痴漢物語/ Chikan Monogatari / Public Harassment Story / Legend of the Pervert (hentai)

Another hentai review from me! I’ve never found animated porn much beyond ridiculous and ugly, but this one from 2007 at least manages to be attractively-drawn, decently-acted and with good character designs. It’s also interesting in that it got distribution for the US, so this particular slab of filth can be bought Stateside with mosaic censoring removed – which in all honesty is never much of a positive in hentai, because what you don’t see tends to be much more appealing than what gets revealed. While hentai doujins have in recent years featured smaller and smaller censor bars and better-drawn naughty bits, anime has yet to try its luck in that regard and perhaps because they know nobody in Japan will see the actual drawings, they tend to be…less than impressive.

Plus Legend of the Pervert had an interesting footnote (no pun intended) in that it had an extended scene cut from international distribution because it depicted underage sex. Thus, only a censored version of this part exists; I can’t see it being anything other than funny either way, revolving as it does around an adorable little boy with enormous equipment.

There are two episodes here, and the theme – obvious from the Japanese title but not the English – is sex in public places. The first episode, which contains the cut side-story, is the otherwise conventional story of an office worker who is bullied by his domineering female boss. She is just letting out pent-up sexual frustration, though, and masturbates when she thinks she is alone. Of course, Hakushiki sees her and one thing leads to another. Meanwhile, his little brother is coerced into showing a girl his ‘dekachin’ late at night in school. To avoid discovery, they hide in a toilet cubicle before having their first real sexual experience…which may possibly have been cute if not for all the OH GOD BLOOD EVERYWHERE and screams of ‘itai!’ and ‘muri, muri, zettai muri!’, going way beyond my squick limits.

Part two starts with a very cute boy and girl in a restaurant where the waitress uniform is, of course, a maid outfit. The boy, Akao, embarrasses the girl when she’s trying to order, and then in not-entirely-clear ways, they manage to have public sex there in the booth, without everyone seeing but with the risk still there. Akao goes home but his sisters have heard about him teasing his girlfriend, so teach him some humility by playing with his genitals with their feet, tying him up naked outdoors and having sex. The final scene is back with the girlfriend, largely a fantasy scene where Akao imagines more sex.

For all hentai tends to be incredibly silly and non-sexy, and for all I’ve always found the preference for drawing bodily fluids like cake mixture to be nauseating rather than attractive, this at least looks good. Only one character in Wordsworth looked anything other than terrible, it’s dodgy art as much as nasty non-con that kills Enzai and even the Boku no Pico OVAs, for all their slick production have a tendency to make the faces look stupid once sex scenes start. Legend of the Pervert at least has its art going for it, and to be honest, it’s all the plot and characterisation porn needs.

But I also don’t hesitate to say that, as with Countdown to Delight, the strange thing here – in episode 2 – is how hentai for guys centres on a pretty, girly, very young-looking boy who reminded me of Joey from Heroman. Again, it seems as though the idea is to play into fantasies about being dominated and humiliated, but it all ends up coming over like the one who’s centre of sexual attention is the boy, not the women. Suits me okay, and it’s actually quite nice to see both the boy and the girl being very cute. I actually probably only watched it because of this novelty.

I don’t write many impressions about hentai, partly because there’s not much to say but mostly because I just don’t watch much of it. Legend of the Pervert is probably on the better end of what’s on offer, though – especially as it caters for all sorts, quite possibly more than it actually intended to. That, coupled with the interesting point of what goes too far for a Western audience but is permissible in Japan, make this something quite interesting to watch.