BEING UPFRONT: A Pictorial Guide to Bodacious Women in Anime--Page 7 (L-Ma)

LA BLUE GIRL (Jpn: INJUU GAKUEN LA BLUE GIRL) & sequels
Miko Mido; Yaku (left to right)
After the enormous flap that the infamous horror hentai OVA series Urotsukidöji caused upon its release, it was just a matter of time before creator Toshio Maeda decided to work on a variation of the successful theme: Up the humour factor a little more and make the lead character a cute and buxom young woman who is able to wield some power (right after stretches where she doesn't--to allow for certain scenes, of course). This show was released here under the name La Blue Girl, and the young woman in question was Miko Mido, future head of the clan of Miroku, a long line of female ninja who fight using sex as well as weaponry. In the second of the six OVAs, Miko and her perverted pint-sized sidekick Nin-Nin visit a small village where the Miroku train, and meet Yaku, a fellow ninja whose figure you can't ignore (especially when Nin-Nin imagines her naked dB) ). Between the two of them, we see what are probably the two hottest consensual scenes in the whole series. In the second OVA, all involved help Yaku try to regain control over a side of herself she does not like to reveal. In the third OVA, one of the two young men Miko and Yaku encountered (and whose wallets Miko ate empty) at a restaurant earlier turns up at their hotel room, and Yaku takes more than a shine to him (the picture above is from that scene, before she digs in). If you don't like horror hentai, this is not too likely to change your mind (and I won't blame you, because it's not really my cuppa, either), but this one does have more redeeming qualities than almost all of the other ones out there. I haven't watched its sequels yet, but have heard that they keep the good parts good, so, one of these days...

The incomplete but still fairly handy

LABYRINTH OF FLAMES (Jpn: HONOO NO LABYRINTH) Carrie White Galan is a massive samurai otaku and a horrible klutz, which is a bad (for Galan) and very funny (for me) combination. After bending up his sword, his lady friend Natsu gives him a nice fancy katana and invites him back to her home to see more of the swords in her collection. Of course, he goes for it. What he wasn't told is that said lady friend is originally from a village in Russia, and they have to parachute to get to her home...and why is everybody calling her "princess"? Shortly after they land, we meet Natsu's arranged fiance Datenoshin, who is helping out an American documentary filmmaker named Carrie White (Buxom American Blonde in a Cowboy Hat #1), who's in town to do a feature on a Japanese lord who fled to Russia with his subjects near the end of the feudal era to escape the war. And then things start to get interesting for our bumbling hero--and us. Studio Fantasia (Aika) made this as a flat-out silly comedy OVA series, and did well, in my opinion, although the character Kasumi is a little bit too over the top as Natsu's devout (and anemic) servant. Yes, panty shots also factor heavily in here, but the comedy doesn't hinge mostly on them this time around. Worth checking out at least once if you like it lowbrow. No fan site--or even official sites--that I can find, but how about a review from Anime World for now? English-version videos (duhhhhhh-b VHS/bilingual DVD) are available from Central Park Media. They've re-released the DVD for a MSRP of $20 USD, which, as you can guess, makes me happy. Look for the version with the red-background cover.

LINGIRIE SENSHI (soldier; fighter) PAPILLON ROSE (technically)
Tsubomi/Papillon Rose; Anne (top row, left to right);
Regina Apis; Sister Beene (and the Bees in the background) (bottom row, left to right)

This is one for the Sailor Moon fans in the house; don't hurt me, please, because this isn't Venus 5. This particular (and particularly ecchi) clingwrap-veiled parody has been an "Original Net Animation" for a few years now, with a website featuring pictures, MP3s of the planned voice actresses and songs, synopses for 25 "TV episodes," and a couple of short trailers/teasers. In 2003, it finally became a proper OVA, and this is what this entry is about. Tsubomi is a student who works part-time in the hostess bar Lingirie Pub Papillon, where the women do indeed wear quite fetching scanties as they sit with and serve overpriced drinks to the male patrons. She's popular, but also has a bit of a, shall we say, rabbit-like attitude towards life and work, which gets her in trouble with the master of the place. She is also prone to jumping around quite a bit while standing still, but not while running; go figure. Her friend and co-worker Anne is a sexier, friendlier, softer-voiced young woman whose own attitude towards life (and sex) utterly defines "casual;" if this place were real, I'd definitely ask for her. Great plans are in store for her; just not in this episode. Evil is afoot, in the form of Regina Apis and the oppressive organization Dynasty. Regina has sealed away the spirit of Queen Flora, who is described as the "benevolent and loving ruler over the world's relationships," and she and Dynasty have taken over Flora's throne in order to rule with neither benevolence or love. Not only does she have cold down cold and many minions to serv(ic)e her, but what has to be the heartiest evil villainess laugh to ever exist in anime. After chance encounters with a handsome man named Hikaru Shishio, who she falls happily in a hotel bed with, and a very forward talking Siamese cat named Rama, Tsubomi sees Regina's arrogant minion Sister Beene, and the Bees, Dynasty's legion of monsters, attacking the master of Papillon (and you have to see the Bees fight to disbelieve it). Rama tells Tsubomi about the power that she now has and, after much difficulty, she transforms into Papillon Rose, and the battle commences. While Sailor Moon occasionally flirts a little with adult concepts, Papillon Rose sticks its tongue right down their throats, complete with appropriate attack names and weapons. While this OVA does slip through the cracks--not explicit or active enough for a lot of anime fans to consider 18+, but a bit too edgy for just plain fan service--the character and costume designs are great and the story is generally a good laugh. Worth checking out if your mind is open (and dirty) enough.

Novy's aforementioned official Papillon Rose website (Japanese only) is

LOVE HINA
Naru Narusegawa; Mitsune "Kitsune" Konno; Mutsumi Otohime (left to right)
When he was a little boy, Keitaro Urashima (the guy in the R2 DVD cover scans above) promised a cute little girl in the sandbox that, when they grew up, they would attend Tokyo University together. According to legend, a couple in love who attends Toudai will stay together forever. 15 years later, Keitaro is trying for the third time to pass the entrance exam, and, while the promise is still pretty vivid in his mind, he can't remember who the girl was, since her family moved out of the city shortly after they promised. When he makes it to his grandmother's hot spring resort hotel, Hinata-sou, which is supervised by his aunt Haruka, he discovers the hard way that it's been turned into an all-girls dormitory since he was last there. After accidentally kicking up a ruckus among its tenants, his grandmother faxes Haruka to let them all know that she has just bequeathed Hinata-sou to Keitaro, thus making him the manager of the place. Several colourful (and nice-looking; this is a shounen series, after all) female characters call Hinata-sou home. They include fellow Tokyo U. ronin Naru Narusegawa, who Keitaro finds himself gravitating towards, despite her chronically short fuse, and the sexy (if state-variable, depending on how close another character is to her chest) Mitsune Konno, whose antics have earned her the nickname "Kitsune," after the mythological mischievous Japanese fox spirit. Her eyes are rarely ever seen fully open; the R2 DVD cover above is one of those few times. During their travels, Keitaro and Naru meet the mysterious Mutsumi Otohime, a beautiful (and well-built) and kind but spacy Okinawa native who is prone to accidents and fainting (due to anemia). Despite her good intentions, she winds up agitating the relationship between Keitaro and Naru almost as much as Kitsune does, without even trying. This series has stirred up quite a bit of controversy, especially about often Naru clobbers Keitaro over mistakes he makes or bad things she thinks he does (of course, in slapstick tradition, he always comes back without a scratch). Others feel that the manga is much better than the anime; I like the anime myself, but do have to agree with them. I recommend both of them, especially since the manga covers more story than the anime.

Study hard at

LUPIN III Fujiko Mine (BWH: 99/55/88cm; Source: Sketch on the late Fujiko Mine Homepage) Fujiko is a fellow thief and Lupin's rival (and sometimes lover), and such a prominent example of feminine pulchritude in anime that any Lupin III video featuring her is automatically given a "Courtesy Breasts" icon in Animerica magazine's review column (they used to say so in the icon/criteria guide). I haven't seen very much of the TV show, but do remember how she left it to cleavage quite a bit in the Die, Nostradamus! movie, and even disrobes and climbs into bed with our hero to help keep him from freezing to death (does nothing more than hold him and gets out and dresses again immediately after he revives, though--the creators knew enough to take a cheap shot only so far). She also is the subject of one of the illest fanservice setups I've ever seen in the Legend of Twilight Gemini TV special. Thankfully, Fujiko's character is as well-developed as her youknowwhats, and she strings along and frequently outsmarts Lupin. This is a show that is definitely more than the sum of someone's parts.

The

MABURAHO
Kuriko Kazetsubaki (center, of course) Kazuki Chikimori (right in picture) is a quite-below-average student at the Aoi Academy Senior High School, where people with prodigious magical skills go to study. Most of the students can boast both powerful magic and the ability to use it thousands and thousands of times, but Kazuki is only able to use it eight times in his life. Basically, he's a poor schlub who gets picked on a lot by the guys and ignored by the girls (pretty much all of whom are at least cute). Things change radically for him when it's revealed that his ancestors include many well-known and powerful magicians, and that his own magical power is actually lying dormant in his genes. In other words, it's highly possible that his offspring will be the ones who will fully inherit all that power. This results in all the girls in the class wanting to jump him, which, in return, makes all the boys want to thump him. Three particular girls concentrate their efforts on him. Yuna Miyama (left in picture), a sweet girl who is actually an old childhood friend of Kazuki's, genuinely loves him and even transfers to Aoi Academy and situates herself in his room in the Saiun boys' dorm--as his wife. Kuriko Kazetsubaki, the star of our entry, is the daughter of a powerful and wealthy industry family and already right in its footsteps; she wants Kazuki's genes to make her family even more powerful, and doesn't give a toss about the lad himself...or does she? Well, one thing is positive: There's no mistaking that nice close-up bounce she contributes to the OP sequence, not to mention the show itself. Rin Kamashiro is a new transfer student who is ordered to marry Kazuki for the good of her family, is not happy about it and just wants to kill him with her ever-ready sword so she doesn't have to assume the, erm, duty--at first. Motoko Aoyama from Love Hina, please pick up your little sister. As you've probably gathered by now, there's no need to engage your brain much to watch this series. Approach with discretion--especially if you're getting jaded about anime.

Of course, an official Japanese website had to magically appear alongside this series;

MAGICAL SHOPPING ARCADE ABENOBASHI
(Jpn: ABENOBASHI MAHOU SHOUTENGAI)
Mune-Mune
The wild and wonderful

MAGICAL TWILIGHT
Irene; Ayako (left to right)
In this softcore hentai romantic comedy series, two white witches-in-training from the magic world are sent to Earth for their practical exam--winning the favour of a lad named Tsukasa Tachibana (in the background of the right picture). Chipple is a hard-working, innocent soul who is trying to touch his heart, while the pushy, vampish Irene just tries to jump his bones. In the second OVA, Chipple and Tsukasa go off for a holiday to a hot spring resort, and when Irene finds out they've split without her, boy, is she mad. After they settle in, Irene not only demonstrates what happens when you take off a brassiere quickly, but the effects of running down a hallway with your robe not fully tied up. We also meet the owner of the hotel, Ayako, who, for some reason, starts to moon a bit over Tsukasa when she hears his voice, and later on, reveals how she got onto the guide. Despite one scene in the first OVA that has understandably made some people itch, Magical Twilight is a nice introductory series for anyone wanting to check out adult anime without much of a shock about content.

All I can really find as far as websites go is this review at

MAGIC USER'S (sic) CLUB (Jpn: MAHOU TSUKAI TAI!) Mizuha Miyama Another killer comedy OVA series (and sequel TV series) that frequently crosses over from nice to naughty. A good part of the naughty is Mizuha Miyama, the shrewish, intimidating president of the school's Manga Club and the nemesis of the Magic-Users' Club president, Takeo Takakura. The best way to describe her appearance is Teutonic--her hairstyle is severely tied back, her school uniform looks like mow-'em-down business-style shirts and skirts, her glasses make her eyes even more hawk-like, and like her attitude, all her bras seem to be bullet-style (but definitely not sports-type). Many of the show's funniest moments come from her almost pinning Takeo to the wall without using her hands while she browbeats him mercilessly, as the still on the index page shows. Suffice it to say that he can't look her in the eyes. For a long time I was wondering if the TV series was going to maintain the same level of, erm, absurdity, and seeing the first episode (which, plotwise, picks up exactly where the OVAs ended), which this still is taken from, confirmed it. Put it this way, her first scene isn't her face. Yow. Grab this series on sight.

MAHOROMATIC
Saori Shikijou (BWH: 93cm/??/??)
(Source: Newtype November 2002 issue)
HelLO, Gainax! Suguru Misato is a young lad who has been living on his own since his parents passed away (his mother from illness, and his father whilst in battle). His life gets turned upside down when a beautiful but strong retired battle android (who fought against alien invasion in the 80's, for the secret organization Vesper) named Mahoro enters, first by saving him from a bus highjacking, and then turning up at his house offering to work for him as a maid. Given her skills, kindness, warmth, and drive--and the fact that his place had become a disaster area--he hires her on. Not long afterwards, she turns up at Suguru's school to give him the dessert she'd forgotten to pack in his lunch, and everybody in his class gets to marvel over the domestic cutie--except for his Grade 8 teacher, Saori Shikijou (the family name is

MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO (Jpn: YUGEKI UCHU SENKAN NADESHIKO)
Yurika Misumaru; Minato Haruka (left to right)
Nadesico is a cute and very funny series about Akito Tenkawa, a young man who becomes a cook, and later a combat pilot (against his wishes) on the spaceship of the title through odd circumstances. In the first episode he runs into Yurika Misumaru and finds a photo of the two of them together as children in a colony on Mars in her scattered luggage when he helps her repack it. As a result of this, he pursues her to try to find out if she might know about what happened to his parents on Mars. Yurika turns out to be the captain of the ship, and she is under the illusion that he followed her to get closer to her, since, at the time the photo was taken, she was infatuated with him, and still is. Despite her giddy demeanor and acting every bit the lovestruck young girl when it comes to Akito, she turns out to be a very capable and responsible captain. Her captain's uniform accentuates her build without having to be utterly skintight or show any skin at all, which is very unique in this field. Even her own father, a high-ranking officer of the United Earth Army, occasionally makes comments about how she looks. Looking throughout several sites for good pics for this, it seems that, between the anime and the drawn artwork, they couldn't settle on her bust size, so I chose the greater of the two evils, namely the front view dB) [Note: She actually belongs in

MASTER OF MOSQUITON
Yuki; Pharaoh Queen; Camilla Inaho Camille (left to right)
Satoru Akahori strikes again, with a 1920's story about a spoiled young brat named Inaho Hitomebore who revives a vampire named Alucard Mosquiton to help her in her search for the mysterious "O-parts," which are supposed to grant eternal life and youth. As part of the package deal, she gets his two guardian elementals; a young boy named Hono (Flame), who controls fire, and a little girl, Yuki (Snow), who controls ice. I might add that both transform into adult forms when they use their skills (as you can see), and Yuki's particular sequence is funny as hell. They don't like Inaho very much and complain to him about her constantly, but their boss loves her, so they have no choice but to comically suffer and help out in their shenanigans. An enormous pyramid suddenly springs up in the middle of London, and Inaho and the crew fly there because she's convinced that they'll find an "O-part" in it. They wind up tussling with a mad crazy pharaoh queen who is sunk in the back of a live, killer sphinx (but still moves around in it like it's water instead of stone), and who swings her own enormous pyramids around in the heat of battle. The OVA where our crew are on a riverboat not only gives Yuki a particularly alluring turn, but introduces us to a slice of Mosquiton's past. Camilla Inaho Camille was his wife about 300 years ago, and when she sees him on the boat, she wants him back, badly. Much to his chagrin. Suffice it to say that Hitomebore-san is not happy about this, and when she catches the two of them in a compromising position, there is much hell to pay (and service, service!). If you like the mania of Maze and Sorceror Hunters, well, you're gonna love this.

MASTER OF MOSQUITON '99 Wolf Lady/Okami-Sensei For the television sequel to the OVAs, things changed. It is now set in modern times, hence the title. Inaho is the most popular student at a Catholic all-girls school (and still a massive pain in the butt) who, this time, is seeking O-parts for money. Mosquiton, still under her control, is now a history teacher at the school. And ever since he went on a desperate feeding frenzy at said school, all the girls love him, but he knows who wears the skirt. With his help, Inaho now travels time and dimensions in her search. It is during one of these trips that they meet up with a pneumatic lass who they call "Wolf Lady" because of her problem. Y'see, she's a lycanthrope who changes into a werewolf if a man touches her. And, given her looks, a lot of men do (especially since her appearance in the centerfold of a magazine for monsters), which makes for a very uncomfortable (and funny) life. She winds up joining with Inaho and the rest in the hopes that the O-parts will help halt her condition. Until that time, she is the phys.ed. teacher Okami-sensei ("Professor Wolf") at the school. The fanservice isn't as manic as in the OVAs, but the show's still pretty good (at least the first four eps, which is all I've seen of it, are, anyway). Sarcasm-hime's (rather small) Master of Mosquiton Shrine is a good site, but you have to wonder: Do vampires really believe in shrines? There's a review of MoM '99 at Ex as well.

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