Hey, Grandma! I thought we used sex, not swords!

Some of my friends have said that to really understand a culture, you should examine its pornography. Personally, I think that argument is rationalization, but in this DVD’s case it’s true. Not because I could glean hidden nuggets of information about Japanese culture from the content of La Blue Girl, but because this is the only Anime DVD I’ve watched with a short documentary explaining the popular culture of Japan and common anime symbolism.

Fear my tighty-whities!

For a movie that is basically animated pornography, La Blue Girl has a surprisingly well-developed mythos. The story goes like this: Our heroine, Miko Mido, is an 18-year-old ninja for the all-female Miroku clan. Our antagonists are the all-male Suzuka Clan. The in-between forces are the demons of the Shikima, held in check by an ancient pact with the Miroku. Unfortunately for Miko Mido, the Suzuka murder her grandmother and steal the Shikima-manipulating talisman. The Shikima then attack Miko Mido, but fail. So they target Miko’s sister, Miyu, using her to lure Miko to Hell where they hope to defeat her by screwing her until she can’t see straight.

OK: It’s not much of a plot. But this is the George W. Bush Effect: if you’re not expecting much, it’s much easier to be impressed.

Hentai takes a lot of heat from some people because there’s so much violence associated with sex. Rape is a common theme, but in this series the violence of the antagonists is pretty much matched by the heroine. The female characters are not all retiring victims ? even in more mainstream anime, the women are frequently more bad-ass than the men. I think this should be pointed out because I was rather suprised to discover this to be the case. For example, after Miko Mido is assaulted by a demon wearing tighty-whities she carves him up into many pieces.

You don’t look anything like your personal ad.

So, is it fun? Well, part of that is going to depend on your opinion towards these kinds of things. If you’re convinced it’s all extreme and evil, chances are you’re not going to enjoy it at all; but if you can get past that hurdle, it’s entertaining. Animation is minimal. There are lots of pans of still images, and the frame rate seems to be somewhere between five frames per second. But there’s actually a story — enough to keep you occupied for twenty minutes or so. Then the repetitiveness sets in, and you start looking at the clock. The graphic bits of sex, of course, are just like most hard-core pornography: repetitive and … repetitive … and ultimately predictable. Sarah and I watched only half of the film, assuming we’d pretty much seen it all after that point. I don’t encourage purchasing it for most people, but if this kind of thing is your “thing,” then rent it and judge for yourself. And the little documentary at the front is a nice bonus.