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I decided to give this a watch on Tubi because anyone familiar with Anime is bound to see bits and pieces of this scattered on the internet. It was particularly notorious when it came out (I WONDER WHY) but it hasn't really hung around in the public conscious. I guess you can say my curiosity was peaked, and now I can comfortably say that I am dedicating the rest of my life to killing whatever part of me that was curious in seeing this. Holy shit. What the fuck?

This has got to be some sort of Pandora's box of pure depravity and in a just ... world it sits on the shelf somewhere between Salò and A Serbian Film. It's like all the perverts in Japan got together and brainstormed every single screwed up thing they could get away with on television. This would literally be impossible to make in any other country because no one else would never even be able to conceive any of this. Not even an ounce and certainly not as concentrated and unrelenting as this. It's honestly so degenerate to the point of absolute absurdity that it becomes hard to even be offended. I'm not entirely convinced this isn't some sort of cryptic meta parody of Japanese fetish culture but Occam's Razor dictates it's just a vanity project by some freaks who never got shamed enough in their lives.

Can you recommend this to someone? I would say that certainly anyone who wants to see this should not be allowed anywhere near it. It's also way too extreme to watch in any ironic fashion and no way in hell would I put this on with any friends I want to continue to respect me. I suppose that leaves poor saps like me who are dumb enough to watch it. To be honest I wouldn't recommend it to them either.

In short, I'm taking a cold shower.

This is a prime example of a piece of media that is best admired for its audacity of existing (like, at all) as opposed to being good in any critical sense. Seeing a classic 80s Anime ooze so much Americana is just a head-trip, and for the fun (FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN) it invokes I have to recommend this to anyone who is interested. Additionally for all the fans of overanalyzing media, this is an excellent catalyst for interesting tangents, which is my bread and butter so I must doubly endorse this OVA to all that are interested in it.

For those don't care ... to overthink a good thing, you don't have to bother reading any more of this review. Just watch this and have a blast.

On a technical level there's nothing remarkable, if not softly crude, but that is undoubtedly part of the charm; the English voice acting is uncanny but also goes a long way to adding to the OVAs quirkiness. If I had to describe what works best about this short, the words ethereal and dreamy come to mind: this is pop-media at its purest and exists as a testament to the most romanticized aspects of both the American and Japanese experience of the 80s. In that sense it acts as a very interesting link between two distinct cultural moments on the other side of the world, celebrating the commonality of carefree, innocent opulence. Of course, it would be impossible for me to talk about this feeling without acknowledging how radically the world shifted away from this ethos (something that is reinforced by the repeated imagery of the Twin Towers, which will sadly forever create a haunting feeling in all media it is featured within,) and in that sense it would not be hard to understand how a contemporary viewer might get a sense of an "end of civilization" feeling while watching this.

The other elephant in the room is the palpable homoerotic undertones. Sexual analysis is not my area of expertise but there's a very Björn Andresen-esque pretty boy in Japan vibe going on, and while never addressed in this manner, the existence of identical athletic teenaged supermodel twins that trade lives and sexual partners has very Freudian implications. There is absolutely a rabbit hole to go down here if you want to.

All in all, I got a lot out of this OVA and I think there's no reason you can't as well. Just go in with the right expectations and enjoy yourself. Peace.