skysenshi (02.10.2002)
The long and winding…torture…
I wasn't too thrilled with the prospect of watching Shusaku Replay simply because I find the original Shusaku to be a retarded piece of garbage with only a tidbit of a saving grace—and rest assured it wasn't the hentai scenes.

So we proceed with Shusaku Replay. The first thing that struck me was bad English dubbing. I saw Shusaku subtitled, but I got the dubbed version for Shusaku Replay and it was like listening to a Mynah bird talking trash. Beyond that, I suffered through another bout of bathroom fetishes—which includes drinking pee and relishing the sight of human feces. How could I also forget those idiotic school rules that dictate what color your underwear should be? One must also endure yet another round of seeing girls not know how to deal with simple blackmails that aren't even life threatening. They have an excuse for being so easily manipulated, though, because it's no longer just one man they are dealing with, unlike with the original Shusaku. Good excuse. Boy, am I ever so glad that I'm only a mere spectator. Oh well, whoever said that character design is such a simple task that everybody could do without having the aptitude for it?

At least it has better art this time, and also a little more detailed on the hentai scenes that now require acrobatic skills on the part of the players.

One last word: I'd like to give women like these a piece of advise, if they are unfortunate enough to exist like this in misery. When a guy forces you to give him a blowjob, go along until you've touched his miserable prick. Then, use both your hands and twist separate ways. If that isn't enough, position your forefingers and index fingers in a lever-like stance at the side of his eyes (near the temple), apply a bit of pressure and proceed to pop out his eyeballs. I doubt he'd recover fast enough to keep you from destroying his blackmail materials and taking care of his fornicating ass. Just a thought…

Masterchief (04.19.2003)
The More Things Change...
Shusaku Replay is the sequel to Shusaku, as you likely figured out. However, it doesn't take place after the first one. Instead, it is an independent story starring the same characters. Somehow, the story manages to be even more silly and contrived and the sex manages to be even more well-depicted. Before I go on, I have a question: Why must story and sex be mutually exclusive? I've always wondered that...

That out of the way, I certainly liked Shusaku Replay much more than the original. The act of defecation has taken a well-deserved back seat (Though there are still some instances involving enemas... And this one shot of the teacher's...), in favor of showing penetration and urine as a tool of domination (I'll admit to being neutral about the latter, but the former is welcome). The one thing that struck me was the attitudes of the women in the later portions of the series. Whereas the first one had the girls as helpless victims, this new series has all but two of them becoming willing, eager slave girls by the middle of the third volume of four. As unrealistic as this is, I'm not complaining, as the sex is still good.

The animation quality has risen from the first one considerably, again raising the question of why these people don't do non-pornographic animation. This sort of effort is rare in anime period, and to see it poured into a hentai presentation is a good thing. I would hope that companies like Gainax would learn from this example and pour their hearts out into mainstream releases the way this series' animators have.

As much as the visuals have improved, the sounds are generally the same. The sex in some spots could be a little squishier, considering how wet the ladies get, and the sounds of flesh slapping together aren't really noticeable, but the sound effects seem to be pretty good besides. As is to be expected, the Japanese vocal track is far superior to the English one, which features mostly deadpan vocals. NuTech needs to resolve this as soon as possible, as it's starting to get offensive.

In the end, what you have is a top-notch hentai for those into domination/submission themes. Yes, the plot - especially the ending - is silly as all get out, but that's not what people will be seeing this for.