Re-Review: Sparrow's Hotel (2013)

Director: Tetsuji Nakamura

Based on a manga by Yuka Santō

Voice Cast: Daisuke Kishio as Misono-kun; Haruka Nagashima as Tamaki Shiokawa; Minori Chihara as Sayuri Satō; Asuka Yūki as Yū Kojō; Shūta Morishima as Sakai

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

A Cinema of the Abstract/1000 Anime Crossover

[Over a year ago I first covered this anime, to which this is deliberately an attempt to see if any of my opinions changed in the passing time. I will provide the link to the original blog review HERE for comparison. This will also be a tie-in for my other blog, Cinema of the Abstract, where a duplicate will be made available and is why it'll have a certainly different tone than usual. A link to the blog in general is to be found HERE]

First thoughts? 480p resolution, as this particularly obscure anime oddity, three minutes per episode over twelve of them, is notorious for those who know of it for its aesthetic appearance and/or the highest quality you could screen it on an anime streaming site Crunchyroll. This gets weirder as that's only the first six episodes where that aesthetic is there, one of the many peculiarities of the kind of title you'd never have gotten a release of in the West were it not for streaming, a feature of modern entertainment which has allowed, in the ability now to have anime stream soon after its premieres on Japanese television, a similar premiere online for the West. (That, hey, it probably costs less to just license than to produce DVDs for, that also meant titles of a greater variety like Sparrow's Hotel can be made available) Considering how esoteric the subject matter is, the day-to-day management of a hotel, it certainly feels odd though that is tempered by aspects of the production. The first is that it's actually an adaptation of a "4-koma" manga, which are normally gag comic strips which have pages divided up by four panels. It's not that different from a Western comic strip in structure, just to give you an idea. The other is that it happens to be a hotel that hired a beauty buxom female employee, one named Sayuri Satō who happens to also have commando combat skills and assassination abilities. But still, pretty strange especially to someone used to the better known anime titles that crossed into the mainstream.

Some have speculated this is a parody of nineties straight-to-video animation, which had a history of high quality work, when it became an industry by the mid-eighties onwards to its down spell in the 2000s, but could also scrape the bottom of the barrel. I question this, having seen many bizarre anime premises especially in these "micro-series", and with knowledge that a lot of them use a lot of low-fi and frankly crude animation, sometimes for deliberate effect but some others clearly what was available. I wouldn't be surprised that this was a sincere production that, as I'll get into, was always meant to be a sex comedy/hotel hijinks show, where one of the jokes is a smaller female character smashing her face into Satō's giant bust as if that's a new concept, but had a major change of guard or how the episodes were being made halfway through.

Start with the first episode and the show's at least an experience, as whilst the second calms down and sets the pace, the first is (at merely three minutes including beginning credits) quick, hectic as it gallops along without pausing for breath as it introduces Satō, the carefree and sweet lass who is also the ultimate killing machine in the body of a voluptuous ditzy Venus, Tamaki Shiokawa the diminutive female manager, Shiokawa her older brother who is her superior and has a creepy incestuous fixation she is disturbed by, and bellboy Misono who is at first the meek, glasses wearing male employee but has a dark despondent side. It's a chaotic mess of a pilot, but the show in general is a series of vignettes which plays off those character traits. Whether they are actually any good is to question as the show never transitions further from just its surface. Yes, it is a curious subplot about Tamaki being freaked out by her older brother's advances (cough), and whilst even played out of humour that's a transgressive plot line to have, it never thankfully crosses into poor taste. Really, the only character who gets a lot of coverage is Satō, the figure on the manga covers who is significantly voiced by Minori Chihara, a singer who just happens to also play a side character, but still one of the main voice cast, of the huge franchise The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya before Sparrow's Hotel.

It doesn't try to hide Satō as a figure of cheesecake fan service. She openly declares, creating the second episode title, that her best assists are her breasts and assassination skills to Tamaki, which leads to a dichotomy that is reoccurring in anime of voluptuous female characters who are nonetheless insanely powerful and/or violent. Is it demeaning or empowering to have these kinds of female characters who are very sexual but strong? It frankly comes off as a kink at times and there are definitely times where it is just a failure and proves sexist when the material's dreadful. Yet there is also the double standard danger of the stereotypical picture of femininity being negative being itself an insult, really the bigger concern with these kinds of characters is whether they are just for sex appeal or if they're going to have some emotion or characterisation to them. Even the case of Satō being very simple and at times naive isn't necessarily something that could be used as a negative characterisation if done properly. If anything, in a better and more fleshed out work, we could've had a lot to work on as already in this there is plenty of subversive material already there to mind - of a sedate, kind hearted soul who can yet can power lift a whole bed by herself, buys gym equipment the same way Tamaki does for handbags, and always carries kunai (Japanese throwing knives) under the skirt, with the ability to use them in an improvised game of William Tell at the company trip to a cherry blossom festival in the park.

The subject of the series is also to be asked about as, honestly, for what is a unique twist; sadly, the show never had enough time to run with its premise of hotel management further. Manga particularly has a heritage of the least expected subjects being covered in stories, and in what little we get here, Sparrow's Hotel had so much to mine here too. A tale in which rowdy people outside are an issue, booking crowds for a nearby anime/manga convention is stressful, or where one has to send off Satō to subdue a drunk and irate customer by knocking him out with a single chop. If it'd been a full length series, it could've easily become worse, but it could've also been actually more interesting and funny to see an anime set in hotel management, as seen in a later episode where a violent storm outside provides a huge swath of customers to the benefit of the empty hotel. As it stands, the show's too short for this, even if it is still to be found in slithers.

Beyond that the episodes' are so short, it's both difficult to analyze them but that in itself is a critique - that for humour, it's not the best but with some amusement, but as mentioned it never fully invests in its premise. There is an additional character of Yū Kojō, a hotel inspector whose attempts to keep that are secret are useless, but a lot of the show never drastically changes for the first half. Really, the moment where things get really interesting is with the art style. The first half follows the source manga in style but is infamous, for those who know of it, for its brash colours and crude character designs, a garishness matched by the manic pace that is compelling in a way but arguably limits the show's potential by being a one note mood. The transition, befittingly set against the episode where renovations lead to a new bathing area being created in the hotel, and the episodes having end credits instead of opening ones, is a shock.

Muted colours, softer character designs, and frankly a leap in budget or craft as the animation becomes more fluid and more ambitious even in the show's comedic double takes and gags; I forgot how impactful it was, the change absolutely distinct and looking like an entirely different adaptation of the same material. There is even a deliberately attempt as well to push the fan service, such as the end credits being a nude Satō sleeping surrounding by underwear and kunai on the bedspread. (Make of that what you will). It however even includes the cast, including Misono, being dressed in cute animal costumes in the mid-episode eye-catches that were added for the later episodes. It doesn't necessarily add more - alongside Kojō returning, there's a possibly American older male fighter named Billy who locks eyes on Satō as his rival, the show teasing the pair fighting continually. A lot of the show is still based on the initial premise mind - your main female staff member a killing machine, the manager is still creeped out by her older brother's thoughts of her, Misono is despondent. It doesn't particularly change a lot and that's honestly the real issue for Sparrow's Hotel even if the show was entertainment. It thankfully did change the aesthetic complelely thought, which is arguably why I feel those episodes pass the halfway mark are of a higher quality.

Personally, the fact I've rewatched Sparrow's Hotel shows it has had a lasting mark even an odd curiosity. The micro series as a concept is fascinating - allowing for new talent, odd premises like this can allow for a lot of creativity and opportunity just for strange content. The issue is really how slight the micro-series is, at literally under thirty minutes or so here with Sparrow's Hotel never pushing to a further level than it probably should've. I admit as much of the incentive to re-watch the show was how short it is altogether, but I have as I realise a fascination with these micro-series in general that isn't exactly a guilty pleasure, but a love directly from the gut. That doesn't mean I won't be honest mind.

Is it abstract or strange though? Strange definitely, but not as strange as it potentially could've been, one of the greater ironies beyond Japanese animation that if you play something off as comedy, unless you fully distort the structure or push yourself, it makes an odd premise more normal as a result. And as much as the three minute episode length a surprise, just in terms of how much storytelling you can try to tell with minimal time, Sparrow's Hotel isn't exactly unconventional. In fact it could've done with a lot more preciseness, more weirdness and probably less fan service, unless it was going to be more positive for the main character's depiction, and I might've had a little gem on my hands. Cause I don't know about you the reader, but a thirteen or twenty four episode normal length comedy show about the banalities about running a hotel, if pushed further even with these same characters, would be an utterly peculiar and interesting experience to sit through.

From https://www.fandompost.com/wp-content/uploads/
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#114: HIMOTE HOUSE - A share house of super psychic girls (2018)

From https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500_and_h282_face/
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Director: Kōtarō Ishidate

Voice Cast: Kaoru Mizuhara as Tokiyo Himote; Satomi Akesaka as Kokoro Himote; Suzuko Mimori as Kinami Himote; Asuka Nishi as Enishi; Aya Suzaki as Tae Hongō; Sumire Uesaka as Minamo Arai

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

On paper, I had great excitement about Himote House - Kōtarō Ishidate, one of the creators of gdgd Fairies (2011-13), comes back with another show about a group of women, three sisters and a couple of friends living in the same house, with the added delight that the sisters are voiced by gdgd Fairies' main cast. The trademark of that show, that the episodes eventually turn into improvised sketches where the actresses will amuse and bemuse themselves for real, is also to be found which promises a great deal. The truth is that, whilst there are some gems in terms of the comedy and an unexpected political commentary, this is definitely the case of a twelve episode show that, like a lot of anime comedy, can feel erratic without any structure.

Before we continue to the actual work, that's a crux which has appeared with a lot of these "micro-series", shows where the episodes are less than fifteen minutes long which is becoming more available in the West through the likes of Crunchyroll. Any of them, as I have found writing these reviews on this topic, is going to lead to the exact questions stand out as those here, so this is a long gestation question about their artist potential.

The initial premise is that Tae Hongō, a quiet girl starting school, is invited by her friend Kokoro Himote to live with her, meeting up with her sisters, another friend Minamo Arai and Enishi the talking cat. With each episode lasting fifteen minutes, they are usually divided between episode long skits and an ad-libbed conclusion where, with the cast sat in the lounge at the night playing games, the voice actresses had to improvise on the spot over idiosyncratic scenarios that the production team would animated based on what they say. Animation wise, this is not necessarily the best of productions, cel shaded digital figures, but the uninitiated gdgd Fairies deliberately was made with the crudest of CGI digital models for humour, which makes a work like Himote House a noticeably more slicker work on an aesthetic level.

The structure of the series this is where Himote House falls into a few problems. For starters its subtitle suggests a house of women with super powers, even Tae Hongō (the de facto lead) accidentally discovering her own ability to multiply herself at the end of the first episode by thinking hard. But after a few episodes where it's used, such as finding the able to read minds doesn't help with dating, and Hongō multiplying herself as a team for an indoor game of very convoluted baseball, its sadly discarded soon after. Even if I like the episodes found later, this turns into a disappointment as it's an amusing premise, taking gdgd Fairies' magic powers further into the real world. It also could've been used as an excuse for gags to happen, as the magic of those aforementioned fairies was the reason many of the funny gags with public domain digital models came from in terms of logic to their world.

From https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0AhbZBoXqyU/maxresdefault.jpg

To be honest, the cast really feels more alive in the ad-libbed sequences even if they still try to bring in their character traits into it, merely because the sketches do fall into stereotypes for the most part, all whilst the improvised sequences just allow the actresses to riff on the characters and silly things. In terms of the cast, the exceptions truly are Tokiyo Himote and Enishi. Enishi as she's a talking cat with a bit more than the annoying mascot role, even having two improvised endings where they went to actual locations around Jaopan and animate the staff as cats too for awkward (but funny) gags about going to a massage clinic. The other is Tokiyo Himote, who just perfectly follows the mould the likes of gdgd Fairies did of idiosyncratic characters, the oldest Himote sister whose distinct voice comes from the fact that, whilst Japanese, she's speaking in a broken Japanese accent. As a figure who uses quotations that go over everyone's heads and, is learned to be turned on by seeing Senegalese wrestling on her world travels and the idea of living near a volatile volcano like one village she references in small talk, she's the kind of person you'd actually want to date just befriend in real life just for the conversations that'd take place.

This is somewhat a shame as, when you get to the improvised sections, everyone's on fire, causing one to wish the whole character cast was as idiosyncratic or had enough time to grow. There's a joy to have in these actresses pissing about between the worst things to hear whilst spoken with a helium voice to imagining a former female otaku with her boyfriend awkwardly meeting an old friend from the past. (They even have one about a female employee trying to avoid a sleazy male member of management, which seems quite a surprising dig at the industry). And yes, even the cat gets a gem, a few times having hypothesized skits in humanoid form , playing out the awkward phone conversation with another actress about a boyfriend wanting nude photos, commenting on the fact with hesitance that she is quite hairy.

There are thankfully interesting moments. Not just bitcoin, as probably the weirdest moment of the series is the penultimate episode, a hot springs episode that leads to the voice cast, as their characters bathe and do odd things (unseen) like "breast massages", moan as erotically as possible to the point of fake orgasms while promoting a pseudo-bitcoin to the viewer. To me, it's nonsensical, but reality is stranger as apparently advertisement of anime girls promoting bitcoin does indeed exist. (There's even a BitGirls TV show, a Japanese show where ten young women are voted on by the audience purchasing her personal tokens, known as "Torekabu", thus teaching the concept of crypto currency and blockchain to a consumer audience. Thus, for this review, I've also informed myself how irony is possibly dead). A personal favourite is the cast in a strange cramped office environment, taking part in a ritual that is never explained and with them playing new characters, such as ramming paper violently through a slot at the other end of the room by running at it, until you realise they're the inside of an office printer.

Then there's the Yuri Game of Life episode, which begins (in playing the literal game) with begins with parodying the yuri genre by every romantic longing between girls leading to turns being missed to ridiculous number. Then there's the option of going to Europe, as the women are split into pairs when they marry in the game, and suddenly Himote House for all its flaws suddenly gets a crowning jewel by suddenly taking a shockingly honest and dark humoured glance over the inequality of LGBTQ people in Japan. I normally find political commentary simplistic and beneath art, but if you're going to do so, challenging your country's attitudes to LGBT people, in the most abrupt ways and in a bluntness rarely found in anime as its probably deemed inappropriate, is as ballsy as you can get and incredible. It's surprisingly sad, even if it's still funny, and throwing it in the middle of a sketch micro-series like this where you least expect it is something to admire.

Unfortunately, the show does feel too short, and whilst it thankfully ends in a fun way, an utter anti-climax with the cast just playing a card game, the last episode is terrible, a clip show posed as a game show which is painful to sit through. I don't blame the show barring the fact that, as it was what they were apparently forced to create when it wasn't their original plan, that just emphasises that sadly Himote House didn't plan itself as well as it should've. And that is a huge issue with a lot of micro-series like this in that, especially if many will be gag or sketch based rather than structured around long form plots, they need to structure themselves well or they will fall into passing on a flat note, never pushing for a memorable climax. And this is going to be a deterrent for me as the idea of a show you can turn your brain off to is an anathema for me. I'd rather have my fifteen minute long episodes, or even shorter, stand out in a memorable way, so whilst there is some gold in Himote House, it's a slightly disappointing follow-up from someone, Kōtarō Ishidate, who did make one of the oldest and most rewarding in gdgd Fairies. Considering the invention of that older series, you could've run into some new and rewarding concepts just from Himote House's premise alone. 

From https://remyfool.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/vlcsnap-
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#113: Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu (2003)

From https://i.pinimg.com/originals/84/9c/3a/
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Director: Yasuhiro Takemoto

Screenplay: Shoji Gatoh and Fumihiko Shimo

Based on the Light Novel series by Shoji Gatoh illustrated by Shiki Douji

Voice Cast: Satsuki Yukino as Kaname Chidori; Tomokazu Seki as Sousuke Sagara; Tomoko Kaneda as Bonta-kun; Akiko Hiramatsu as Youko Wakana; Akio Ohtsuka as Andrei Kalinin; Ikue Kimura as Kyouko Tokiwa; Jun Fukuyama as Issei Tsubaki; Mamiko Noto as Shinji Kazama; Michiko Neya as Melissa Mao; Rie Tanaka as Ren Mikihara; Shinichiro Miki as Kurz Weber; Tomomichi Nishimura as Richard Mardukas; Yukana as Teletha "Tessa" Testarossa

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

[Disclaimer: Uncomfortably my revisiting and review of Fumoffu has coincided with the unfortunate passing of its director Yasuhiro Takemoto, and other staff at Kyoto Animation, after the arson attack that took place in July 2019. The review will be honest in terms of my opinion of the show, thankfully a very positive one, but it is a sad incident to have to write the review around since a key creator of Fumoffu was sadly one of those who was killed.]

You'd presume Fumoffu would only work in knowledge of its source, as a comedy side story to Shoji Gatoh's Full Metal Panic!, the tale of a young male solider Sousuke Sagara, born in war, sent to protect Kaname Chidori, a schoolgirl with a subconscious superhuman knowledge of machinery and technology; as a big franchise, followed by a proper sequel in 2005, and a return in 2017-18, these adaptations of Gatoh's light novels have their fan base. Fumoffu is interesting however in how, by itself, it's had a fan base entirely by itself, with the fact that barring some characters introduced in cameo later, the comedy spin-off which deals with the ordinary lives of Sousuke and Chidori, without any mention of giant robots and conflict against terrorist organisations part of the main series, works entirely by itself. Instead, it takes a pleasure in the fact Sousuke, born in conflict all his life, is hopelessly alienated from the ordinary civilian world and, having to go to high school with Chidori in his off-time, he has no social skills to speak off. The first half of the first episode shows that he has a bad tendency, even with love letters, to detonate his school locker with explosives when he thinks someone's tampered with it and placed a dangerous trap within, so other concepts normal to high school melodrama are going to lead to a lot of property damage and miscommunication. 

Admittedly it's a lot more difficult in the current day to find guns being fired in schools funny, but initially the concept of someone in Sousuke Sagara who has literally been breed for war stuck in ordinary society is hilarious, especially as (even if a lot more darker and difficult humour now) it still plays off the fact that firing a gun in the air to demand a plain roll from the cafeteria staff is socially unacceptable from him. Chidori, as the traditional tsundere character, prone to violent temper (only with good cause here) even if she does openly like him, has a lot of justifiable reason as the female protagonist to look at him with horror. Her objections to his behaviour, such as actually trapping women for a dating challenge in a very later episode, which can even lead to her kicking the shit out of him in slapstick violence is a troupe of anime since the dawn of time but here there's both a sense that, yes, he does things that would drive people insane, and that when it comes to their friendship, maybe even more, she will gladly be there for him as a friend with kindness. It helps as well, alongside the show from the get-go making the pair both sympathetic, that her voice actress Satsuki Yukino is exceptional alongside the animators who depicted her facial reactions to his behaviour and worse case situations. Even the blitheness in how she puts up with being kidnapped, more than once, has an incredibly higher weight than in most anime comedy because there's an entire context, helped by the source material, filtered in the characters even for this absurdist comedy.

It is hard to describe the show as its almost completely episodic, early on two half stories within the usual twenty plus minutes but also later including more full length stories, but from there the show expands to include a cast including equally likable class mates and curious figures like Issei Tsubaki, a martial arts fighter for a karate class about to be kicked out their room, who in shy around women and near sighted despite being an incredible fighter, or Atsunobu Hayashimizu, the president of the Student Council  whose stepped out a Kunihiko Ikuhara production in his elegance, alongside his equally elegant female assistant (and daughter of a yakuza boss) Ren Mikihara, but is prone to moments of absurdity in more subtle details like how he speaks pretentiously.

Early on, Fumoffu probably already has its best episodes. Actually, the best segment is in the second story of episode two, in which Sousuke forgetting Chidori's notes leads to a trip back to his house that includes some of the best comedic timing, the best of Chidori's reactions in terms of the performance and animation, sweet emotional drama which early on shows the pair love each other, and a car against bicycle car chase with an almost deranged female traffic cop...made now funnier, as the voice actress playing her is Hiramatsu Akiko, knowing she and her female partner are meant to be the lead female cops of the You're Under Arrest franchise making a cameo, to which Akiko is a key voice actor one of those lead characters.

But that doesn't say the show doesn't lose a step after that. Episode two starts with the aforementioned incident with the cafeteria where the gym teacher, who hates students working for themselves, finds trying to get one over them isn't possible due to Sousuke's habit of booby trapping objects. Episode 3, the first full story episode Summer Illusion of Steel, has Chidori meet a young boy whose happiness to meet someone also means sending his staff (all former mercenaries) after Sousuke who presumes she was kidnapped. Episode five, introducing Issei, also leads to the reveal that the school janitor is the most dangerous person in the school despite his meekness, to the point that even Sousuke will be left quivering like jelly at his inability to defeat him. Episode six includes two "horror" stories, one which skirts tastelessness about a horse headed man who forcibly combs women's hair against their will into pony tails, but thankfully stays on the right side of funny¹ alongside bringing back the homicidal female cop.

From https://geekandsundry.com/wp-content/
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There's Episode 7, which dangerously veers to the joke just being about a rugby team being so nice and polite to the point of being useless, which could just turn into a joke about them being emasculated and lesser men, but thankfully ends with incredible dark humour as, with Sousuke helping them by way of military training and R. Lee Ermey approved (bleeped) cursing, he gives them a blood thirst on the pitch that has probably corrupted their souls even if it means the team will continue. Episode four is also the introduction to the best running gag, and the explanation of where the subtitle "Fumoffu" comes from, the sound made whilst wearing the Bonta-kun, an amusement park mascot costume that Sousuke acquires as part of the second part story, Sousuke finding a way of turning it into actual combat appropriate equipment that returns constantly when he needs more than just guns.

Arguably the reason the show is so highly regarded, managing to gain popularity over even the original Full Metal Panic, is just because it's a comedy show which is of a high quality of work that few touch. No episode, although I will talk of one, falls into any bad humour, with the moments which may have come off as too dark, thankfully staying on the path of not becoming offensive. Even the moment, when I first saw the series, I found offensive when Chidori compares a rival rugby player to a type of gorilla nearly going extinct due to a war in the African continent, thus causing a riot, isn't as bad as I thought it was, even if it's probably the one curious moment in the whole series which jars in pretty succicient and funny dialogue. Even the fact that school students with weapons has become less easy to find humour in isn't as much an issue when most of the humour eventually comes to the fact Sousuke is utterly hopeless as a regular school student, most of the humour eventually leading more to his habit of booby traps and that he can just be as dangerous with a bean bag cannon. And the fact you can watch the show by itself and immediately get a premise, of the child solider stuck in school, which is consistently worked upon for humour means this is a lot more consistent and focused than most shows of its ilk.

It's also exceptionally well made in context of what the show is. Kyoto Animation is highly regarded, but with the exception of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2006)², an entirely different kettle of fish in its quirks that needs to be covered in a few reviews to fully talk of, this is the only work of theirs I've lived with in my anime watching. Returning to Fumoffu, it's amazing effortless in how it is paced and consistent in its comedy when, honestly, even anime comedy I have appreciated whether full or micro-series length have usually been scattershot and/or not exactly ambitious. Subdued and quiet, Fumoffu does pull for some ridiculous gags, like the Bonta-kun eventually acquiring an army of itself in an episode tribute to Kinji Fukasaku, famous above all else for his contributions to the yakuza genre of cinema and even made just around the same time as the legendary director passed. Even the music feels like a higher quality - normally not a fan of J-pop in opening and ending credits, the song for the opening is sweet and appropriate, whilst the one for ending credits ("Kimi ni fuku kaze" by Mikuni Shimokawa) is arguably one of the best of its genre for me and suits the tone of the show PERFECTLY.

In terms of any flaws, there's none barring a few jokes that don't land, such as that curious gorilla one mentioned in a paragraph earlier. Beyond that, the issue for a show like this is that, as is the case with anime comedy shows, those without an actual plot progression can suffer from the fact the last episodes just end the series. Thankfully Fumoffu does better where even arguably the worst episode, A Goddess Comes to Japan (Part 2: The Hot Spring), is still better than most series' best episodes. The only two partner, the "Goddess" is Tessa Testarossa, a character from Full Metal Panic's main story who is a submarine commander and Sousuke's superior in rank despite the fact she's a quiet and meek teenage girl, leading to other cameos from cast from the main series as she wants to briefly live life as a regular student with Sousuke. The first part is hilarious, as stuck between a rock and a hard place, the sympathetic for Sousuke is felt in how even being told to sod himself is metaphorically felt in his growing delirium of being left to die on a battlefield with Tessa living in the same apartment and being threatened to protect her with his life.

Part two, which is the stereotypical hot springs episode, has unfortunately a gag about leering over the female cast nude. It's weird because they're meant to be teenagers, and because even if it wasn't a concern, the show suffers from the prurient paradox of nonetheless censoring itself with strategically placed objects, done here specifically with a rubber duck that it evokes a joke from the Michael Myers' Austin Powers films. It feels bad because, like a lot of anime, it's a juvenile idea to want to have fanservice by showing the female characters nude, but never actually showing any nudity even in the uncensored scene, which is more problematic than if the show embraced sexuality with a gender positive balance and just went for sexiness. (Again, they're teenagers, which does cause a problem in itself though, but that's an entire issue too complex to unpack) Thankfully, the episode pulls this to a great running joke where the men, being perverts who want to spy on the women at the hot springs, didn't expect Sousuke to literally put perilous traps including turrets in the way to stop them as a gentleman should.

Thankfully, beyond this the bar of quality is higher than most anime comedy. In fact the last episode tries its hardest to get past probably the biggest issue that you have to deal with in anime comedy, that their final episodes unless part of an ongoing plot as mentioned are going to be anti-climatic. I blame (and praise) Excel Saga (1999) in my youth spoiling me as it actually managed, (as one of the deliberately chaotic and shambolic shows of its time), to lead to a climax in a post-apocalypse that was compelling. Even a show I love like gdgd Fairies (2011-13) arguably left its final season episode on an anti-climax, but got past it by both how gleefully weird the show had become and because the final episode of the first season was a great conclusion. Fumoffu decides Sousuke accidentally acquiring a dangerous bio weapon and his entire class being infected is the way to go, as dark as you get for humour but managing to succeed for a climax. I won't reveal the twist but, for a show that only occasionally goes for sex comedy, what is revealed is hilarious without any sense of inappropriateness, as its equal opportunity, and ends the show with the sound of voices baying for Sousuke's head.

Altogether, it's a great show, and with it I admit sadness with that opinion as, tragically, director Yasuhiro Takemoto was killed in the arson attack on Kyoto Animation in July 2019, said to be one of the biggest crimes of its time in Japan for many decades, which is more than likely going to make it a very disturbing incident even for a Japanese citizen who never watches their country's animation let alone the fact a lot of talented people passed as a result. Kyoto Animation in general have sounded like the studio who quietly paved a path of goodwill for high quality work - they took over for the second season of Full Metal Panic, after Gonzo for the first, and have the likes of the Free! franchise under their belt. They were also adamant for far more gender equality and paying their staff well, with a general sense, in all the good will sent their way after the tragedy, that they were a studio held highly and fondly. Certainly after revisiting Fumoffu, Takemoto's career is now ripe for me to see, in respect for him as a director, as is Kyoto Animation's. I'd have to anyway, because they've been responsible for some of the heaviest hitters in the anime ballpark, but more so now in the pleasantry of Fumoffu's virtues and as a respect (whatever my opinions) to circumnavigate the unnecessary tragedy their company had to go through. Certainly it felt weird to watch Fumoffu in the spectre of the incident; but what a perfect tribute to nullify that fact and think of the best of Kyoto instead?

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1) Unfortunately, the fact he is voiced by Vic Mignogna in the English dub hasn't. For the unknown, this once very popular male voice actor has been accused in 2018-19 of deeply unsavoury behaviour against women, including a female voice actress, which has weighed down on him in a scandal. The episode skirts the right side of funny in the Japanese dub, but I wouldn't be surprised if the English dub version now has that unfortunate coincidence...

2) There's also Lucky Star (2007), also made by Fumoffu's director, who stepped in a few episodes into the production to drastically change the tone, but that one just sits there in the memories really needing a revisit.

From http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IcBUYO-422g/UNHy3RvnxaI/A
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#112: Sorcerer Hunters OVAs (1996-7)

From https://www.anime-planet.com/images/anime/
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Directors: Kōichi Mashimo, Nobuyoshi Habara and Takao Kato

Screenplay: Satoru Akahori

Based on the light novel series and manga by Satoru Akahori

Voice Cast: Kiyoyuki Yanada as Gateau Mocha; Megumi Hayashibara as Tira Misu; Mitsuaki Madono as Maron Glasse; Shinnosuke Furumoto as Carrot Glasse; Yuko Mizutani as Chocolate Misu; Sakiko Tamagawa as Dotta; Sumi Shimamoto as Big Mama; Akemi Okamura as Marris; Banjou Ginga as the Narrator; Fumihiko Tachiki as Jii; Hiro Yuuki as Sirius; Kazue Ikura as Potee

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

[Spoilers Throughout]

So this is a strange release for ADV Films to have released in the United Kingdom...Sorcerer Hunters was initially adapted as a twenty six episode television series between 1995 and 1996, with the history beforehand that it was first a light novel series that was readapted into a manga. Set in a fantasy world, we'd follow a group of magical warriors who exist to protect the ordinary populous from sorcerers. Those important to the OVAs, which were being released at the end of the 1996 soon after, are Carrot, the standard perverted and lustful male lead who has the ability to absorb magical power and turn into monsters based on them, whose older brother Marron, merely a side character, looks on in embarrassment. Then there are the Misu sisters, Tira and her older sister Chocola, who are both in love with Carrot but, not impressed by his wandering eye, take it out on him in their combat costumes, which are dominatrix gear with leather and whips thatfor the series toned down for Chocola as I'll get into.

As I'll get into, the tone including the pun and dessert based names of the characters, suggest a light hearted fluff, something playful and silly which even if these three bonus episodes can get away with material the series could do, more on that later too, is meant to be ridiculous. There is an obvious question to raise however as, in their tenure of existence before they closed in late 2009, that ADV Films never released the series, but did release these OVAs, three twenty minutes short episodes, over here in the British Isles. Adding a further complication is that, whilst the TV series is said to be remarkably different in major aspects from the source material, these bonus episodes only get context knowing the story, and have characters who only appeared in the manga finally making their animated debut, like the first episode starting with Potato Chips (Potee), a young boy (or diminutive man-child?) whose elderly male protector play a pair of comedic prats through two episodes, complaining in first appearance about the fact he never appeared in the TV series. The question to ask, with this, is why did this get a release in the first place?

Because sex sells. This, I vividly remember, was released around the same time Kekko Kamen (1991-2), a notorious Go Nagai adaptation which was even more lurid, and when the proper beginning of the episode, a hot spring tale, has lots and lots of drawn nubile female nudity including from the Misu sisters as a mass female bathing pool, almost the size of a small lake, you realise why the work was picked up.  ADV Films' reputation, whilst known for a lot of good work, and also really being the anime company for me of the early 2000s, releasing titles from the likes of studio Gonzo or heavily promoted titles like Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu (2003), includes an underbelly of luridness, to the point arguably their style is incredibly dated in places and wouldn't be acceptable nowadays. Even before I got to them, they had a notoriety in the nineties, when they began, of almost porn-like promotional tag lines for non-porn anime, and even beyond sex, I think of how comically exaggerated their English language promo trailers could be, or how upon seeing Ghost Stories (2000-1), their decision to let voice acting director Steven Foster rework it as a parody dub included, a lot of humour based on improvised offensiveness they purposely advertised heavily and wouldn't really be acceptable as necessarily good nowadays anyway regardless of any potential political incorrectness. The sex however was just as notorious - you couldn't get away with the jiggle counter DVD extra I remember on the Burn Up Excess (1997-8) DVDs, an extra that tallied up the amount of breast jiggling from the drawn main female characters - a reminder that long after Manga Entertainment courted controversy with titles like Urotsukidôji: The Legend of the Overfiend (1989), the early 2000s at least up to the mid way point replaced it, in the case of ADV Films, with a garish and brashness that could be naughty and in hindsight crass tone, even filming a DVD extra for Colorful (1999) that was a mock behind the scenes documentary of the English voice acting director being a bastard and actress Hilary Haag  being tormented. Stuff that, especially releasing the likes of this and Kekko Kamen, were still lurid.

Immediately there's an issue that this trio of OVAs do need their original context, which is odd knowing these are clearly meant to be more faithful to the manga, which is confusing as hell in knowledge of this context. There is also the issue, bluntly, that these would be innocuous, dumb tales of some entertainment value, of bright nineties anime colour aesthetic and exaggeration I love, but there's the problem that, immediately, the first episode has a scene that's absolutely deplorable, the second is tonally jarring and has content out of place or horrifically dated as humour, making it a poisoned selection box, leaving only the third and final episode without issue. The first episode would've been fine if I was just talking about what it is - a sex farce at a hot springs where, lusting after the older mother figure of Salad Chips, Potato's mother, Carrot wants a midnight liaison with her, all whilst the older Misa sister Chocola wants to do the same to him. As a comedy of manners on a dirtier level goes, its eye ball rolling, but still comedic.

Unfortunately, there is an extended and deeply uncomfortable joke, early on at a dinner, where Carrot in his lust over Salad and Dotta, a winged assistant of his boss Big Mama, has what is quite frankly a rape fantasy. There's no sweetening the language, as this was likely the moment (possibly alongside the S&M content and such) which made this one of those rare eighteen certificate anime in the UK. The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) are surprisingly lax in allowing even a ultraviolent and disturbing show like Elfen Lied (2004) to be suitable for fifteen year olds to see, meaning the bar to be an eighteen certificate, our highest rating barring R18 for porn, is even being really ultraviolent, sexually explicit, or cross a taboo they found uncomfortable. Playfully imagining himself ripping off Salad's clothing in a kitchen to ravish her, which is disturbing a sentence to type as sounds. It tries to be jolly with Dotta's appearance with a strange, nonsensical monologue about how she disguises herself as anyone from an air flight hostess to a buxom and clumsy waitress, all shown and disregarding the high fantasy setting on purpose, but then she accidentally turns him into a literal beast who tries to ravish her too. He gets woken up from his dream, and gets his head kicked in throughout the OVAs, but it's so misguided its offensive and makes you wonder, until the third episode does its damndest to try to redeem this through his childhood flashbacks, why the hell the Misu sisters would be attracted to him in the first place. It's clearly a case, probably more unfortunate, of a joke where time has revealed has tasteless it is, alongside others such as a muscle flexing obsessed co-hero Gateau constantly hitting his younger sister for not getting the family inherited flex poses right, that together drops the OVAs as an entirely in the deep well difficult to wring entertainment from. I mean hell, whilst it would've been crass too, if you had Carrot just fantasise about everyone woman he meets throwing themselves onto him, with nudity and sauciness these OVAs can get away with, it'd at least be more tonally appropriate and lead to the jokes about him being a perv for the Misu sisters to whack constantly vaguely funny. Instead it causes one to hiss to watch the scene.

From https://ktulusreviews.files.wordpress.com/
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In general, the sexual nature of the episodes does go further into some questionable details. One little change between the series and this, taken from the manga, is that Chocola's dominatrix costume, rather than a biker costume in the show, is clearly inspired by the famous costume Charlotte Rampling worn in the notorious Nazi drama The Night Porter (1974), all the Nazi insignia wiped away but still the cap, trousers and only suspenders barely covering the nipples on a voluptuous figure. It's strange, and in vast contrast to the obsession with passion and romance these episodes had, there are moments where these episodes go too far. More so the second episode, going from a hot springs episodes to a jarring change of tone to a young woman fleeing her village, all zombified, where it becomes grim horror. Where she is nearly molested sexually, has to escape by braining her undead father, is zombified, and in spite of probably the most abrupt fall that leads to a head splitting blood collision of a rock on the way down, leaves having smashed herself skull first on the drop down to flee. Cue a fun, cute opening to an earworm of a song, Shoot! Love Hunter by Mari Sasaki, singing about romance through the metaphor of hunting and passion as a metaphorical bullet.

Especially as most of the episode, whilst action orientated, is still very comedic in a lot of gags and slapstick, there's a lot of issue with this tone, in which a necromancer is trying to acquire the Necronomicon, (no, not that one), whilst the heroes have to stop him and save the village in the opening from being zombified. Unfortunately, as well, you also have to deal with the one episode appearance of Mille. On paper they're fascinating, a transgender male who is drawn as a woman and (in the Japanese dub) has a female voice actor Megumi Ogata, (i.e. Shinji from the Neon Genesis Evnagelion franchise and Sailor Uranus in the Sailor Moon franchise, which in knowledge that muscle building side character Gateau was originally bisexual in the manga, his over-the-top macho nature contrasted with the statement "Beauty transcends gender", would be progressive in another context. Mille, despite being revealed as being an incredible and powerful figure who hides their talent, is also a perv who molests the male and female cast; this is also a case of a joke that was acceptable in that time, from another country, which has definitely aged badly.

The third episode, barring some of the humour, offers relief. It even tries to make Carrot actually likable, set around a magical tree in his and the Misu sisters' home village which only blossoms rarely and, if stood under in that context, leads to couples who confess their love under it to be united for eternity. It follows Chocola's absolute consternation that, now a tourist spot unlike in her childhood, it's populated by drunkenness and food stands in the middle of the blossoming whilst also she wants to profess her love to Carrot. Carrot in flashback, shown to be a nice young boy helping the new village members the Misu sisters, adoptive into that village and feeling isolated as a result is actually a sweet kid, and the cameo by his father also proves that his perverted lusts are sadly as a result of very bad parental influence. It's because of this episode I can admit that there are things I enjoyed; I openly admit even if I absolutely detested the OVAs I want to see the TV series, even in knowledge that the original author Satoru Akahori has a writing credit and is probably responsible for that detestable first episode gag. Even as average, this third episode shows what could've been interesting. The very bright, even gaudy aesthetic of anime of the time of bright colours, rounded and bold character designs, and the general sense of cartoonishness is appealing. Even if the high fantasy setting is utterly vague, as I don't remember Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings adaptations having hot springs, it's still fun when you are not in discomfort or with your head in your hands.

Even as very adult sex comedy, when its acceptable, through violent slapstick always aimed at the male lead and with the bold character designs, it would have a brash potency which is emphasised by that aforementioned opening credits theme, and the ending one, which does play up the S&M nature of the Misu sisters' relationship to Carrot in a plastic J-pop song performed by a female singer telling a lover to be patient in a lyrically submissive way to her. In another world, whilst still kinky as hell, this work would've just been gleefully dirty minded and more tonally coordinated without any of the problematic moments, especially if they still kept in Carrot's lusts, the Misu sisters' interest in bondage gear, and Mille without any of the inappropriate groping and more sensual coolness.

Again, I do want to see the series, which obviously would've toned a lot of the material down and had to tell a story. This OVA though? Really difficult to recommend, as bloody hell, when you get to the worst aspects, they are as bad as I have described. It's more baffling now older and with more context why ADV Films even released this in the UK by itself. This wasn't the last time the company choose some curious choices - a Leiji Matsumoto adaptation, Queen Emeraldas (1998-9), only had the first two OVA episodes released in the UK and the USA on DVD, and never the last two, whilst by the end of their existence we in the British Isles ended up with the first five episodes of Shinichi Watanabe's comedy The Wallflower (2006-2007) and bugger all else. I can probably describe many more of these curious examples of ADV Films' history, and like my obsession with Manga Entertainment, I am sure the more of their long out-of-print releases I will find, the likelihood they will paint of a curious picture which doesn't the many strange and negative decisions as much as the good ones.

From https://i.ytimg.com/vi/POjegrgdIIw/hqdefault.jpg