Vanilla Series: Bondage Mansion Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  12/28/2003

The Little Details

Running Time: 63 min. (32 min. for the first part and 31 min. for the second part)

Production Date: 2002

Director: None listed

Cast: Animated

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: I’ve only seen one other DVD from this company (namely GIRL NEXT DOOR), so I’m keeping an open mind here.

Initial Reaction: Although some parts of it are well done, overall I’m not overly impressed.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody wanting to ease their way into the darker side of anime

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody wanting softer, cartoonish porn

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is nicely dubbed and balanced. The video isn’t quite as good. It’s a few steps below Pokemon, with frequent black patches covering the screen and, some blurry scenes, and some parts where the animation just seems to stop.

Music: The music varies throughout the movie. It’s dramatic and definitely helps out the overall feel of the scenes.

Disc Complaints: There’s no time stamp to the feature. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. It’s only made worse here because there’s only one chapter break for each half of the movie.

Menus: The main menu is extremely long, and acts almost like a trailer. Thankfully it can be skipped!

The Feature

When Reika’s uncle dies, his dying wish is that she find her cousin Hayato and let him live in the family mansion. When he arrives, he proclaims that he wants the entire family fortune and the mansion or he’ll ruin her and her boyfriend by letting an old family secret go public. In an attempt to save their home, Yukio accepts Hayato’s challenge to see who can make Reika their sex slave first. Whoever wins get Reika, the mansion, and the fortune.

Scene 1 - Reika and Yukio

Reika starts things out giving her virginity to her boyfriend Yukio. Yukio works her over orally before breaking her hymen (you even get to see the blood flow) and fucking her in a couple positions. Finally, it appears that he pops inside her.

With the exception of the blood, this isn’t that bad of a scene. It pushes the devirginizing of Reika a little much, but at least it feels like there’s a little something between them.

Scene 2 - Reika and Hayato

Later, Reika takes care of herself as her cousin Hayato watches. After she’s done, he makes her pee in a tray and suck his cock while a toy is stuck in her twat. He pops in her mouth and makes her swallow it.

This scene is almost the exact opposite of the previous scene. It’s dark, has a feeling of cruelty to it, and basically didn’t do anything for me.

Scene 3 - Reika and Hayato

Later, Reika is put into fetishwear, restrainted, and gagged. Hayato drops hot wax on her and fingers her. She retreats to Yukio’s arms and cock at night, but Hayato continues to train her every chance he gets. Her training continues later with a pair of Hayato’s friends. To help further Reika’s training, Hayato even hires a pair of hookers to take on Yukio, who suck him, fuck him, and even finger his ass.

This is a better series of scenes. There’s still the non-consensual theme of the scene, but it’s made a little more interesting by Hayato’s addition of the hookers for Yukio. It adds another level to the darkness here, making it mental as well as physical. The sex still doesn’t do a lot for me, but the manipulation was nicely done and a great way to end the first episode of Bondage Mansion.

Scene 4 - Reika and a guy

After running away from the house, Reika is raped by one of her neighbors. He holds a blade above her head while she sucks his cock and then lays back for him to play with her pussy. He drinks her piss and fucks her with the handle on his blade before finally sliding his cock in her pussy missionary style and letting her ride him.

This scene completely sickened me. There’s some nice foreshadowing that lets you know it’s not going to be a nice scene, but the piss drinking and the obvious rape in the scene only made me nauseous. It does fit into the plot, but that still doesn’t make it comfortable.

Scene 5 - Reika and Yukio

After finding his Dad’s diary, Yukio learns how to be rough enough with Reika. They start out fairly soft before Yukio grabs her by the head and thrusts it onto his cock. He fucks her from behind before the scene fades out. Later he gives her an enema in front of their staff, threatening to fire them if they don’t watch. Finally, Yukio pleasure Reika after he’s sure she’s going to pick him at the end of the contest.

Once again, this isn’t too bad of a series of scenes to keep things moving. You can see Reika going further and further into depravity as the guys get more and more desperate to win the contest. There’s even a good twist or two at the end.

Bondage Mansion leaves me with mixed feelings. I really like how some of the feature is done, but some of the acts here really leave me cold. What left me with the most mixed feelings are some of the technical aspects. Hayato’s voice seemed very poorly done, and always seemed kind of half-assed. The animation faltered here and there, also feeling like it only made it part of the way to where it should be, and interfered with the feature in a similar way. Bondage Mansion has a few interesting ideas behind it, both sexually and not, but didn’t quite make it all the way for me.

The Extra Stuff

The only extra is a minute long photo gallery with about five seconds per good looking picture.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Anime, B&D, masturbation, toys, peeing, swallowing, hot wax, group, non-consensual sex, male anal penetration, titty fucking, anal, DP (technical), and golden showers

Raincoat Factor: Medium high

Condom Usage: None needed

The Bottom Line:

Currently, Critical Mass DVDs can be found online for between $15 and $26, with few stores offering them. Rent this one before you pick it up, as I’m sure that some people will really like it and some will really hate it. I’m somewhat in between, but the technical aspects aren’t as good as I’ve seen in other anime features. There are also barely any extras.

Note to Critical Mass: Thank you for including the full series on one DVD rather than splitting it over two as some other companies might.

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

Other reviews by Astroknight