#268: Offside Girl (2007)/University Girls (2001)

 

Studio(s): MS Pictures (Offside Girl)/Obtain Future (University Girls)

Offside Girl based on a manga by Ippon Nagare

Voice Cast for Offside Girl: Nene as Miyajima, Kenkou as Akira, Nanami Natsukawa as the Coach, Ryoko Tanigawa as Nanami

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

Attempting to cover what most know it as "hentai", alongside any self-consciousness you may feel in whether it presents a negative image of you to strangers or not, is confounded with how like some erotica, they focus on their subject, the act of sex, even if the story is very simple or pushed to the side. In a case like this, you are also confounded by the fact that, combining the two episodes together, Offside Girl makes up less than thirty minutes, and University Girls is only twenty two minutes as one single piece, neither being continued and leaving not a lot to work with. But there is something worth prodding even if you will get into NSFW content with how these works, and erotica in general, say a lot about people, more so as the reason I wanted to cover these was not really to cover hentai just by itself. I wanted to cover them as much because as of November 2023¹, these are the lowest ranked hentai anime on Anime News Network's list of lowest ranked anime, which means as per viewers of the site, this pair is in handshaking distance to notorious works like M.D. Geist (1986), Tekken: The Motion Picture (1998) and EX-ARM (2021) which have gained infamy. The hentai is itself is less likely to be as talked about as titles which could get a wider range of access without the restrictions on selling hardcore materials, which makes it interesting to wonder how they got on that list. Among hentai in terms of premise, when many I would even want to touch with a barge pole let alone ever witness, thankfully these two are tamer in ideas, even if Offside Girl gets into curious kinks, and all their notoriety comes from their production.

Truthfully, we watch action films as much for set pieces as much as the stories, horror films for the vicarious and gruesome moments, and erotica for their sensuality, and with outright pornographic content, in mind to all the issues of their gender politics and attitudes, the ideal is an idealised and in cases exaggerated take on human desire, even if dealing with fetishes and kinks which may come off as weird for some viewers, meant to deal with these ideas in a consenting construct between creator and viewer. That is one of the reasons "hentai" is a term I feel less happy to have to use as its literally the Japanese term for "pervert" and ridiculous to implement, when "eroge" for Japanese erotic video games is one I wish I could steal for this review but have to keep to the parlance we use in the West to avoid confusion. Animation has the advantage, even if it may cause viewers to feel weird to feel desire to figures that do not exist and can be un-human in look, to inherent emphasise a creative fantasy, something to bear in mind as Offside Girl and University Girls are ultra low budget works who struggle with this, and that is why they got the bottom ranks. One of the issues with eroge anime too is that, like live action pornography, the medium is pushed more for content than to try to emphasis artistic content, ostracised in society and with the medium a way for people to access them. This is not to dismiss the potential for this in the medium or manga, let alone live action erotica, as you can envision purely titillation in work made with authorial creativity and a wider scoop like LGBTQ themes, but in mind that it has become a genre, as much as live action where it has been attack and forced to be its own industry selling the sexual content, you have an uphill struggle in making a large budget an acceptable choice in terms of a market. The best example of this in hentai was when the acclaimed illustrator and manga artist Satoshi Urushihara co-directed a high budget hentai Another Lady Innocent (2004), a melodrama set in the period American South, only for one episode to ever to be created in his life time due to how its production, legitimately well made as an animation work, likely cost too much time and money to make when anime in the industry can be made quicker and sell the sex in a faster time. The two being covered today show an extreme which did not gather very well regarded reactions to them, in trying to make erotic anime for audiences in a compact time, but even if the artistic side of the genre should not be dismissed, so much is made and not really talked of that it is like a crap shoot trying to pluck something out, let alone two chosen here for this review as the "worst" for some of their kind.

Offside Girl was the more interesting one because of its premise, and to pull back the curtain was meant to be the single title covered until University Girls turned out to be lower in the rankings, in which its lead, a female student, is smitten with a guy far more interested in being on the men's soccer team at their school. Soccer is as popular in Japan as globally, and imagining a tale of a young woman having to work around his obsession is interested in any genre. You can have a sex comedy premise about this in Britain, where it is called "football", and there is in fact a film called Fever Pitch (1997), a romantic comedy, in which actor Colin Firth played a man obsessed with the sport, based around a memoir by Nick Hornby and set around the team Arsenal's First Division championship-winning season in 1988–89 and its effect on the protagonist's romantic relationship. It is a far more curious premise though to mix porn with sports, just to imagine if you let the soccer nerds get away with references to the sport, and parodies of franchises like Captain Tsubasa, one of the biggest in terms of Japanese manga and anime for the sport, without getting into copyright trouble, against what is effectively a tale of two people who discover they like each other very quickly physically. He tricks her into becoming the manager of the team as part of its comedy tone, effectively the dogsbody who cleans the uniforms and keeps their spaces clean, but when they are forced to hide in a cupboard, soon into the first episode their crush becomes a physical one, and baring in mind aspects of this I would understand being criticised and viewed as sexist, this effectively suggests as a premise two young people, around the sport of soccer, realising they love each other but in a very kinky and polygamous way. The immediate issue is that, if you were expecting the soccer references, be disappointed as you do not even see a soccer ball, barring a musty one in their main team building, nor any sports, as this barely has any content beyond the set-up.

Neither expect more than this. You get barely any context beyond the basic interactions, and most of this is actually depicted in close-ups where you do not see many feet let alone soccer appropriate footwear on people, and it is here the true reason this got so low a rating really comes in on Anime News Network, in that Offside Girl also at times feels like a motion comic or actually a manga if the speech bubbles are replaced by the voice acting. Some of the illustrations of the cast, mostly drawn in minimal close-ups, do look wonky, our female lead finding herself eroticised but also distorted physically in a work which had few resources to work with. The studio behind this, MS Pictures, have made anime beyond this and before, titles with evocative names like Fleshdance (2007) from the same year as this, and yes, that is clearly a pun on Flashdance (1983). They were not going to lose sleep over this production, one where it feels as if the production became less a priority or was allowed to fall down, as this is insanely raggedy for any level of budget.

It actually emphasises the commitment the cast have to put in, even before we get to the absurd dialogue, the voice actresses especially having to go from nought to up to eleven to get this exaggerated form of eroticism over in their bellows. This is where, if I had been worried as a viewer being viewed as a perverse covering this, or anyone was to be put off the subject, you cannot dodge covering the sexual content itself as the driving force of the animation. You have to factor in with both of these works that, with millennia of objectification and oppression of women, this factor will always effect a person's reaction to a work that is geared clearly for a male heterosexual audience, in its eroticisation of the female figures even as mere drawings; like the two female leads in University Girls this follows a fixation on larger bra cup sizes, here with the obvious concern that this is a figure in school despite age being vague this never dares get into, and to how when the second female character is brought in, they can have sexual relations in a fantasy scenario for men, but this would have not teased with male bisexuality too. In mind to all the issues surrounding erotica for their portrayals of the subject, it is clearly exaggerated and unless one is documenting one's own real sexual experiences, the bigger issues alongside confusing this with the reality of sexual relationships is when they forget that people (men and women) are fully formed people, and even if the issue is a bias towards focusing on certain audiences and stereotypes, it is also in mind that many do not play to this to their better in letting the cast even in a fantasy for a heterosexual male audience feel like they are in on the pleasure as the male character/audience. This is more of an issue here as, whilst I would utterly understand someone labelling Offside Girl sexist, it is pretty tame baring touches, and the greater issue alongside the like of time and budget this had is that you do not get characters even as broad stereotypes. Especially with the female lead, who should be the focus on the character dynamics and journey in this tale, where she comes to appreciate soccer and also discovers her own sexual desires, this should be as much where she gets to have fun as the lead, not just go through the motions. Clearly, because this barely establishes the story let alone actually tells one, you cannot tell the direction this went unless you go to the original manga by Ippon Nagare, but even here, you could have had a few more touches to her in what little time you have.

Some would argue, if they saw the second episode where a female coach is introduced with a fetish for managers of all kinds, male or female, that it crosses a line when she could be seen as molesting the lead, and then is "punished" by a male member of the soccer team. In context, the scene is frankly evidence of the production's flaws, vague and confused, and a huge issue with erotica in general where, unless you are dealing with something legitimately misogynistic in tone, you are dealing with fantasies without the appropriate sense of the construction of a consenting world between characters, and between the work and the viewer, where arguably the issue here is also one you need to challenge anime outside of hentai in general for the same issue, as unfortunately that type of scene is one found as the "joke" for many works even into the Millennia. The rest of it comes off more like a really kinky four person fantasy scenario despite nearly edging the line too closely; the "punishment" moment surrounds everyone on the team being aware of their female coach's interests and one of the other players being in a relationship where this is played to, whilst in a scene which did not feel uncomfortable at first, it would be our female lead role-playing being "helpless" to the female coach, rather than play it as what comes as the one really problematic scene in all of this. Whilst not a lot is here, a moment of tone-deaf writing comes in to emphasise that no one was thinking through how to not make a scene nearly become gross.  

There is also the surprise inclusion of a lactation fetish, but with mind that the female coach is not an older woman who has had children, nor there being any other female characters until the last scene of the final episode being introduced. It involves the titular protagonist herself, where her love interest even asks when he discovers this of her whether she is pregnant. It is a curious inclusion, a kink which may put off some, or cause others to roll their eyes as it is a young female student where the fetish comes in, as in reality, it is rarer outside of childbirth including chemically induced methods for this to physically be possible. The fact that it is separated from motherhood, whilst could be accused of a fetish not accepting the reality of human life, also factors in how it is nether for the pleasure of anyone else but the "Offside Girl" herself, where there is a kink about being touched and caresses whether by herself, as in the first scene of the first episode, or by others. These quirks, even if this is porn not thinking hard at all about the accidental symbolisms, can be read into for how you could have gotten something that fully embraced a more bolder, progressively kinky tone even if the reality is alien to this and not helped by its complete lack of budget. A heroine with the discovery of how tactile touch is central in her fantasies is a premise with a lot to write about, seriously and comically, even if you are not going to more here baring a nod to the idea, which is the problem in general with all anime, let alone hentai, where you have one-off or stray episodes to a premise never allowed to ever grow into a full narrative.

University Girls, also known as Joshidai Ecchi Sōdanshitsu, is a more conventionally plotted tale, a one-off erotic story. Madoka, our female lead, is also a student, despondent when she barges in on a male teacher she is attracted to on the university campus mid-coitus with another female student, later to get advice from her friend Yokko to be more confident with him. The set up, with student-teacher relationships, has become more taboo over time even between adults, and this short anime is not going to pass the Bechdel test for how the leads talk mostly about sex and men, but it is a surprise even when this comes to the final scene punch line where it goes, in that this story is about sexually confident women in charge. This is in mind, with most erotica targeting heterosexual man, you are dealing with work that plays this with the female as figures of fantasy, but this still gets into how Yokko, helping her friend, is in a BDSM relationship with the psychology teacher where he is completely the submissive, to literally be walked on, to pleasure her and Madoka when invited to be an additional dominant, and leading to that aforementioned punch line where to Yokko's dismay the hot male teacher wants to be a willing submissive to her after a trip to the love hotel.

Even details like this, whether accidental or not, make something like this which most would not sit through more interesting. In terms of BDSM, with one man being stepped on in shoes, a whip used in multiple ways, even when it comes as an improvised prostate examiner, it is strong if you have never seen a depiction of this, but is also tame when one is aware, with careful rules in place in the BDSM community between the dominant and the submissive, you can get into things like blood play, piercings, confinements etc. in a healthy way, making this look vanilla. Hentai is not a topic I want to cover mostly because of the stuff that would even challenge my belief in the freedom of art, by way of permanent banishment from record with fire, and sadly Obtain Future in their short existence did tap into themes which I am creeped by myself, but it also comes with this sense of them literally throwing anything at the way to see what sticks, leading to University Girls inexplicitly being about strong women in control for their pleasure even if, in context, I suspect no one was necessarily thinking about that as the driving force of the title, just the fantasy of men being dominated by men plus some more conventional sex scenes. Most of their work is also on the bottom list of Anime News Network, and in this case, we cannot ignore the animation elephant in the room as, even if trying to be positive, even I have to admit to thinking Offside Girl looked like a step-up in animation in comparison. Best way to describe it is early Flash animation, homemade, which managed to be released on DVD in the USA by Adult Source Media. Adobe Flash animation was able to let some very talented creators make both animation and web browser games from them, from the likes of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (2004–2009) to the game Frog Fractions (2012), allowing anyone to show incredible talent, but it was also a way to let anyone animate regardless of resources, and undeniably, flash animation on the likes of Newgrounds also includes pornographic work, capable as much artistic quality but also something like University Girls. The voice acting at times even feels like friends or people the creators knew earnestly trying their best next to the performances in other work, especially the actress playing Madoka when she has to cry in one scene. In a work which inexplicably references Sigmund Freud at one point, this feels like with hindsight a work unfairly forced into daylight as an actual DVD release, which unfortunately put in its the crosshairs of anyone gathering the hentai releases from that time.

This review has to factor in how, yes, these titles do come off as crass at points, more than sexist or even misogynistic. Works like this as it stands, even if you could get past their lack of animation budgets, has the issue too with a lot of erotica with how ridiculous the dialogue is, which could be embraced for the exaggerated humour but here feels like it was trying to be serious. The moment in Offside Girls the lead is complimented in having "amazingly indecent breasts" was where this managed to get absurd, only to manage to top itself later on, and in University Girls Madoka is asked about her cup size mid-coitus, which shows as well the obsession with bra sizes in the fantasies of anime in general, let alone these more explicit titles. Ideally, porn if not trying to be serious should embrace a hyper-exaggerated form where, with balance in depicting everyone male and female, it images the idea of everyone being happy with sex so proudly lurid and passionate. Even if merely drawings with voices here, the characters should be symbolic of real people and representing what viewers would be able to have with their own significant other(s) in real life even if it also means screaming the roof off, embracing bodily differences and fetishes/kinks in a consenting environment.

Offside Girl is based on a one shot manga but never gets beyond the prologue to a larger story, where the previous female manager of the team is introduced never to get anywhere further, so it is really impossible to say whether the premise would have gotten to this ideal, instead the anime if you ever watched it being something you cannot pass the animation and production of. University Girl, which is not more than a short erotic tale, an original narrative, is just as stuck with this problem, and between them is the ultimate issue that, even if one was to argue with the noble idea of positive sex wanting to be depicted, these merely help think of the ideal whilst they even struggle with the animation. They do not feel like the "worst" anime ever, if because neither is uncomfortable to watch barring awkwardly rendered sex scenes, University Girls the more likely to break someone for this, and together at an hour as a double bill, barely any life feels wasted away. Neither, thank God, ever got into content I would regret watching, and if it seems strange to have such a long review speculating on what-ifs to what are, frankly, titles most would mock for the animation, it is because sexuality is a topic that is so diverse and expansive in human culture whether we want to be proud of it or not. Between them, University Girls is the one rightly lower in the totem pole, but it feels mean to mock these, when more repugnant hentai unfortunately exists, and there is entertainment here between them even if they get so much wrong.

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1) Anime News Network's Anime Top 100 Worst Rated (bayesian estimate).