else. Another of his playthings, which makes her feel uneasy because Eriko seems interested in Natsumi as well.

What makes her really uncomfortable is that one of the men with Hayama has his face hidden by a mask and he seems to just be interested in watching everything. When Eriko starts playing with Natsumi, it turns into a situation she manages to get out of which allows Eriko to be manhandled in the way she really wants. But she can’t avoid the men altogether, partially because she wants to be used roughly and hungrily by them. They all do so, sans the masked man who Eriko plays with lightly, and Natsumi just revels in it even as she asks Hayama for it to not happen again. Of course, it’s patently obvious who the masked man is and the situation resolves itself in a fairly obvious and neatly tied up way that sort of makes you roll your eyes, but it all fits together in a clumsy way that will work for anyone who realizes that they are watching hentai.

Plot aside, Insatiable makes out pretty well when it comes to the actual character designs and sex scenes. The main appeal is of course in the women and Natsumi and Eriko are certainly well animated and designed. Natsumi gets the bulk of the attention and she fits that good modern housewife look pretty well. The guys are fairly bland overall, and I really had to laugh at Natsumi’s husband who managed to wear a pair of glasses underneath the mask he was given since it so completely doesn’t work well. The sex scenes are decent and with several guys working the girls over at once, there’s a bit more creativity with the camera angles and how they pull it off than it would be with a one on one encounter.

In Summary:
The first installment of Insatiable was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it for what it was. The second volume feels a bit more forced when it comes to the actual plot of the show and the entire setup that’s exposed in it, but in the end we’re just watching it for… well, the ends. They do a decent job of capping off the show with a plot that makes sense in the world of hentai and everyone finds the happiness that they want. This isn’t high art and it’s not the best of adult material out there, but it’s good simple fun in the housewife genre that makes me smile as it avoids some of the really sick or demeaning things that some other shows do. It’s pretty much scat free and that’s a big plus in its favor right there. If only it didn’t take so long from the first volume for the second to be released.

Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles

Content Grade: C
Audio Grade: B
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: A-
Menu Grade: B+
Extras Grade: N/a

Released By: Japan Anime
Release Date: January 29th, 2009
MSRP: $24.95
Running Time: 30 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.

Kitty Media acquired the Itadaki! Seieki hentai release back in March 2017 and things are progressing nicely with it. The distributor has updated a bit on it this week with the finalized cover artwork for the release that works with the familiar imagery that was used in the original promotional materials. We’re still waiting on a date for it but the separate DVD and Blu-ray releases are getting closer to release with this now being locked down.

The single episode OVA series came from Pashmina and was released in March 2014. It’s based off the doujin work from doumou, which itself was a pretty successful 11 chapter work that was serialized between 2011 and 2012 in Comic Unreal.

Plot concept: The property revolves around a succubus that falls in love with a boy from her school.

Little more than a series of vignettes, the show still manages to please with its variety and designs.

What They Say:
“Boy, why do my sisters all have to have great bodies and big breasts? I don’t know whether to call this heaven or hell; I mean, they are my sisters. I want to touch them, squeeze them, suck on them… Hmmm, maybe I should at least give it a try. After all, we aren’t related by blood…”

The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this series brings us just the Japanese language track in stereo and encoded at 192kbps. The stereo mix is essentially what you’d expect from the show as it handles dialogue well and the few music pieces and ambient sound effects are well placed. There isn’t all that much in a real sense of directionality but it works for the content at hand. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we did not have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.

Video:
Originally released in 2005, the transfer for this OVA is presented in its original full frame aspect ratio. The materials for this release are in very good shape and overall it’s a good clean and very pleasing piece of work. It manages to avoid some of the softness that seems to be (intentionally) plaguing other shows that have been out recently while not going overboard with being too vibrant. Colors look good and maintain a solid feel while cross coloration and aliasing is, for the most part, a non-issue. The single episode that’s on here looks good across the board.

Packaging:
In an attempt to appeal to as many people as possible, the front cover provides a bevy of beauties from which to be enticed by ” though not all of them have actual scenes in the show. With a simple but nicely colorful background, all the girls are able to look good here while wearing different undergarments. The artwork and design is simply very eye-catching. The back cover continues the bright colors by using a mixture of greens to lay things out with along with a dash of pink. The summary is a bit brief and doesn’t really say much of anything and it even covers up some of the shots from the show that are provided. A good chunk of space is given over to the production information (white on lime green!) while the technical grid along the bottom conveys the rest. Overall it’s an appealing looking but a few areas just seem to be off. No insert is included nor is the cover reversible.

Menu:
JapanAnime continues to have some of the smoothest menu transitions out there though the menus are fairly basic otherwise. The layout for the menu starts off with a brief roll call of some of the girls before it settles into the static menu that has all ten of them lined up in regular clothes. The background uses the artwork from the cover but obscures it a bit, teasing with a bit of flesh here and there. Similar to the cover, it’s just a good looking piece if you like any of the characters from it. The menu selections are quick and easy to use and the transitional animation for them gives the entire menu process a bit of a smooth feeling. Access times are nice and fast and due to there being only one language, our player presets were a non-issue.

Extras:
Unlike previous JapanAnime releases, there is no “all sex” feature through here nor the PSP/iPod option.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Every now and then a show comes along that simply isn’t trying to sell itself as something more than it is. A show that just wants to give you a good bit of sex without any real plot, but just enough to make you feel like you’re watching something better. A show that wants you to like the characters and adds a bit of eroticism because of who they are.

It’s A Family Affair is using the harem premise but is a bit more honest about its intentions. From the cover artwork, you can see the bevy of beauties that reside within. The title also makes it a bit suggestive as well, but the women are quick to say that none of them are related by blood during the opening scene of pans across the hot spring. This group of women, who consider themselves a family for whatever reason that’s never given, also have a brother named Keisuke. Keisuke isn’t exactly a problem but he’s definitely the horny side of the “family.” We don’t know how long they’ve all been together, but Keisuke is a state now where he apparently feels comfortable sexing each of them up.

Over the course of the episode, we get about five sex scenes where Keisuke is involved with one of the sisters and things get heated. There isn’t any real transition between them but it isn’t necessary since we’re just here for the loosely plotted sex scenes. With a wide cast of characters and types, there’s definitely something to appeal to most tastes. Keisuke initially gets involved with Ringo, a teasing sister who gets him involved with her breasts. This is quickly followed up by another sister named Biwa who plays the role of the samurai girl in the show. She gets a similar scene, but Kotona provides some rather good eroticism when Keisuke takes her on the morning train. The one that was the most fun was watching Mikan getting toyed with while still serving orders in her uniform at the Mosmos Burger restaurant. But we also get the motherly type with Mokono as she apparently likes spending time around the house in just her apron.

The look and design of the show are pretty solid and it leaves you wanting more. With half of the women on the cover being dealt with here, we get a good sample of the character designs in action. Each of the women follows what you could call basic archetypes but there’s some creativity in there as well that helps to separate them up a bit. The animation quality is also something that’s rather good and at times surprisingly good considering some of the things that Milky has put out in the last year or two. Though there is a bit of repetitive animation in some of the scenes, they’re often short and quick.

In Summary:
With no “high concept” or a real hook beyond a series of sexual vignettes, this is the kind of show that would otherwise probably bother me or just come across as uninteresting. To my surprise, it manages to be quite a good bit of fun and very good to look at. The variety in the cast is a significant plus but also the overall animation quality and the quality of the sex scenes. Though brief, it means less of the slow build moments and more of the intensity that works so well. With some of these happening in public places, it makes sense for the encounters to be brief and intense. This is nicely captured in the show for the most part.

Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles

Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: B
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B+
Extras Grade: N/A

Released By: Japan Anime
Release Date: October 21st, 2006
MSRP: $29.99
Running Time: 30 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.

Small standalone tales populate the show once again as it titillates with short quick bursts of varied erotica.

What They Say:
“Hah, and you thought my sex-fest was over? Wrong! I still have 5 beautiful step-sisters that I haven’t touched yet. There’s Rulisu, the girl who likes to dress up as a maid. There’s also Anne, which should be fun because she has never had any sexual experience with a guy before – not even a kiss. Well, you get the picture. Now the real fun begins!”

The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this series brings us just the Japanese language track in stereo and encoded at 192kbps. The stereo mix is essentially what you’d expect from the show as it handles dialogue well and the few music pieces and ambient sound effects are well placed. There isn’t all that much in a real sense of directionality but it works for the content at hand. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we did not have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.

Video:
Originally released in 2006, the transfer for this OVA is presented in its original full frame aspect ratio. The materials for this release are in very good shape and overall it’s a good clean and very pleasing piece of work. It manages to avoid some of the softness that seems to be (intentionally) plaguing other shows that have been out recently while not going overboard with being too vibrant. Colors look good and maintain a solid feel while cross coloration and aliasing is, for the most part, a non-issue. There is a fair bit of shimmering showing up in some of the panning sequences, notably during the first vignette with the maid girl but also in other ones as well.

Packaging:
In an attempt to appeal to as many people as possible, the front cover provides a bevy of beauties from which to be enticed by ” though not all of them have actual scenes in the show. With a simple but nicely colorful background, all the girls are able to look good here while wearing different undergarments. The artwork and design is simply very eye-catching. The back cover continues the bright colors by using a mixture of pinks to lay things out with along with a dash of green. The summary is a bit brief and doesn’t really say much of anything and it even covers up some of the shots from the show that are provided. A good chunk of space is given over to the production information (white on lime green!) while the technical grid along the bottom conveys the rest. Overall it’s an appealing looking but a few areas just seem to be off. No insert is included nor is the cover reversible.

Menu:
JapanAnime has some of the smoothest menu transitions out there though the menus are fairly basic otherwise. The layout for the menu starts off with a brief roll call of some of the girls before it settles into the static menu that has all ten of them lined up in regular clothes. The background uses the artwork from the cover but obscures it a bit, teasing with a bit of flesh here and there. Similar to the cover, it’s just a good looking piece if you like any of the characters from it. The menu selections are quick and easy to use and the transitional animation for them gives the entire menu process a bit of a smooth feeling. Access times are nice and fast and due to there being only one language, our player presets were a non-issue.

Extras:
None.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first installment of this series was one that was quite a surprise in how good it was. Often when you have these sort of shows where it’s just a series of vignettes you end up with a good bit of content that’s just not appealing. It’s a Family Affair ended up being rather enjoyable throughout all of the vignettes and this set of them is no exception.

Other than the bath scene at the beginning where it pans across various girls from the series, there is no real connection between them. Each of the stories, often about five minutes or so, stands alone and just puts you quickly into the action. The opening tales is a fun master/maid bondage piece which has some trouble in the subtitles by keeping Rulisu’s name straight. Another is a positively hilarious one featuring blonde vixen Tokiko who is apparently a robot from the future sent to the past to service Keisuke’s every desire. Between the way the robot voice gets mixed into the situation and the way she opens her mouth in a mechanical fashion, it’s positively hilarious. Add in that it’s all about sex in a car in a public place and it hits a number of amusing fetishes.

Kaoruko’s tale was also very titillating as it has her in a high rise getting off on a toy thinking about the manager she wants. Of course, he shows up and has his way with her against the windows so the whole world can see, providing they’re looking. It’s got a really nice moment of exhibitionism as you see her pressed against the window from the outside and on the floor above there are people milling about. Anne’s tale is an interesting one though as she works with a film crew that does adult movies. When the shoot with the actual actors are over, she heads over to the bed thinking everyone is gone and pleasures herself. But before long, Keisuke has shown up along with a lot of other men and a big bondage scene ensues.

The animation for the show is essentially the same as the first volume just with a different set of characters. Their designs are once again attractive and everyone seems to have a good bit of fun getting into their roles. There isn’t much in the way of repeated animation for the sex scenes and the backgrounds and locations for each vignette are generally well done even if a bit bland for a couple. Some of the scenes do have a bit of softness to them, such as the start of Lemon’s story, but it’s generally an artistic approach to help minimize some of the mosaics that would appear on the original versions. Thankfully, we continue to get mosaic-free releases in the US.

In Summary:
In terms of actual story content, It’s a Family Affair doesn’t rank high. But in terms of actual titillation, the series continues to work very well with a nice range of variety. Though they aren’t brutally hardcore, there is a likely something for almost everyone here. If there is any kind of problem it’s in that you wish some of these scenes would go on longer or be expanded upon in more detail. But for a quick fix of sex with a light touch of story and no commitment to it, It’s a Family Affair is a real winner once again. Definitely recommended even with its short run time.

Features:
Japanese 2.0 LPCM Language, English Subtitles

Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: B
Video Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B+
Extras Grade: N/A

Released By: Japan Anime
Release Date: February 27th, 2007
MSRP: $24.98
Running Time: 25 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.

Yuji makes weekend getaways at the hot springs a real treat for female visitors.

What They Say:
This was a well known spa resort that made history in its days, but now that glory is merely in the past. It’s seen many quiet days ever since, however, things aren’t as quiet as they used to be ever since Yuji came here as an employee. Currently, 3 beautiful housewives are staying at this resort and Yuji steams up a plan to make this spa resort a place they would never forget!

The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language track in stereo encoded at 192kbps. The stereo mix is essentially what you’d expect from the show as it handles dialogue well and the few music pieces and ambient sound effects are well placed. There isn’t all that much in a real sense of directionality but it works for the content at hand. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we did not have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.

Video:
Originally released in 2005, the transfer for this OVA is presented in its original full frame aspect ratio. While no fault of the authoring or transfer itself, the materials here are simply soft across the board. By design likely to add to that kind of feeling of a haze you get from a hot spring, the colors look good and maintain a solid feel but they just aren’t as vibrant as you would expect. This is a good change in general from when a lot of adult shows went digital a few years back and the colors were far too vibrant. The softness here like helps to minimize the digital gradient issue though, which while visible isn’t as strong as it has been in some other shows. This is kept to a few areas such as clothing and occasionally some backgrounds but it doesn’t stand out as strongly.

Packaging:
The illustration for the front cover artwork is rather solid as it has the visual of Ryoko sitting on one of the outcroppings in the spring while holding a very flimsy towel to her chest. It manages to show off a great deal of skin while still providing something of a tease. Overall, it’s very enticing, particularly when combined with the simple but good looking background to all of it. The back cover is a bit simple in design with another image of Ryoko but this time with her robe falling off around her. The cover is otherwise basic with a couple of shades of gray, a brief summary and a few shots from the show. The production and technical information rounds out the area.

Menu:
JapanAnime continues to have some of the smoothest menu transitions out there though the menus are fairly basic otherwise. This release uses the artwork of Ryoko from the back cover as its main image and puts a close-up of some of the rocks from the spring to fill up the background. Where it’s nice in its animation is that there is a good bit of steam rising from off screen. The menu selections are quick and easy to use and the transitional animation for them gives the entire menu process a bit of a smooth feeling. Access times are nice and fast and due to there being only one language, our player presets were a non-issue.

Extras:
Other than the inclusion of an “all sex” chaptering feature and the standard and still welcome PSP/iPod options, there are no extras to be had here.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Having a show centered around a hot spring certainly isn’t new but at least there are a number of ways you can approach it. From historical shows to supernatural thrillers, you can do something with the basic idea and just run with it. Spa of Love goes for a simple approach and one without any real hooks to it but it still manages to make it a surprisingly enjoyable quick little romp.

The show is centered around an inn that used to be quite popular and heavily frequented but is now just a shadow of its former glory. The inn itself still looks to be in great shape and is certainly a good place to hit up for a vacation, but there are always a number of factors that play into why someplace isn’t popular anymore. One of the recent additions to the rank of employees there is a young man named Yuji. His time there has been spent well and he’s managed to bring the staff under his control other than the male chef. Using his “sister” from which to gain more control, he works as a basic employee but spends most of his time taking care of all of the women who pass through the inn’s doors.

This time it’s a group of wives who have come for a weekend getaway. Yuji manages to move quickly to take them down one by one and give them a real workout, be it in their rooms or elsewhere. All of this is done with the help of his “sister” Azusa as well as a new hire, a young woman named Wakana. The help comes both in making sure nobody else is coming and that they’re not distracted, but also for getting directly involved in the action. It doesn’t take long before the women just become completely subservient to Yuji and desire nothing more than to pleasure him and to receive pleasure from him.

While the plot is as thin as a piece of thread, I was surprised at how enjoyable the show is. The character designs, though soft looking, are all very good here. We don’t have anything with far too young look girls running around or devilish school boys manipulating things and that’s a step-up alone. Naturally, I though that the green haired Saori was the most attractive and the one that had some of the best scenes, but the red headed Ryoko is a solid design and has a pair of very good scenes. Even more surprising was how enjoyable the girl with glasses character of Wakana turned out. Not only good looking in design but they did a good job on making her introduction and submission scene a good one. There isn’t anything groundbreaking here but it’s a good fun show that doesn’t break the bounds of reality ” other than how many times Yuji’s able to rise to the occasion.

In Summary:
Spa of Love mixes some good looking animation, solid character designs and a basic but workable concept and turns it into a surprisingly enjoyable show. Without anything really unique to it, it doesn’t stand out against some of the other hot spring based shows. What it does do is to take the “slice of life” kind of shows and give you the hot springs episode you wish that they’d all do. There isn’t a lot to really say about Spa of Love but it was a very enjoyable way to spend thirty minutes.

Features:
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles

Content Grade: B-
Audio Grade: B
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: N/A

Released By: Japan Anime
Release Date: August 29th, 2006
MSRP: $29.99
Running Time: 30 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.

When her husband moves her and their child back to his parents home, Mitsuko finds herself caring for her father in law in more ways than she should have to.

What They Say:
Mitsuko has always lived a simple life as a housewife, but things changed once she moved away from Tokyo to live with her husband’s family. She never thought doing a small “favor” for her husband’s father would lead into a world full of lust. Now, she is a love puppet to her husband’s father and even his…

The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language track only in stereo and encoded at 224kbps. The stereo mix for it is essentially what you expect from an adult release in that it’s clean and problem free during regular playback. The stereo mix itself doesn’t have much in the way of noticeable directionality which is pretty normal and overall it sounds like a standard full forward soundstage presentation.

Video:
Originally released to video in 2004, the transfer for this OVA is presented in its original full frame aspect ratio. The source materials for this show are very similar to most other releases from Japan Anime in that it’s a very clean looking print that’s free of the usual troubles such as cross coloration and aliasing. There’s a touch of blocking going on in a few backgrounds but nothing terribly distracting or really problematic. The show isn’t quite up to some other recent releases in terms of fluid animation quality but it comes across well with its fairly pale and shadowed settings that use a real-world color palette. The character animation is where things look the best in general and hold up well across the episode.

Packaging:
Though it’s not something that appears in the show, at least not directly, the cover art has a good shot of Mitsuko in pieces of her wedding outfit while trying to cover herself and the shame she’s feeling. Her light features and colors are in stark contrast to the dark backgrounds with the eyes blended into the woodwork. The back cover provides a number of shots from the show that are clean and without any real nudity while providing a summary of the premise in between them. The bottom is filled out with the basic legal jargon and the technical grid. As usual, there is a reversible cover though the front portion is essentially the same but with a bit more nudity to it. The back cover for the reverse side has the same layout but a different set of pictures that show off several of the sex scenes.

Menu:
One of the weakest menus to date, the background is made up of the woodwork with the characters faces blended into it which is just far too dark and almost hard to really figure out, especially with such bright navigation pieces laid out with a lot of space between them all over the screen. There isn’t much to look at with the menu and submenus are essentially the same. Access times are nice and fast and the disc correctly read our players’ language presets and played accordingly.

Extras:
The only included video extra here is an image gallery done in slideshow format. For those that like their hentai on the go, the inclusion of a PSP/iPod video version of the episode is here. A menu section in the extras describes the method by which to get it in clear detail as well.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Ew! Old man sex! Naked bald old man sex! Ew!

With that out of the way… Mistreated Bride is an interesting show in its original premise where it introduces us to a good looking and happy family whose decided that it’s time to move out the busy big city and back to the village where the husband had grown up. His family there is one of the oldest and longest surviving direct lines so they have quite a bit of pull there as well as money. The family make-up there is a bit interesting once Mitsuko and her husband and daughter move in. Her husband, Ichiro, has two younger brothers who are both still in school but his mother had died some time back. His elderly father has however remarried and she’s a very young woman, only a couple of years older than Mitsuko if that. Mitsuko is of course deferential to her but the two try to get along as friends with an understanding of position in the air.

As things tend to happen, Mitsuko is the one that finds herself at home alone most of the time as others have jobs and things to attend to. What this means is that she has to take care of the father of the family who is an elderly man. Generally kept to his room and under blankets, she tends to him with his medicine and food. But all of that changes when “Father” decides he needs a bit more help and makes the request for Mitsuko to wipe the sweat off of him. This reveals that he’s taking his Viagra as he’s got a huge erection which he then asks her to take care of. Before long, he’s got her in every position and kind of embarrassment that he can think of. To make it worse, she can’t tell anyone about it, she can’t get him to stop and she secretly is learning that she doesn’t want him to stop. Her own needs aren’t being met by her husband who is now having problems with being intimate with her in his parents home and with their daughter sleeping next to them. So it’s easy for Mitsuko to continue to fall under her “Father’s” sway.

What the old guy really needs is Viagra for his legs to be able to pull off some of those positions without his body snapping in half.

Mistreated Bride is a decent looking title overall but it has a lot of similarities in how it looks to Taboo Charming Mother which isn’t a surprise since it’s by the same creator. Those similarities are strong at times such as the how the female characters look but there are certainly enough differences as well. The character animation is pretty average for an adult title and it lacks some of the polish of Taboo Charming Mother but it’s not a bad looking piece. Mitsuko gets all of the action in the first volume but it’s unfortunate that she’s either paired up with an incredibly old bald naked guy or his ugly school age son.

In Summary:
From the moment I saw the old guy I had a bad feeling in my stomach about this show and it, unfortunately, came through. While Mitsuko is enough of an attraction, her pairings don’t help and just make me cringe and turn my eyes away from the screen. That’s certainly not a good sign. While it’s a decently animated piece and the initial premise is open to a number of possibilities due to the number of people who live in the household, the opening episode doesn’t really make me want to see any more of the show. If you’ve got a hankering for an old bald guy hung like a horse though, this may be right up your alley.

Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Art Gallery

Content Grade: C-
Audio Grade: B
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: C+
Extras Grade: B-

Released By: Japan Anime
Release Date: March 21st, 2006
MSRP: $24.99
Running Time: 30 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.

She’s gotta have it.

Creative Staff
Story/Art: Izure

What They Say:
Nonstop saliva exchange. ❤

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic X-Eros from the November 2017 installment, Promise is a twenty-two page story from creator Mikarin, who has three other works on the service. This marked my first experience with this particular creator but definitely won’t be my last. Izure’s artwork is definitely strong here with a lot of detail and some great flow from panel to panel, though it’s one to definitely read in its original size. The character designs are great but they also work well with a simple script to make the characters engaging and it gives Yuka a lot of personality in the lead-up to the actual sex so that you feel invested in the actual encounter.

The story focuses around a high school couple with Yuka and Takao. They’re both heavily into each other but they’re also focusing on their studies because their goal is to be in the same college together so they can really be together. That means they don’t go beyond first base, though there’s certainly more than enough interest between the two. While normally the story might follow Takao and how he struggles with this it instead follows Yuka as she can’t help herself as she’s so horny. While home pretending to be studying she’s furiously masturbating to the thought of Takao that she doesn’t even realize when he enters the room to return a study guide to her. That’s embarrassing to be sure but it sets the stage for their full on encounter as she can’t wait any longer.

The chapter digs right into events because of this as Yuka can’t keep her hands off of him. While Takao is surprised and halfheartedly resists because of the deal they made, she’s just so wound up that she goes all in. Takao is less of a character here and more just a means but because Izure set things up so that we know the relationship they have and the passion that she feels toward him it works even with a reduced/minimal male leading character. Izure’s artwork is just perfect here with such great detail that helps the passion and intensity coming from Yuka to shine through beautifully. The fluidity of the scenes, the positions, and the expressions really worked very well right from the first panel with her pleasuring herself. From there it just dove right into it with some playful material before full on hot engagement.

In Summary
Promise was my first exposure to Izure’s work but certainly won’t be the last as it’s just well done from top to bottom. It’s got the kind of promise to it that I hope for a multi-chapter story at some point to be able to explore more character side material so that the erotic side can be even more intense and meaningful. As a standalone chapter it delivers and makes for a very enjoyable experience from top to bottom.

Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+

Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: July 2017
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription

An intense match made!

Creative Staff
Story/Art: Homunculus

What They Say:
Homunculus presents: Libido Storm!

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic Kairakuten from the November 2017 installment, Love Knot Tale is a twenty-six page story from creator Homunculus, who has a whole lot of other works on the service. This marked my first experience with this particular creator and I definitely want more from them. Thankfully, with so much out there, it’s easy to sink your teeth into. The story with its page length has more than enough room to work what it wants to do and it avoids being just one overly extended sex scene. We get a decent bit of character material, build up to events, playfulness, and lots of intensity that makes it a lot of fun once you get into the groove of what’s happening.

The story focuses on students Tokiwa and Kuragano a week or so after they had visited a shrine on a school trip that had a history of matchmaking. Tokiwa’s been unable to stop thinking about Kuragano since then when they were paired up for it and he’s having some serious intense wet dreams about her – in the middle of the school day at that. So, when she confronts him about his lewd looks when they’ve been near each other she also reveals that there may be something tied to that shrine as she’s feeling the same way. Both make it clear they had no interest in each other prior to this, or were even all that aware of each other, but both are finding themselves being driven mad by the intensity and doing their best to keep their distance and work out schedules and notifications in order to achieve that.

Kuragano, however, loses her resistance first and essentially sets up a situation that gets them into the school nurse’s office after hours so she can get what she (and he) needs. There’s some uncertainty and clumsiness to it since it’s both their first times but they embrace it hard and fast and really get into it. Homunculus’ artwork is great as I love the character designs and the kind of positions they get in because for a lot of it there’s an obvious romantic intensity as well with how they kiss and press against each other. It’s not just sex but the sex is thoroughly enhanced by it. The end result is an extended piece after the dream pieces and the teasing that delivers wonderfully – and sets up for some comical one-panel encounters after that which leaves me wanting another chapter or a whole book on this pair.

In Summary
Love Knot Tale delivered for me in a really good way with its designs and pacing to make for an engaging and fun story. It’s a familiar tale told in a fun way with characters that left me wanting to know more about them and what happens after the story, while also getting a lot more encounters with them because they just seem like a fun couple to connect with. Definitely a chapter that stands out in all the right ways.

Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+

Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: November 2017
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription

Back at the end of March 2016 we ended up celebrating our 18th year of working this particular kind of job. Way back in 1998, I had started with a little sliver of a page on a Netcom personal account that ended up becoming AnimeOnDVD.com. Life has taken us in some interesting places along the way and I’ve been utterly blessed with knowing so many people over the years – and as I find at conventions and elsewhere, I’ve been a big part of a lot of other people’s lives by the continual presence and even personality as some have told me.

As you can imagine, things change a lot over the years from when we were able to generate revenue from DVD Express back in the day along with Right Stuf as affiliate partnerships were the way most sites survived and funded their operations. The changing nature of the advertising landscape has been difficult for a lot of places in the years since as affiliate deals are largely gone and advertising is even harder. I have always worked the goal of being 99% anime/manga focused in terms of our advertising, never doing pop-ups, pop-unders, banners with sounds, and all that other problematic junk that I hate myself. I wanted advertising that was relevant to the readership.

Sadly, it’s just not a sustainable side anymore.

I ended up quite humbled last year when I needed a bit of help with a medical bill from some surgeries I had and part of that was because the advertising side just doesn’t cut it anymore. In doing my tax prep this past month, and I’ll be quite honest here, we made about $15k last year. And this site is my primary job. Suffice to say, with two teenage girls, it’s just not going to work this way much longer. So I want to try something that I’ve seen some other sites I frequent have done over the years, such as Penny Arcade back in the day, by making us fully powered by you, the fans.

As you can see, we’ve set up the GoFundMe page with a where we’re doing monthly runs with a goal of $1000 and have gotten November 2017 underway with a whole lot of new rewards added in recently! Don’t forget, we are a small business! While I had been up front with the overall yearly goal, I suspect this format will work better and we’ll be stocking with a lot more rewards as well. Doing this will help us to basically get essentially a hair above the poverty line according to the government. And I’m more than fine with that because I love what I do and I want to do what I love. That’s why I’m crazily up at 5:30 in the morning and plugging away at stuff throughout the entire day. It’s why I write reviews in the late afternoon, monitor news throughout the day, watch and write about primetime shows, dig into comic books and manga, follow conventions, review new releases of movies, DVDs, and Blu-rays. It’s why I post throughout the day on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest – so I can keep information available and fresh for my followers. It’s why I spend time each week distributing materials to our wonderful reviewers who can offer different viewpoints so we have variations in material. I live and breathe this stuff. And I love sharing it with you all.

At our current settings, we’re producing between 30-40 articles a day during the week and about a dozen each day over the weekend. That’s what we do and that’s what you’d be funding. The news, the opinions, the reviews. The social media interactions.

Those that donate will be able to choose DVD/BD rewards that I’ve got as I continue to purge my own library with $15, $25, $50, $100 levels. You can see the spreadsheet below that you’ll be able to choose from after donating!

Having done this for 18 years, it’s definitely a hugely difficult decision to do this because I’ve found a lot of ways to make it work over the years. But it’s becoming impossible to do so and this site, this audience, is not something that I want to lose, so I want to try this route and see what we can do.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support, interest, and friendship over the years from so many of you.

Help spread the word!

Getting back into the swing of things.

Creative Staff
Story/Art: Hardboiled Yoshiko

What They Say:
We just met, so isn’t this all out of order?

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic Kairakuten from the November 2017 installment, Love Knot Tale is a twenty-six-page story from creator Homunculus, who has five others works on the service. This marked my first experience with this particular creator and it’s certainly interesting. The idea behind it is one that I like but the execution feels a bit wonky and the way the characters are drawn left me unsure as to the ages, which is kind of part and parcel to things. Or at least my understanding of it unless the translation’s a little wonky, which I don’t think it is. The title was one I gravitated toward since it’s not one that takes place in school and I enjoy the stories that focus on adults and the dynamics that can be explored there.

The premise is simple as it focuses on Hajime as he’s brought Nowa to his place. It seems like they may be co-workers or something but they’re definitely aware of each other prior to this encounter. There’s a cute uncertainty as to how to get things going, though she’s ready to just dive in with a quick removal of her top and asking if he’s ready to have sex or not. But Hajime wants to actually spend some time with her because he actually likes her so there’s some rather adorable verbal and physical foreplay here before things get more serious. But it’s amid this that we learn that she hasn’t been active since she gave birth, which is when Hajime discovers that she’s a mom, but also said kid has porn so he’s fairly old in a sense. Nowa doesn’t look like she’d have a teenage son but that’s more in the design problem than anything else.

None of it changes Hajime’s interest because he really does like her and knowing all this about her means we get something that’s a bit more tender and loving rather than a wham-bam kind of scenario. She’s nervous but excited, he’s wanting to please her, and the two have a good encounter with each other as everything clicks right. There’s some x-ray material here that kind of leaves me cool but it’s minimal overall and that definitely helps. We get to see a good bit from Hajime’s point of view and the way Nowa is presented innocently works well because of how she’s written and her dialogue. I like how she’s more forward but it’s a bit of a struggle against how nervous and cautious Hajime is, but a lot of that is simply because he’s looking for more than just sex here. That said, the sex itself is well illustrated and makes it worth the awkward setup phase.

In Summary
Falling in Love is a charming little title that just needed some better editing in its original design and a little more clarity in character design so that things felt a little more natural. If some of the story elements of Nowa had been set in the first page or two it would have worked a lot better and been more engaging to read since there are some fun ideas in the mix. Yoshiko’s artwork is pretty nice as I like the roundness of it and some of the simpler areas where it’s a little rougher in the details but it has some good pieces to the settings at times and Nowa’s design overall is certainly appealing.

Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B+

Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: November 2017
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription

A most perfect arrangement.

Creative Staff
Story/Art: Ashiomi Masato

What They Say:
Work where you offer up your body. ♥

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic Kairakuten from the November 2017 installment, Everyday Work is an eighteen page story from creator Ashiomi Masato, who has ten others works on the service. This marked my first experience with this particular creator and it’s certainly an interesting one. Masato put together a familiar erotic story in how the characters operate and their relationship dynamic in general but it kind of lacks a cohesive enough motivation for it that ends up hitting more creepy buttons than anything else. When you put that relationship aspect out of mind and just enjoy the interactions in an adult sense it clicks well and Masato has some appealing designs.

The general premise is that Kouta lives together with the sisters Chiyo and Yachiyo. Their parents took him in at an early age but because of circumstances the sisters ended up raising him more than anything else. They’re both working adults these days, though Yachiyo still goes to school as well, and Kouta is close to finishing up his own school and has a potential future ahead of him. The problem is that the trio are engaged in some serious sexual shenanigans because they’ve fallen in love along the way and because Kouta has an erection that just won’t quite. He’s glad to help pay them back in this way because of all that they’ve done for him over the years and if intense hot and heavy sex is what does it then it’s win/win for everyone.

When it comes to the sex itself, Masato handles it well as we get a couple of quick hit scenes early on with Kouta with the sisters individually as he helps them to relax and feel better after a long day at work or school. They’re excited for all of this and he’s certainly eager as well, but it has that sense of real familiarity and warmth between them all, even if Yachiyo’s scenes feel a little more disconnected in terms of relationship. With both of them knowing that he’s likely going to end this arrangement at some point they enjoy it all and the main segment features them all together, though the sisters don’t really interact with each other and are more a side by side kind of thing, which is good as it keeps most of the incest kind of stuff out of it. Both women are well designed and each tick off particular things that a lot of readers look for so it’s easy to gravitate toward one or the other, or both in many cases, and just enjoy the positive interactions and happiness that comes from these scenes.

In Summary
Everyday Work is a fun little story that could have been better served by some structural changes in how things are revealed and the encounters in how they’re setup. The explanation aspects are just weirdly placed and don’t really convey things in a good enough way to make it flow without being too creepy or uncertain. But taking that element out of it and just enjoying it as a work with a young man that’s got a close bond with three women that’s beneficial to all involved and you’ll find a lot to like. Masato’s artwork and designs are pretty good and I can see it being more detailed and even more erotic as time goes on.

Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B+

Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: November 2017
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription

A past niceness encourages an exciting present.

Creative Staff
Story/Art: kakao

What They Say:
Your smile makes it all worth it. ♥

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic Kairakuten BEAST from the November 2017 installment, Focusing on You is an eighteen page story from creator kakao, who has five others works on the service. This marked my first experience with this particular creator and I can definitely see myself looking for more of their work. It’s the kind of story that has a sweet and innocent element to it even as it gets into the sex itself and the lead characters aren’t the types that make you cringe, even if they’re doing and saying things that don’t exactly flow well. The combination of the designs, the sex, and the setup for it all is what allows it to work better than it should.

The story follows a group of high school kids that have gone on a filming trip for their club and that has them getting a lot done for it. While there are a few other characters that we see briefly in the background it focuses primarily on Yamada, our male lead who has been part of the club for a while, and Satou, the attractive young woman who everyone is surprised participated in the club and film at all. We get some surprisingly nice setup scenes right from the start but things shift when everyone is at the hot spring inn that they’re staying at and Yamada is late in getting his chance to bathe because of all of the equipment. That has him walking in when Satou is there and you get the expected freak out, which leads to him being slightly injured by her.

It’s easy to see where it all goes from here as she feels bad about hurting him and offers to help him get clean in a very innocent way at the start because of how his arm feels. He’s really uncertain about it in a big way but when she begins to press again him in more intimate ways he can’t help but to really enjoy it. And when she takes it a lot further, with reasons that we learn along the way that make you smile, he’s just smitten and wants everything from her that she’s willing to give. The first time aspect for both of them is nicely presented in the way that it feels innocent even as they really go at it but a lot of the charm comes through in two ways. The first is that kakao really came up with a nice design for Satou that’s pretty damn hot when she gets into things full on. The other is that Yamada’s reactions come across as very honest and with just enough humor sans crudeness that you can imagine yourself in that kind of situation.

In Summary
Focusing on You is a pretty fun little story that might have benefited from an extra couple of pages to set up the characters a bit more but accomplishes plenty with what it has. I like the designs that kakao uses, especially for Satou, and the setting was well handled with some fun positions, visuals, and a good sense of the erotic about it as opposed to just hardcore going at it. There’s a nice innocence about it that was enjoyable as well and the story as a whole, while familiar to be sure, was really well executed and has me curious about kakao’s other works. Definitely a fun chapter to enjoy by yourself or with someone special.

Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B+

Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: November 2017
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription

You can’t quite go back home.

Creative Staff
Story/Art: Tsuge Yasuna

What They Say:
A reunion with bouncy boobs. ♥

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic Shitsurakuten from the November 2017 installment, Sweet Memory is a twenty page story from creator Tsuge Yasuna, who has six others works on the service. This marked my first experience with this particular creator and it’s a pretty decent one though I don’t think I’ll be adding the creator to my watch list. Yasuna’s designs are pretty good overall and I like that there are enough background pieces to make it feel lived in and the actual erotic material fits the bill nicely. But something about it just didn’t click strongly enough to say go find more by this person and dig into it.

The premise is a fun enough one as Tatsuhiko is surprised when his mother reveals that their next door neighbor’s daughter has come back from Tokyo for a visit, someone that he hasn’t seen in an age. Yume’s arrival is one that really hits him as she’s not the tomboy he remembers as she’s very attractive – and married. She’s excited to be back in town and seeing her parents but just like when she was a kid she hangs out at Tatsuhiko’s a lot and the two go and have some very relaxing fun in the area. Tatsuhiko’s naturally drawn to her though but he’s behaving and treating her right because he knows she’s married because of the ring. Where it goes south is two-fold; the first is that her husband has come to town to find her and is trying to apologize for things even though she doesn’t want to hear it, which has Tatsuhiko stepping in to get her to someplace safe.

The second is that they seek refuge in a shed that they used to play in as kids and things get pretty tight physically with how close they are. Yume apologizes and tries to give him some space but Tatsuhiko just can’t control himself anymore and goes at it with her. She’s “willing” at this point as she never says know and just believes she’s unattractive, hence why her husband cheated on her. His attention has her going all in on their encounter but his lack of control at the start is off-putting even if it leads to what seems like a consensual scene between the two. She gets very into it and the two realize they have a deep bond through the years that makes this encounter supercharged, though one that doesn’t give Tatsuhiko something longterm to hold onto. At least in the short term the reader gets a pretty well-illustrated scene.

In Summary
Sweet Memory is a cute enough story for the most part with some areas that we don’t see tackled all too often. Yume’s certainly an appealing looking character and the actual main scene is one that serves up something that connects because of the history the characters have. The situation surrounding it is a bit problematic as is how the scene itself starts as it feels like there just needed to be a few more panels to smooth it out so that it wasn’t so awkward looking. Yasuna’s designs throughout with the layouts are good and I like the attention given to the locations so that it enhanced the story and gave it a more grounded feeling in a lot of ways.

Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B+

Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: November 2017
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription

It’s that crazy time of the year where lots of stuff goes on sale so we figured we’d take a stab at it too with our donation drive. From now through Sunday until midnight, our $25 reward donation pile is now $15 instead of $25! The usual restrictions apply as you can see below but this hopefully helps us clear things out a bit, gets some good shows into your hands, and helps to keep the site running! We’ve done a bunch of upgrades recently to improve performance, which has gone great, and reduce downtime, which has been almost eliminated, so we’re ready for the next phase!

Below is what you’d normally see in regard to our monthly donation drive:

Back at the end of March 2016 we ended up celebrating our 18th year of working this particular kind of job. Way back in 1998, I had started with a little sliver of a page on a Netcom personal account that ended up becoming AnimeOnDVD.com. Life has taken us in some interesting places along the way and I’ve been utterly blessed with knowing so many people over the years – and as I find at conventions and elsewhere, I’ve been a big part of a lot of other people’s lives by the continual presence and even personality as some have told me.

As you can imagine, things change a lot over the years from when we were able to generate revenue from DVD Express back in the day along with Right Stuf as affiliate partnerships were the way most sites survived and funded their operations. The changing nature of the advertising landscape has been difficult for a lot of places in the years since as affiliate deals are largely gone and advertising is even harder. I have always worked the goal of being 99% anime/manga focused in terms of our advertising, never doing pop-ups, pop-unders, banners with sounds, and all that other problematic junk that I hate myself. I wanted advertising that was relevant to the readership.

Sadly, it’s just not a sustainable side anymore.

I ended up quite humbled last year when I needed a bit of help with a medical bill from some surgeries I had and part of that was because the advertising side just doesn’t cut it anymore. In doing my tax prep this past month, and I’ll be quite honest here, we made about $15k last year. And this site is my primary job. Suffice to say, with two teenage girls, it’s just not going to work this way much longer. So I want to try something that I’ve seen some other sites I frequent have done over the years, such as Penny Arcade back in the day, by making us fully powered by you, the fans.

As you can see, we’ve set up the GoFundMe page with a where we’re doing monthly runs with a goal of $1000 and have gotten November 2017 underway with a whole lot of new rewards added in recently! Don’t forget, we are a small business! While I had been up front with the overall yearly goal, I suspect this format will work better and we’ll be stocking with a lot more rewards as well. Doing this will help us to basically get essentially a hair above the poverty line according to the government. And I’m more than fine with that because I love what I do and I want to do what I love. That’s why I’m crazily up at 5:30 in the morning and plugging away at stuff throughout the entire day. It’s why I write reviews in the late afternoon, monitor news throughout the day, watch and write about primetime shows, dig into comic books and manga, follow conventions, review new releases of movies, DVDs, and Blu-rays. It’s why I post throughout the day on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest – so I can keep information available and fresh for my followers. It’s why I spend time each week distributing materials to our wonderful reviewers who can offer different viewpoints so we have variations in material. I live and breathe this stuff. And I love sharing it with you all.

At our current settings, we’re producing between 30-40 articles a day during the week and about a dozen each day over the weekend. That’s what we do and that’s what you’d be funding. The news, the opinions, the reviews. The social media interactions.

Those that donate will be able to choose DVD/BD rewards that I’ve got as I continue to purge my own library with $15, $25, $50, $100 levels. You can see the spreadsheet below that you’ll be able to choose from after donating!

Having done this for 18 years, it’s definitely a hugely difficult decision to do this because I’ve found a lot of ways to make it work over the years. But it’s becoming impossible to do so and this site, this audience, is not something that I want to lose, so I want to try this route and see what we can do.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support, interest, and friendship over the years from so many of you.

Help spread the word!

Even with as much as the anime and manga distributor side has contracted over the last decade or so there’s still room for more to happen. Hentai manga distributor FAKKU has revealed that they’ve acquired the Kitty Media anime distributor. They’ve got some solid plans going forward for it in terms of handling the existing library, which has distribution being handled on the physical media side through Media Blasters, and we’re curious to see if this will give a good boost to more anime projects being acquired and released through both physical and streaming.

FAKKU, LLC (FAKKU), the premiere source for eromanga in English, announces the acquisition of adult anime publisher KITTY MEDIA. By combining two of the more prominent brands in Japanese eros, FAKKU’s acquisition of Kitty Media Japanese animation strengthens their position as the primary source for licensed “hentai” content on the web.

Established in 1997, as an imprint of New Jersey-based Media Blasters, Kitty Media has distributed and published numerous noteworthy anime titles such as Bible Black, Another Lady Innocent, and Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend. And has maintained an active catalog that includes popular titles such as KITE, Aki Sora, La Blue Girl, and Spaceship Agga Rutter.

FAKKU President Jacob Grady said, “With Kitty Media’s established position as the leader in uncensored hentai anime, their library of content and industry experience will help bring FAKKU to the next level. I grew up watching Kitty Media releases and I have no doubt that we will do some incredible things with the brand.” Physical distribution of titles will continue to be maintained by Media Blasters; their most recent release being Vampire Vixen (Itadaki! Seieki).

FAKKU plans to make Kitty Media titles available to users through their existing online subscription service at no additional cost. Additionally FAKKU will offer DRM-free digital purchases of each title. “We believe consumers are willing and wanting to support the industry, they just haven’t been given the opportunity through the existing distribution models,” added Mr. Grady. “That’s something we are going to start developing for the future.”

About FAKKU, LLC

Founded in 2006, FAKKU is the largest English hentai publisher in the world. FAKKU currently publishes seven of Japan’s leading eromanga magazines digitally through its partnerships with WANIMAGAZINE, Co., Ltd., Bundendo Corp, and Akaneshinsha Co., Ltd. Since 2014 it has also printed dozens of eromanga graphic novels and doujinshi, featuring some of the highest physical production values in the North American manga industry.

Back at the end of March 2016 we ended up celebrating our 18th year of working this particular kind of job. Way back in 1998, I had started with a little sliver of a page on a Netcom personal account that ended up becoming AnimeOnDVD.com. Life has taken us in some interesting places along the way and I’ve been utterly blessed with knowing so many people over the years – and as I find at conventions and elsewhere, I’ve been a big part of a lot of other people’s lives by the continual presence and even personality as some have told me.

As you can imagine, things change a lot over the years from when we were able to generate revenue from DVD Express back in the day along with Right Stuf as affiliate partnerships were the way most sites survived and funded their operations. The changing nature of the advertising landscape has been difficult for a lot of places in the years since as affiliate deals are largely gone and advertising is even harder. I have always worked the goal of being 99% anime/manga focused in terms of our advertising, never doing pop-ups, pop-unders, banners with sounds, and all that other problematic junk that I hate myself. I wanted advertising that was relevant to the readership.

Sadly, it’s just not a sustainable side anymore.

I ended up quite humbled last year when I needed a bit of help with a medical bill from some surgeries I had and part of that was because the advertising side just doesn’t cut it anymore. In doing my tax prep this past month, and I’ll be quite honest here, we made about $15k last year. And this site is my primary job. Suffice to say, with two teenage girls, it’s just not going to work this way much longer. So I want to try something that I’ve seen some other sites I frequent have done over the years, such as Penny Arcade back in the day, by making us fully powered by you, the fans.

As you can see, we’ve set up the GoFundMe page with a where we’re doing monthly runs with a goal of $1000 and have gotten December 2017 underway with a whole lot of new rewards added in recently! Don’t forget, we are a small business! While I had been up front with the overall yearly goal, I suspect this format will work better and we’ll be stocking with a lot more rewards as well. Doing this will help us to basically get essentially a hair above the poverty line according to the government. And I’m more than fine with that because I love what I do and I want to do what I love. That’s why I’m crazily up at 5:30 in the morning and plugging away at stuff throughout the entire day. It’s why I write reviews in the late afternoon, monitor news throughout the day, watch and write about primetime shows, dig into comic books and manga, follow conventions, review new releases of movies, DVDs, and Blu-rays. It’s why I post throughout the day on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest – so I can keep information available and fresh for my followers. It’s why I spend time each week distributing materials to our wonderful reviewers who can offer different viewpoints so we have variations in material. I live and breathe this stuff. And I love sharing it with you all.

At our current settings, we’re producing between 30-40 articles a day during the week and about a dozen each day over the weekend. That’s what we do and that’s what you’d be funding. The news, the opinions, the reviews. The social media interactions.

Those that donate will be able to choose DVD/BD rewards that I’ve got as I continue to purge my own library with $15, $25, $50, $100 levels. You can see the spreadsheet below that you’ll be able to choose from after donating!

Having done this for 18 years, it’s definitely a hugely difficult decision to do this because I’ve found a lot of ways to make it work over the years. But it’s becoming impossible to do so and this site, this audience, is not something that I want to lose, so I want to try this route and see what we can do.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support, interest, and friendship over the years from so many of you.

Help spread the word!

Back at the end of March 2016 we ended up celebrating our 18th year of working this particular kind of job. Way back in 1998, I had started with a little sliver of a page on a Netcom personal account that ended up becoming AnimeOnDVD.com. Life has taken us in some interesting places along the way and I’ve been utterly blessed with knowing so many people over the years – and as I find at conventions and elsewhere, I’ve been a big part of a lot of other people’s lives by the continual presence and even personality as some have told me.

As you can imagine, things change a lot over the years from when we were able to generate revenue from DVD Express back in the day along with Right Stuf as affiliate partnerships were the way most sites survived and funded their operations. The changing nature of the advertising landscape has been difficult for a lot of places in the years since as affiliate deals are largely gone and advertising is even harder. I have always worked the goal of being 99% anime/manga focused in terms of our advertising, never doing pop-ups, pop-unders, banners with sounds, and all that other problematic junk that I hate myself. I wanted advertising that was relevant to the readership.

Sadly, it’s just not a sustainable side anymore.

I ended up quite humbled last year when I needed a bit of help with a medical bill from some surgeries I had and part of that was because the advertising side just doesn’t cut it anymore. In doing my tax prep this past month, and I’ll be quite honest here, we made about $15k last year. And this site is my primary job. Suffice to say, with two teenage girls, it’s just not going to work this way much longer. So I want to try something that I’ve seen some other sites I frequent have done over the years, such as Penny Arcade back in the day, by making us fully powered by you, the fans.

As you can see, we’ve set up the GoFundMe page with a where we’re doing monthly runs with a goal of $1000 and have gotten January 2018 underway with a whole lot of new rewards added in recently! Don’t forget, we are a small business! While I had been up front with the overall yearly goal, I suspect this format will work better and we’ll be stocking with a lot more rewards as well. Doing this will help us to basically get essentially a hair above the poverty line according to the government. And I’m more than fine with that because I love what I do and I want to do what I love. That’s why I’m crazily up at 5:30 in the morning and plugging away at stuff throughout the entire day. It’s why I write reviews in the late afternoon, monitor news throughout the day, watch and write about primetime shows, dig into comic books and manga, follow conventions, review new releases of movies, DVDs, and Blu-rays. It’s why I post throughout the day on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest – so I can keep information available and fresh for my followers. It’s why I spend time each week distributing materials to our wonderful reviewers who can offer different viewpoints so we have variations in material. I live and breathe this stuff. And I love sharing it with you all.

At our current settings, we’re producing between 30-40 articles a day during the week and about a dozen each day over the weekend. That’s what we do and that’s what you’d be funding. The news, the opinions, the reviews. The social media interactions.

Those that donate will be able to choose DVD/BD rewards that I’ve got as I continue to purge my own library with $15, $25, $50, $100 levels. You can see the spreadsheet below that you’ll be able to choose from after donating!

Having done this for 18 years, it’s definitely a hugely difficult decision to do this because I’ve found a lot of ways to make it work over the years. But it’s becoming impossible to do so and this site, this audience, is not something that I want to lose, so I want to try this route and see what we can do.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support, interest, and friendship over the years from so many of you.

Help spread the word!

Get ‘er done!

Creative Staff
Story/Art: Ichigou

What They Say:
Never leave things half done. ♥

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic X-Eros from the January 2018/#59 installment, Bubbly Wedding Bath is a twenty-four-page story from creator Ichigou, who has two others works on the service. This marked my first experience with this particular creator and it’s certainly promising. The main thing that got me with it is that even with twenty-four pages it didn’t really get to set up things at the start well enough so that you got the situation and basics of the character’s relationships from the get-go. Ichigou’s artwork is definitely appealing but has some elements to it where it feels like it hasn’t quite been figured out yet with some of the poses and layouts coming across as a bit too crowded and busy when simpler designs and more focus on particular areas across the body would have worked better. Granted, some of this comes from a threesome sequence but the general idea remains.

The premise for this is straightforward enough overall in that it follows a young master of a household that will be taking it over eventually someday. With his young age he’s a bit of a flighty guy at the moment and that has the two women that work there, that are of roughly the same age as him and have been there since they were young, always getting after him to get things done. Which does make for some amusement as Hotaru chases after him pretty hard to get him to do the cleaning while Amane is a bit more relaxed about it, at least until he faceplants right in her chest while trying to escape. After all, who really wants to do all that cleaning when there are robots that should be able to do it. Now, about that bath that had its water replace with alcohol…

It’s here that things get pretty sexy as Amane sneaks into it herself to strip down and enjoy such a luxurious thing. Of course, Satoru shows up not long after and she hides only to be one-upped by Hotaru shows up as well as a skimpy bikini to seduce him. They actually make a bit of progress before it’s too much for Amane as they’re just going so slow at this potential seduction and she just wants to get it done and done now. She takes the lead on all of it and it moves in some pretty fun ways as she makes him realize what she can do. With her larger chest size that becomes the initial focus while Hotaru shows some surprising skills as well. Ichigou handles the sex scene here well as it moves between the two of them really taking control of Satoru, who is just exhausted and kind of fending them off, and it gets explosive several times in a row.

In Summary
Bubbly Wedding Bath has some cute elements to it with what it does but even with all the pages it has at hand it doesn’t establish the setting or characters as well as I had hoped. I like the dynamic between the trio and while Ichigou may overplay some of the physical attributes a bit much in some ways it has a good sense of fun about it even with Satoru’s mild protestations. The artwork is definitely the stronger point here with this work but there are just a few areas where it doesn’t flow well and feels a bit busier than it needs to be. In the end, however, it’s fun enough to kill a few minutes with and enjoy on a basic level.

Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B+

Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: January 2018
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription

The games people play.

Creative Staff
Story/Art: Ouchikaeru

What They Say:
You’re not gonna do it? Do you want to? Point-blank appeal! ♥

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic X-Eros from the January 2018/#62 installment, Close & Distant is an eighteen page story from creator Ouchikaeru, who has five others works on the service. This marked my first experience with this particular creator and I can definitely seeing adding them to my follow list. The design work is really nicely done with appealing character models throughout but it’s more about the overall detail and setting as well as creating the right mood. We may not really know these characters well in the brief time that we see them here but there’s a lot conveyed through looks and just the presentation of their personality.

The focus is on two presumably distant (and likely unrelated) cousins where Nozomi comes over often to help Kazu out with his studies when he’s not off at work. She does help him to be sure but she also spends plenty of time playing videogames in his room and they’re basically never checked on because she does actually help him. The problem is that Nozomi is in love with him but unable to express that as they come across more as friends than anything else. That changes when he rushes off to work after she tries in her own way to give him signals and that leaves her frustrated on his bed and taking care of herself. When she bursts back in having realized he set his alarm wrong, well, that’s quite the sight and she gets the courage to make it clear what she wants.

While it’s not a blissful kind of Hollywood first time encounter that we get here, it has plenty of shades of that as he’s drawn into her embrace and it becomes a lot more. Her forward nature is well illustrated here in the way she goes after him and he can’t help but to enjoy it. Nozomi’s expressions are a big plus here as well as her realistic frame and proportions that really does make her feel like the girl next door type that you never knew was into you. Ouchikaeru’s artwork is great here as they end up really getting into it here as it avoids going for anything outlandish that wouldn’t make sense for a first time encounter and even though we get lots of solid sex it has that feeling of love and care about it, more so out of Nozomi as she’s the focus, but it impacts the story as a whole and for me that just heightens the enjoyment of the sex scene itself.

In Summary
I really enjoyed this chapter. While I’m probably fooling myself into thinking they’re all college age just to avoid any weird feelings the crux of it is that the characters make their interactions feel real and honest and that goes a long way toward enjoyment. The early pages are very fun with them just hanging together to Nozomi enjoying herself out of frustration alone before it goes into the full-on scene. It’s the kind of tale done well enough, and really well illustrated, that leaves you wanting to see more of it because it could easily be its own slice of life sex story. Definitely fun and a creator I’m keeping an eye on.

Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+

Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: January 2018
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription