Desert Island Story X 2 Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  8/27/2004

The Little Details

Running Time: 24 min.

Production Date: 1998

Director: Kanazawa Katuma

Cast: Animated with voices by Dayton Raines and Miko Lee

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: I found absolutely nothing redeeming about Desert Island Story X Part 1, so I’m not expecting anything here either.

Initial Reaction: It’s an improvement, but not much of one.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody wanting to be depressed sexually

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody wanting something with an emotion other than hate and fear

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is okay. It’s nicely balanced, but some of the dubbed lines feel like they’re just being read off a sheet of paper rather than feeling like they’re the “actual voices” of the characters. The video leaves a bit to be desired. The animation isn’t that developed, think Pokemon, but much of it looks a little fuzzy, almost as if it’s a soft focus problem. There’s also some that has off-color bars through it.

Music: The music varies a bit to fit what’s happening in the movie. It’s normally well balanced with the rest of the audio.

Menus: The main menu is nicely animated, and gives a pretty good first impression. It would have been better if it hadn’t gone on for nearly forty five seconds before letting you make a choice. The chapter menu lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene and a title for that scene.

The Feature

Desert Island Story X tells the story of five young women. One of them comes from a very wealthy family, and when preparing to have a wild party on their family’s yacht, it’s hijacked and the girls are taken across rough waters to an unknown island. Some of the girls escape, but now are torn between trying to stay away from the hijackers and rescuing their friends.

The story to Desert Island Story X Part 2 continues with darkness and almost no levity. The rape factor is still here, but it concentrates more on the girls and their efforts to save their friends as well as the fear they have in being captured and put through the same treatment as their friends. The emotional mistrust between the girls also comes forward very strongly, as well as the bonding between the girls who have been raped. There are a few lighter moments, but even those are touched by darkness as they draw to a close.

Natsuno starts out what qualifies as sex in Desert Island Story X Part 2. Her nipples are pierced against her will, and when she complains a third ring is installed lower. Yuko gives Mr. Akio a little head before learning that he’s in league with the bad guys and taking on all of them. Once again, none of it is anything close to happy, but there are a couple lighter moments that aren’t sexual but are sexy as two of the girls play in the ocean.

Desert Island Story X Part 2 is anything but enjoyable, but there are parts that were done well enough to be mildly interesting and to strike a chord. I’m sure they weren’t meant to be so, but I can’t deny that those of us who haven’t been raped really can’t imagine what it was like. I will also confess that I don’t think any of us want to know what it’s like. Sadly, that’s as close as Desert Island Story X Part 2 does to anything. The fear, the mistrust, the violence, and any other bad feeling that can come out of rape are all put on display here. Even sadder is that the girls are never really treated as victims you should feel sorry for. They just seem to be there. Desert Island Story X Part 2 did pique my interest for a couple moments, but it’s anything but porn.

The Extra Stuff

The A-side of the DVD contains a few photo galleries and website information. The feature gallery lasts almost one minute with about six seconds per full screen photo. Dayton Raines and Miko Lee each get their own photo galleries also, with each of them running about two minutes with six seconds per nice looking full screen photo. There’s The B-side of the DVD contains trailers for most of NuTech’s animated releases. Sadly, these are the same extras on every DVD in this series.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Anime, abuse, peeing, oral, group, and rape

Raincoat Factor: Very low

Condom Usage: None, since social diseases haven’t become a problem among animated characters yet

The Bottom Line:

Currently, most anime DVDs from NuTech can be found online for between $11 and $25 with most stores offering them for around $15. This is such a dark and dismal feature that I have a hard time even recommending it for rental. The story is continued well through this episode, but there still isn’t anything worth mentioning for extras and the technical aspects still leave plenty to be desired.

Note to NuTech: I really wish you’d pay a little attention to how badly your competition, such as Central Park and Kitty, are making your DVDs look and try to improve them. They would have released this entire series on one DVD at roughly half the cost you charge. This makes for much happier customers who seek out your product much better.

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me .

Other reviews by Astroknight