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Karakuri Ninja Girl
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Title Info
- seen: 1-2 of 2
- type: OAV
- grade: watchable
- genre: erotica
- form: sub
- dur: 30
- made: unknown
- Review created: Sun Aug 29 22:11:25 EST 2004
- mod: none
You are about to enter another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but also of pink wobbly things and suggestive visual filters. A journey into the dark side of imagination. Next stop, the hentai zone!
Synopsis
Imagine yourself possessing the power of the legendary ninja. Having been trained to the peak of physical perfection, equipped with secret techniques both physical and mystical, there is little that can stand in the way of these silent assassins. But what desires lurk in the heart of these shadowy figures? Well, I can definitely say that in the case of at least two of them the answer is a normal suburban life and the chance to bonk like ninja rabbits in the evening. Yep, Fawn Bell and Moon Shadow are young ninja in love, and nothing is going to stand in their way.
Review
A one paragraph synopsis, a pretty sure sign that the title is either short or pretty lightweight. And in this case both of these are true. There being only two episodes and the dial is firmly set on light humor with a healthy serving of erotica. Unlike much hentai it does actually have a story, which is even moderately entertaining, but it's not really in danger of being a literary classic. It does help establish the leads as actual characters though, and some of the scenes of them in the real world are actually quite fun.
As can be expected the characters are not particularly deep either, but they're quite acceptable. Fawn is like a thousand and one other cute anime heroines with long blond hair in a sailor moon style. Moonshadow is likewise amorphous, a composite of a thousand energetic and irrepressible young men. They're sort of cute, not without a sense of humor, and they honestly do love one another. Once again this sort of simplicity is not the norm, but it's actually sort of pleasant. And their love will see them overcome adversity in the form of their ninja master (who tries to shame them into submission, with rather amusing results) and a jealous ex-partner (Ninja lesbian action!).
And some of the humor is nice. There's a sailor moon reference, not by fawn, that amused me quite a bit. Likewise Moonshadow's response to betrayal, and the ninja masters stirring speech about ignoring the longings of the flesh, weren't bad. The relatively light, bubbly and positive ambiance to this piece means it's really quite watchable. Once again, no classic, but not without a certain charm.
The main problem with the show is that it has erotic content in it. I'm not averse to the concept, but it has a couple of issues with how it combines with the other elements. To start with the very cute character designs, and the light air, tend to reduce the appeal of the actual erotic content. This is greatly accentuated by the normal practice of removing any evidence of genitalia. Normally this limitation is cunningly concealed but this show either doesn't try or does it badly. Some of the sexual scenes border on parody due to the missing members. The combination of the two means that it's sort of hard to take the sex scenes seriously, or find them particularly erotic.
As a result the show straddles an uneasy line. Neither the erotica nor the humor is enough by itself, but the audience that would value the combination is quite possibly a small subset. The cute / comedy anime fans won't watch it because of the erotica and the hentai fans are probably going to consider it too mild and nice. And both of them are going to recognise it as light weight. Certainly it's hard for me to actually recommend it for any particular reason.
Production
The production is pretty decent, especially for a hentai tape. Some of the action and ninja stuff is well represented and moves quite well. Character design is definitely on the cute side, and not hugely detailed, but works quite well. The colors and finish are bright and clean. It uses some super deformed techniques to accentuate emotion and the "naughty ninja" techniques are handled well. The sex is, in the way of things, a chance to re-use frames and thus is visually repetitive to an extent. The voices are decent, although the fawn voice is a little too constantly cute and high. Incidental sound and music are surprisingly good, the old ninja sound tracks getting a bit of a work out.
Capsule
Two young ninja, suffering from a bad case of anime cute, and a lesser case of love, decide to change their fate and live a normal life. Since this means trading in the ninja's short and brutal life for happy normality with lots of sex it seems like a pretty logical move, but their previous life is not going to let them escape that easily. Cute, a decent sense of humor, character and story but also short, lightweight and nothing special in the erotica department.
Other Reviews
- There's a review of this title at Animetric, one of the few sites that does good hentai reviews. The review is pretty positive. "Short, sweet and generally just fun", sounds like a good summary to me (4/5).
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:20 WST 2009