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Komatsu-kun Biyori is a short autobiography of the artist and her life with her pet ferret, Komatsu-kun. Because it's an autobiography, she goes into great detail about Komatsu-kun, everything from how he sleeps, his little habits, how his demeanor changed since he was a little fur noodle, etc. She loves Komatsu-kun, and that becomes quickly apparent based on how she talks about him. I think most pet owners will relate to her, we tend to notice patterns in our pets' behaviors and find them super cute. These are her real genuine feelings, these are real genuine experiences she's had.

This manga is very wholesome.... ... But unfortunately that isn't the full story here.
Reality is very much a key player in this story, and any pet owner will know that reality can be quite harsh and take away our furry loved ones quickly and unexpectedly, and this happens to our manga artist DURING the serialization of this manga. What starts off as a cute little ferret story takes an unexpected dark turn, and the manga artist has to learn to cope with the pain of losing someone she absolutely loved. In the afterword, she talked about how Komatsu-kun passed away during the serialization, and how that affected her mental state while trying to continue publishing this series. Reading through it myself, my heart sunk for her. She goes into hurtful detail, even when she reminisces about some of her past pets. It ends up being a weirdly tough read because you're essentially experiencing Komatsu-kun's death with her. and I don't think you'll get that kind of experience with any other manga.

This can end up being a really hard read for some people, especially if you yourself have experienced the death of a loved pet in the past or even recently. It can be a little too "real" since it's not a fictional story. But at the same time, it can act as a good way to heal those wounds left behind, even if just a little.

So just a warning in advance, there are technically 3 versions of this OVA:
1. A version with a mix of anime and a little bit of live action, released on VHS and LD
2. A version with all anime, live action bits replaced with proper animated scenes, also released on VHS
3. A version with all anime, but the live action bits are cut out, released on DVD

Odds are, you will be watching the 3rd version, as that is the DVD release and currently the only one available with subs. Now you may wonder how much content you'll be missing out on. The answer is not much, ... maybe like 3 or 4 minutes worth of content, as the content is mostly just mild sex scenes. However, you might notice a jump from one scene to the next, or a character will talk about something that happened in a cut scene, and that can get a bit annoying. Luckily, the full version (version 2) isn't hard to find if you want to see those cut scenes. Now for the review.

The main character is Kouhei, a carefree playboy nude photographer looking to make it big, leaving his life behind and travelling to Karuizawa to live with his childhood friend Kaoru. He also ends up meeting with Noriko (or Non, as she's sometimes called), who is a former leader of a biker gang. These two women will be the catalysts that can hopefully help turn the playboy into a man.

The artsyles is very 80s, but also offers a unique take by changing the artstyle throughout the series, such as the traditional anime artstyle or a sketchy artstyle. The characters themselves will also regularly switch from chibi and non-chibi versions of themselves too, usually for the comedic or lighthearted moments. It can be a little jarring sometimes, though.

The characters, especially Kohei, are gonna be hit or miss for most people. Kohei is depicted as this playboy who wants to get into the pants of every girl he sees, usually being very smooth about it, and much to the despair of his friend Sumio as he can't keep a girl's attention for even an hour before Kohei sweeps the girl off her feet. He has a dream of living as a drifter in the US, and that drifter lifestyle in him makes him want to run away from the challenges in his life and remain carefree. He's admittedly a tough character to like, but that doesn't mean he's a bad character.
Kaoru and Noriko are the other two main characters, each being the women Kohei especially becomes fond of. These two have their own difficult challenges and hardships they need to overcome with the help of Kohei, and I think their challenges are tackled and discussed pretty well.

Overall, it's a decent watch clocking at a little over an hour. The plot has its ups-and-downs and the characters are in that weird middle ground of likable and unlikable. The artsyle is interesting and is nice if you're looking for something a little different.

Every year, Kouhei goes and visits his grandma and cousin living in the countryside for summer vacation. However, this year is a little different. Kei, the young tanned shota cousin, has grown out his hair and put it in a ponytail, a simple change that produces some incredible results. Kei's affection towards his "nii-chan" is amplified now that he looks more feminine, leading to some budding feelings between both characters.

Primarily aimed at shota and yaoi fans, but works as a more palatable version for those not used to the themes and genres. Although, there's a decent amount of shota fanservice in it, if that ... makes or breaks it for you.

Story - 8

The story is a simple one that works in conjunction with the life of the countryside, everything from playing around in the river, tests of courage, and fireworks festivals. These everyday experiences help amplify the bits of romance and the wholesome moments. It's a good balance of "Aww, that's cute," into "Oh my... *heart thump*"

Art - 8

The art is surprisingly good. Some of the more notable highlights in the art department are Kei's silky hair and Kei's sickingly sweet-looking faces he makes. One of the challenges in making this manga appealing to readers is trying to make a shota look really cute while also retaining that boyishness innocence and presenting that through facial and body expressions, which the art does a great job of doing.

Character - 8

Kei is the main focus of the series as the tanned ponytail-toting shota who is heavily attached to Kouhei, primarily due to him being a single kid and looking up to him as a brother. However, even though he likes to tease Kouhei and mess around with him, he desperately seeks attention from him through headpats, lap pillows, and maybe even something a little more...?
Kouhei is the other main character, a college student who comes to visit his grandma and Kei every year. With Kei sporting a ponytail, Kouhei grows more aware of his existence and develops an internal struggle with his potential feelings for his cousin while trying to retain his usual methods of being a loving older brother figure for him.

Enjoyment - 9

I surprisingly enjoyed it. At 4 volumes, it's not a long read, nor does it ever feel like it any part takes too long. The many wholesome moments mixed with the cute faces Kei makes was diabetes-inducing, keeping me smiling many times along the journey.

Suki koso Momo no Jouzu Nare is the story of a crossdressing boy, Momoi-san, moving in with Sou-kun's family after abandoning his family. Primarily a comedy manga, but offers some romance elements too, and just a teensy bit of ecchi sprinkled in there for good measure.
Due to the obsurity of this series, I'm gonna guess you are already familiar with crossdressing series and were looking up others to read. If, on the other hand, you are unfamiliar with crossdressing manga, welcome aboard! This is definitely a good start, but veterans of the genre may find it a little more generic.

Story - 6
Admittedly, the story ... is a bit on the plain side, it does not offer much in terms of originality, but that's not to say it doesn't offer some good moments. The characters are the strong point in the series, which I'll get into a little later. Most of the series boils down to a formula of *Momoi does something adorable* Sou-kun: "Wait a second, Momoi-san is a boy! But dang it, he's cute!" If you can think of a typical crossdressing trope, this series has probably got it. On the positive side, the series does not ridicule or demean crossdressers in any way, but it's not exactly here to spread a message either.

Art - 7
The art is good, it's a more simplistic artstyle suitable for a romcom series. Some of the chapters have some colored pages, so that's a plus. Not really too much to say about this other than "Yeah it was good but I wasn't blown away by the art or anything."

Characters - 8
This is the series strongest point. All of the characters are unique, easily recognizable, have varying personalities, and for the most part are all loveable. There aren't many characters you need to keep track of thanks to the series being short, you only have about half a dozen active characters, some only making a couple appearances.
The two main characters, Sou-kun and Momoi-san are the big focus of the series, but let's be real here, you're reading this for Momoi-san since he's the focus of the series as Sou-kun is the generic protagonist. Like I mentioned earlier, Momoi-san is a crossdresser, he's simply a boy that likes wearing girl's clothes in addition to enjoying cute things. He radiates cuteness, so much so that it makes Sou-kun confused about if he likes Momoi-san or not. But his cuteness also leads him into situations where the other characters will take that cuteness and use it to mess with other people (in other words, tease Sou-kun).

Enjoyment - 7
Simply put, it's a short series that I sat down and finished in a couple hours, so it ultimately lacked time for proper character development and used common crossdressing tropes seen in a lot of manga that focus on this theme. However, the series used its characters in an enjoyable way, throwing in a couple curve balls here and there that gave me a good chuckle.

It's a decent series all around, it's worth checking out if you want something quick to read, but as a fair word of warning, be prepared to get a lot of questionable looks if you read around family or in public because Momoi-san does show up topless a couple times and even though he's a boy, it's very much intended to be erotic.

Pain. Sadness. Grieving. Healing. Memories.

Losing a loved one is painful, and all of us will experience it at some point or another, finding our own ways to cope and move on from the sadness left behind in our hearts. Refrain Blue takes us on a short little journey of emotional healing with our two heartbroken main characters and a mysterious young girl at the beach.

The story is rather good, albeit short. It doesn't feel too rushed, thankfully, as it still tells a complete story. The anime is an adaptation of a Visual Novel that came out a year prior, so it's not a ... surprise that there's inevitably going to be some story cuts to condense it into a 3 episode OVA series.

The art is classic late 90s - early 2000s style. If you have a soft spot for that older look, you'll definitely enjoy it. I did not notice any art inconsistencies when I watched it.

Sound is easily the biggest highlight of this series. If you've ever watched the Clannad series, you'll know exactly what kind of soundtrack you're in for. It's very calm, emotional, which ramps up a little during dramatic moments. It's almost worth watching it for the soundtrack alone!

The characters, while are the main focus of the series, are also a bit on the weaker side. This is mostly attributed to the short length of the series, the characters aren't quite as fleshed out as you'd like, especially when the big focus of the series is their emotional struggles. Side characters don't add much to the main story, outside of one character's actions, but I suppose they play larger roles in the VN (This is designed to get you to pick up the VN, after all).

I ended up really enjoying this short series. I was a little worried because of the low score, but it really doesn't deserve that in my opinion. It's an enjoyable hour long emotional healing series that doesn't try to play off the emotional moments with corny jokes. However, keep in mind it does have ecchi scenes.

Overall though, it's a very enjoyable series that is worth picking up if you want a bit of an emotional story. It doesn't take too much of your time, after all.

"Those sweets are made by hands that are stained all over by blood."
"Past memories can't be erased so easily, huh?"

Mechanical dolls were used in a war that has since ended, but the horrible actions of these mechanical dolls still linger within the hearts of everyone. What's to stop them from continuing to murder? It's better to just get rid of them all. I can't trust her. Even though a bloody war precedes the event of the main story, it's a slice of life. Lots of inaction, more of a focus on dialogue and emotional and character development. It's an uphill battle for Mayple to bring ... joy and happiness to the townsfolk who have lost many loved ones from her kind.

The art is very good, Mayple is always a particular delight to look at drawn out, with her long flowing hair and beautiful maid dress. The art is similar to that of CLAMP, with pretty female outfits, pretty hair, soft visuals in general.

We have two main characters, Craw and Mayple, one a human, the other a mechanical doll without any desire for combat. Craw decides to take the first step in forgiveness for the human race and help Mayple. She opens up a tea shop, but of course, she has to win the hearts of the townspeople first, being a mechanical doll and all. There are a fair number of side characters, each with their own backstory and character development, but sadly, many of them of one-and-done characters, an unfortunate after-effect due to the short length of the series.

The series is 10 chapters long, 2 volumes total. With that length in mind, you can get a rough idea that because of that, the story is a bit rushed, despite being a slice of life. Any plot, issues, unique events, etc, are usually resolved within the chapter. The series could have certainly benefited from a longer length, which would have allowed it to flesh out its characters more, the world building in general, and certain events in the story could have had a bigger impact to the reader.

It's a short read, which ultimately becomes its biggest issue. It's good and has some memorable moments, but the story becomes a bit predictable and it doesn't feel like it really offers anything new or particularly unique to the table. Mayple is absolutely precious though, and it's almost worth reading purely for her.

Fuu-chan, in an attempt to study for college entrance exams and to escape from the Tokyo heat, visits some relatives out in the countryside. However, his summer becomes a hot embrace of passionate sex with Kii-chan. These two, struck by their curiosity and ecstasy, are going to live an unforgettable summer.

That is essentially the bulk of the story, as about 90% of the pages are sex and other sexual situations. Not too many words spoken, as the characters are mainly fulfilling their lust. There is an open-endedness to it, as evident by some moments in the later chapters, suggesting that it's possibly a little ... more than meets the eye.

The art for the manga is pretty good, but it's very simple. But one notable thing is that since it's basically a hentai manga without the hentai tag, censors are in place. This, in conjunction with the simple art style, makes the sex scenes occasionally hard to make out, as it seems like just a pure blob of white in some panels.

There's only two main characters, and I mentioned them earlier: Fuu-chan and Kii-chan. The manga isn't designed to be a comedy or action series or anything crazy, it's more designed as a melancholic sex story, so they both have very down to earth natures, exploring the intricacies of sex and exploring the bodies of the opposite gender.

A personal plus for me was the countryside setting and the backgrounds that came because of it. These two explore each others' bodies in multiple different areas in an attempt to keep their sexual relationship hidden from their relatives. They're all beautiful and unique situations that make you wish you were in that setting yourself.

I honestly think it's an excellent manga (hence why my actual score is different from my review score), it doesn't try too hard to make a groundbreaking story, but rather tell a simple tale many people likely fantasize about at one point or another. It's very vanilla. but it's exactly that vanilla flavor that may make it not interesting to people as well. You may also be put off by the incestuous relationship between the two relatives, you may not like Kii-chan's loli-like body, or you may not like the fact that it's not a hentai title despite the sex story. It's definitely not a manga that is designed to captivate a general audience.

PSA: If you plan to watch this, try and find the original Japanese audio with subs (if needed). When I tried to find this, I could only find the English dub, so I had to go with that. Now, what's interesting is that there's TWO English dubs for this obscure hentai, and one is significantly "better" than the other. If you're watching the one where the girl, Yuna, sounds like she has two voices stacked on top of each other, avoid that one. It's absolute cringe. I tried it before I found out there was a better dub out there. It literally sounds like a ... fandub (and it might very well be one! I can't find information on this.) If Yuna sounds like a fairly normal girl, you're good. On to the review.

The world's population is steadily decreasing, so humanity has developed humanoid androids to help the world. Seiji is a pianist, but an accident lead to him putting his career on hold. He fell in love with the android nurse who was taking care of him, so he went and bought the same model to live with him. He sees and treats his android Yuna as a human, but not everyone sees androids the same way he does.

Art is alright. It's late 90s hentai so it does not age well compared to some modern hentai, however I like 90s art, so I thought it was decent. Remember that version of the dub I told you to avoid? Yeah, whoever picked that up decided to use AI upscaling or something to try and enhance the quality with rather... questionable results.

Sound was also alright. Nothing real special about it, but there's a primary focus on piano music for the BGM.

The characters are unfortunately one of the really low points for this hentai, Yuna is the most likable one, while Seiji is just... boring.

The H scenes are okay, there's nothing really special or unique about them. It's very standard vanilla stuff.

To put it bluntly, it's just a bland, generic hentai that doesn't offer anything special. Honestly, this review is mostly just to warn you of the double dub situation you'll have to deal with if you do decide to watch it.

English subs did not exist at the time of writing this, so I made my own to properly experience the story.

Notable hentai tags: vanilla, incest, urination.

80s hentai is a rare breed, not too many exist as it didn't start to become more common until the 90s. This hentai is rough, the art certainly did not age well, and artifacts of the old VHS era occur. However, it doesn't ruin the experience, in fact I think it adds to the vintage feel. It made me incredibly nostalgic for a time I did not live in.

Tropic Angel tells the story of Mina and Shigeru leaving ... America to head back to Japan. However, disaster strikes (don't be frustrated when you don't get an answer to "that"), leaving them and a blonde American girl named Jenny stranded on an uninhabited island. This begins the tale of these three souls and their sexual urges overflowing.

The art is obviously very dated. It screams "80s" and if you're not used to it, it may take a bit to get comfortable with. And for a hentai that, as far as I know, never received a modern re-release, the quality is rather low, but it's not unbearable. Personally, I liked it, but I understand it's not for everyone.

Sound is actually surprisingly good! The BGM is pretty good for the H scenes, and even has a vocal cover in there too. Not something you hear too often outside of OP and ED songs.

Mina is the main protagonist of the OVA, as the events are told in her narrative. She is arguably the only one who gets any kind of character development (as much as you can get in a 22 minute hentai, anyways). Shigeru and Jenny are the other two protagonists, nothing really special to say about them.

Personal enjoyment was a solid 10/10. To live life on an uninhabited island, free of all worries, indulging yourself in the pleasures of sex and living a life of pure happiness, the world the OVA created is one that I can seeing myself fantasizing about.

It's a very, very simple and vanilla hentai, I can't stress that enough. But for me, it hit me in a fantastical, dreamy way. Perhaps the same may happen to you.

Notable tags: Vanilla, Prostitution, Middle Aged Man, Pretend Rape.

The series itself is fairly vanilla, there's no absurd or over the top sex scenes, but the last scene is fake/pretend rape so that may make some people uncomfortable.

There's 5 main girls, all voluptuous and craving sex as soon as one of the special cards the man is in possession of is whipped out. All of the girls are pretty attractive, and they're pretty distinct from each other. But with the hentai running for about two episodes at 15 minutes each, their scenes are somewhat short. The middle aged man is the other notable character, and ... this is definitely one of those "Ehh, I don't know if I'd be into this" kind of thing, but fret not, dear viewer! The man is incredibly bland, having no eyes and a generic personality, so you're really not gonna be thinking about him at all. You're mostly in his perspective.

Art was solid, looked really good in the sex scenes. There were no obvious art errors either, which is usually common in hentai.

Sound was good too, the VA for the girls all did a good job. The background music was subtle.

There's two primary issues I had with this hentai.
1) The cards. The man is given 5 cards in exchange for a large sum of money, but why do these girls want these cards? What's so special about them? Well, unfortunately that's left as mostly a mystery. We only get a small explanation. This franchise spans multiple different series, so perhaps it'll come back in another one and get explained there.
2) I wasn't a fan of the girls proclaiming their love for "the middle aged man's large dick." This kind of dialogue comes up multiple times and pulled me out of the experience each time. I didn't really need to be reminded of that, thanks (Although I'm sure that's the kind of audience they were aiming for in the first place).

Overall, if you like vanilla hentai, it's definitely a good quick watch.