Koihime 1: The Love Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  5/20/2004

The Little Details

Running Time: 29 min.

Production Date: 2000

Director: None credited (at least none credited in English)

Cast: Animated and featuring the voices of Houston and Kobe Tai

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: I haven’t had the best of luck with NuTech’s anime DVDs. I’m not going in with too high of hopes here.

Initial Reaction: It’s a fun feature but a lousy DVD.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody wanting a short but fun adult animated feature

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody wanting to feel like they got their money’s worth

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The technical aspects are okay. Most of the audio is nicely clear and well balanced, but there’s a few crackles in it that interfered with it for me. The video is much the same way. It has a primitive Pokemon feel, but gets a little shaky at times.

Music: The music is nicely balanced with the rest of the audio and keeps the Japanese style working very well.

Menus: The main menu is animated but goes on way too long before the selections come up. The chapter menu is pretty average and lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene and a title for the scene.

The Feature

Years ago Musashi spent some time growing up around his grandmother in the country and playing with Nami, Anzu, Suzaku, and Mayuki. When he returns on a summer break from college he doesn’t remember the girls, or much else of his time there. The girls, however, remember him and all want to be with him.

The sex starts out with Musashi and Nami getting it on after a few drinks. Nami quickly becomes submissive to that she almost seems to have no will of her own, but thankfully things move back to show that she actually wants to have sex rather than having Musashi force himself on her. Unfortunately it does show her as having no self confidence and resisting a little because of it as Musashi works his mouth across her. He also fucks her before popping inside her. Later Musashi gets it on with Anzu after she joins him in the bath and washes his back. She sucks him until he pops and then has him fuck her after working her over orally.

The sex is very nicely done. Unlike so much other hentai, it’s made clear that the girls want the sex and put a little chemistry into the scenes. It’s never rough and often a bit fun. At the same time it also brings in a few Japanese thoughts on cleanliness and culture that I think many westerners might misinterpret as being much worse than they’re intended to be. The sex is nicely done and works into the plot very well.

Koihime is a nicely done animated feature. The plot moves along nicely and has some nice humor to it. The animation works well with the humor, and the anime feel plays very well off the humor in the movie to make it even more enjoyable. The sex fits into the plot, and unlike so many other Japanese animated features, is enjoyed by both parties which made it much more enjoyable to me. The only real complaint I have here is that although there’s only two parts to this series and it doesn’t even run a full hour, NuTech had to split it between two DVDs. Even though I was expecting it, this left me feeling more than a little ripped off, as I don’t know another company who’s releasing hentai features who wouldn’t have put both parts on one DVD. Yes, it might cost more, but when you get the entire story you don’t feel nearly as nickle and dimed or ripped off as NuTech makes you feel here. Koihime is an enjoyable feature, but NuTech’s presentation definitely brought it down.

The Extra Stuff

Three photo galleries are included. The galleries for Houston and Kobe Tai lasts about two minutes with about six seconds per good looking full screen photo while the gallery for the feature only lasts about a minute. There’s also a multitude of trailers and internet information.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Straight and cream pies

Raincoat Factor: Low

Condom Usage: None needed

The Bottom Line:

Currently, most of NuTech’s anime DVDs can be found online for between $11 and $24, with a few stores offering them for under $15. This one’s worth renting to check out. It has a nice story and nice sex, but the technical aspects lack a little. As usual for NuTech, it also lacks for extras.

Note to NuTech: This was a nice feature, but I doubt it would have cost much different to release both parts of this movie on one DVD. You could have charged more and probably made as much or more money while leaving the customer feeling a little less ripped off.

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

Other reviews by Astroknight