Karakuri Ninja Girl: Book 1 Review

Running Time: 28 min.

Production Date: 1996

Director: Sabage Sukizo

Cast: Animated and featuring the voices of Alexa Rae and Trisha Uptown

Initial Expectations: NuTech’s job on their anime DVDs have normally been lacking, but every now and then I’ve found one that was a nice surprise. I’m hoping this is one of those, but I’m not holding my breath.

Initial Reaction: It’s pretty fun while retaining much of the darkness normally associated with anime.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody who’s looking for their first anime feature.

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody who wants an anime feature that feels completely uncensored

Audio /Video Quality: The English dubbing is very clear and well balanced. The video is also nicely clear. The animation isn’t very developed, and is very similar to most of the Japanese cartoons, like Pokemon that you can find on television currently. The only real problem is that there’s a red tint that appears through some of the scenes that doesn’t seem natural.

Music: The music is cartoonish, and nicely balanced with the rest of the audio.

Disc Complaints / Possible False Advertising: The movie appears to be censored despite the “Totally Uncensored” Claim at the bottom of the front cover. You never see a true penis in the movie, with some of them being blurred out in the standard ways and some being covered up with what looks to be traditional Japanese images. There are a few penile images, but they’re all explained to be magical.

Menus: The main menu has a nice bit of animation that gives a decent first impression. The chapter menu lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene and a title for the chapter.

The Feature: Ninjas Fawn Bell and Moon Shadow are tired of the ninja life, and instead want a sweet life in the big city, cooking, playing video games, and even sharing pajamas. They finally get expelled and move into the big city. Not everybody is happy with them leaving, as Morning Mist soon comes after her old lover.

Fawn Bell starts out getting drugged with an aphrodisiac. She diddles herself as everybody, including Moon Shadow watches. The Nina Queen gives Moon the Ninja Screw from Hell technique, turning him into a wide-up sex doll who bangs Fawn from behind. There’s no pop shown, or barely even implied. It’s a very short scene that’s slightly uncomfortable. It’s not exactly a consensual scene, but the resisting consent is basically due to them not wanting to fuck in front of everybody else. They’re already lovers, so it’s not a completely non-consensual scene. After a bit more sex in various places, Fawn and Moon find themselves kicked out of the Ninja Country.

Morning Mist casts a spell on Fawn Bell so that she won’t resist and she can remind Fawn of their time together. Morning kisses all of Fawn’s sensitive areas before focusing all her mental energies into a penile shape. She expects this to scare off Moon Shadow, but instead he takes the opportunity for a threesome. Once again, there isn’t much of a pop, as well as a rape theme. In a kind of disturbing twist, there’s also a fun spirit to much of the scene. I did end up liking the scene, as the rape theme seemed to move away as the scene went on, but would have liked a decent pop at the end.

Karakuri Ninja Girl 1 is a different bit of anime. It still has the rape themes that seem to permeate all of adult anime, but there’s also a very fun feel to much of the feature. There’s humor throughout almost the entire movie, including the sex scenes. This was a little weird, as it blended humor and rape themes. Although this might sound a little redundant, but things like this, as well as much of the feature, made it seem very cartoonish. The attitudes and many jokes I think would play as well to adults as to those who are many years away from being able to watch this feature, and that disturbed me too.

My biggest complaint, however, is the length of the feature. It isn’t even a half hour long. Since there’s only two parts to Karakuri Nina Girl 1, this made releasing the two parts separately make it seem like NuTech wants to nickle and dime anybody interested in their product as much as possible. I have no doubts that almost all of NuTech’s competition on this type of feature would have released both episodes on one DVD. To not do so makes them seem extremely cheap, as well as very wasteful. Karakuri Nina Girl 1 isn’t always comfortable, but it is enjoyable.

Extras: Three photo galleries are included on the movie side of the DVD. There’s a movie gallery that lasts just over a minute, a gallery for Alexa Rae that lasts two minutes, and a gallery for Trisha Uptown that lasts two minutes. In each case, you get about six seconds per nice looking full screen photo. The B-side of the DVD contains roughly forty trailers for other NuTech anime DVDs.

Themes: Anime, straight, drugs, masturbation, voyeurism, lesbian, rape, toys, and group

Raincoat Factor: Medium high

Condom Usage: None (damn lazy animators!)

Overall: Most of NuTech’s anime DVDs can be found online for between $11 and $22 with most stores offering them for around $15. Rent this one before you buy it. I can’t justify that kind of money for a half hour DVD. It is a fun movie with a decent transfer, but it also appears censored and doesn’t have any worthwhile extras.

Note to NuTech: Pay attention to what your competition is doing and copy them. Right now you look cheap and like you want to bilk every cent you can from people interested in your products.

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

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