skysenshi (10.21.2001 ed. 10.10.2003)
Hazardous...
It's been a week since I've seen Dream Hazard/Pianist and I still remember the abuse that my VHS player suffered from my constant fast forwarding activities. Dream Hazard itself has no particular story. It's just a set of dreams that Kaori experiences as she sits down inside a VR machine, living out her fantasy with the man of her dreams. The desired setting is an amusement park (boy, doesn't the word "amusement" have a double meaning now?), where Kaori and her crush proceed to their getting-to-know-you phase. Things start out as cheerful and magical at first...until the VR equipment starts conking out. Kaori then went from well-loved to well-abused, as everyone would probably expect. It's a hentai anime, after all, and it wouldn't be in this genre if Kaori only gets a simple date. I wouldn't wish this kind of computer error in my wildest dreams, though—not when a girl gets raped, tortured, fist-fucked, pierced repeatedly through her nose, nipples, vagina and whatnot. Sometimes the machine will go back to normal and Kaori will be courted gently again, which is all the more vexing if you were a woman who filled her shoes. The clincher? Well, I don't really believe that there was actually a glitch....

Update (October 10, 2003): I was able to rent the subbed version of this title for my first run through it (in October 21, 2001). I wasn't so lucky the second time. I was forced to rent the English dubbed version for this update just to see if I could notice a few bothersome differences. And I did. First, I could swear there are some important scenes missing in the dub, especially where Kaori's dreamboy is concerned. Second, Kaori is one loud biatch, who keeps mispronouncing the word "sempai" while killing your ears with her monotonous yelling. Not only was I constantly fast forwarding her sadistic scenes, I was also constantly adjusting the volume. Third, I finally realized Kaori wasn't the sole person screaming, "Stop! Please stop! Stop it! Stop the program!" I was aghast to find myself echoing her. It has been two years and many S&M anime later since I last saw this, yet it still manages to make me cringe.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that Mon-Mon wrote the original story. He has been known for his sadomasochistic pieces in Cool Devices. I know he's very popular in Hentaidom, but I sincerely wish I never come across any of his works again.

On a side note, Dream Hazard is packaged as part of the Secret Anima Series, along with Pianist.