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Director: Tatsuya Okamoto
Screenplay: Tatsuya Okamoto
Voice Cast: Sakiko Tamagawa as
Rumi Natsumi; Chie Koujiro as Oyuki; Katsumi Toriumi as Ryo Sugiura; Rumiko
Ukai as Maki; Toshihiko Seki as Hayata
Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles
Synopsis: Rumi Natsumi is the youthful founder of a phone sex
company whilst still in school. One client who rings her all female business is
Ryo Sugiura, a young man who literally turns into a horrifying monster whenever
he becomes sexually aroused. Fascinated by this, Rumi decides to meet him
herself face-to-face. When his claim is proven to be true in a cafe, Rumi is un-phased
by this and desires to help him overcome this issue.
One of the most interesting sides
of Japanese anime and manga is how they deal with sexuality. To be frank,
however, let's not just praise Japanese animation and manga for depicting
sexuality with greater depth as, for every good work, for every bawdy sex joke that
lands successfully, there's as much a dark side to this as well. Whilst there
is a willingness to tackle sex and sensuality, from mainstream to hentai
pornographic work, which can be gratifying especially as gay and (to a lesser
extent) lesbian themes appear in both, there's sadly the other side, the Hyde
to Jekyll, the problematic gender politics, the downright misogynistic and
gross material.
The subject which this obscure
thirty minute anime Call Me Tonight
tackles, in the same decade where the beginnings of straight-to-video anime
started and both this production and hentai anime came up as product for the format,
is parodied directly within a film-within-the-film when protagonists Rumi and
Ryo hide in a cinema. A sci-fi film where the tentacle
aliens kill the male astronaut and have sinister intentions for the female one,
stripping her for nefarious reasons. It's a sanitised take on a concept at its
most infamous for Urotsukidōji (1987-1994),
on one hand an epic of almost Lovecraftian narrative, nihilistic and horrifying
yet complex and full of scale, yet on the other a problematic title in how it
tackles its intentional sexual transgression on slanted gender lines, the males
strong and turning into tentacle monsters, the women merely there for sexual
violence from said tentacle monsters, justifiably condemned as misogynistic and
offensive even in the butchered feature length cut you could buy on British
video and DVD. And yet, just before that series came into existance, when it
was originally a multi-episode straight-to-video anime itself, you have Call Me Tonight mocking that kind of
story by showing a strong, sexually confident young woman literally taming a
man who turns into such a monstrosity every time he gets an erection or aroused,
trying to help him towards an adult, mature sexual life as his improvised
therapist.
Part of four OVAs called Pink Noise Vol. 1 - alongside Body
Jack: Tanoshii Yutai Ridatsu (1987), Maryuu
Senki (1987-89) and Campus Special
Investigator Hikaruon (1987) - I suspect the creators of Call Me Tonight were doing this story
as an excuse to draw gnarly creature designs, Ryo never turning into the same
horrifying creature twice. There are numerous references to sci-fi and horror
from the past throughout the short anime which prove this. (Such as the famous
poster for the 1985 vampire film Fright
Night as a jigsaw puzzle). However the jabs at hentai not far from its
birth are so obvious, so much so that the explanation of Ryo's transformations
as a life absorbing alien comes off as the one huge mark against the short.
It's a terrible inclusion when as a metaphor of violent, destructive male
libido these transformations are perfectly set up symbolically. Even the cliché
of the nose bleed, a short hand in anime and manga to show sexual arousal when
a character has a trickle of blood coming out their nose, is mocked in a
gruesome way when, in a cafe, the blood doesn't stop flowing and covers the
entire tiled floor.
At thirty minutes there's not a
lot of time to explore the premise beyond its surface. Half the length is a
series of light hearted gags, such as the sight (immortalised in many
screenshot captures) of Ryo in monster form looking at a softcore porn
magazine. Whilst its sexual politics are incredibly progressive, the anime's
very much of the time in how eighties it is in aesthetic, the fashions
replicated from the era and the music full of synthesizers, the colourfulness
of the proceedings as memorable as much as a time capsule.
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A new plot thread, including the unfortunate attempt at an alien back story, begins where a fellow schoolgirl Oyuki desires Ryo for the mere fact he is meant to turn into a monster. Willing to acquire goons and force him into a situation in a closed room with her, even if it leads to an immense danger, it presents a contrast in his destructive libido with how a person (male or female) can willingly put themselves in harm's way for their own. Even here the gender politics for a brisk, minor anime are interesting, the purpled haired Oyuki strong and assertive, her older sister who intervenes a muscular woman not drawn as traditionally feminine, both rocking leopard print pants and deciding to bring a bazooka to a monster fight when required.
[Spoiler Warning]
The other big surprise is that it
offers a twist ending gag where Oyuki herself turns into a monstrous figure
when aroused. It could link to the whole alien subplot, which just emphasises
the terrible plot point, but as she transforms into a mass of tentacles for the
final shot, it can also have a subversive quality when she, now working at the
phone sex group, has embraced this side of herself. It may violently contrast
the original point of this metaphor, destructive male libido, but at the same
time it works in an interesting way if read further into. Even if the twist
ending for Call Me Tonight is merely
a shock "got-you!" moment, not surprising considering all the horror
and sci-fi references within, it's a nice little subversion in itself.
Whilst the whole "tentacle
porn" genre of hentai has always been problematic, entirely (and
justifiably criticised) as being due to violence against women, the idea of monstrous
sexuality literalised whilst transgressive should not necessarily be thrown
onto the pyre as merely offensive. Considering this can originate as far back
to The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife
(1814), an iconic painting by legendary Japanese artist Hokusai which have had many replications (including gay depictions
involving men) over the centuries, the idea of the idea of beastly sexuality is
a form of intentionally provocative concept with artistic merit. The problem is
that, within anime and manga, it is just an excuse for misogynistic ideas
rather than used for something more progressive. Even as a twist ending, seeing
this same destructive libido with a female character is more meaningful as the
idea itself is not the issue to be condemned, rather stereotypical sexuality of
men.
[Spoiler Ends]
That we can have an anime which
plays within thirty minutes there various ideas - the depiction of male libido
as problematic and driven to violence, yet that monstrous sexuality itself is
not inherently negative in the right context, a mysterious freakish (kinky)
side of men and women that can be healthy or unhealthy - is a lot to admire. As
one of the only anime from the Pink
Noise selection that's been talked of decades later, that recognition says
a lot to how through light sex comedy it managed to hit on a pertinent idea
ahead of its time. That sadly this problematic side of sexuality in anime and
manga is rarely parodied or questioned like this is a great shame, as it
deserves to be done and had plenty of material to work with for mockery. It has
admittedly helped Call Me Tonight
stand out in spite its paltry form.
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