Genre: Fantasy
All Ages
2002 Hiroyuki Morita (director), Aoi Hiiragi (manga author), Studio Ghibli
Executive Producers: Hayao Miyazaki, Hideyuki Takai, Hironori Aihara, Koji Hoshino, Seiichiro Ujiie, Takeyoshi Matsushita, Toshio Miyagawa
Producer: Toshio Suzuki

Amazon.Com Product Description
From the creators of the Academy Award(R) winning SPIRITED AWAY (Best Animated Feature Film, 2002) comes the visually stunning THE CAT RETURNS, a spectacular animated journey to a world of magic and adventure. Haru, a schoolgirl bored by her ordinary routine, saves the life of an unusual cat, and suddenly her world is transformed beyond anything she ever imagined. The Cat King rewards her good deed with a flurry of presents, including a very shocking proposal of marriage to his son! Haru embarks on an unexpected journey to the Kingdom of Cats where her eyes are opened to a whole other world and her destiny is uncertain. To change her fate, she’ll need to learn to believe in herself and appreciate her everyday life. Featuring the sensational voice talents of Anne Hathaway, Cary Elwes, Tim Curry, and Elliot Gould, THE CAT RETURNS is a magical animated adventure that will delight and inspire everyone.

Shop for The Cat Returns: Artbooks and Manga, DVD,, Music CDs, Everything Else

WARNING: This is the first hentai title that I’ve seen in over a year. And because I now belong to the Academe, mustering any sense of objectivity will be difficult. What I’m about to say isn’t going to be nice…

I chanted the words, “It’s fiction! It’s fiction!” in my head over and over while I was viewing this. Not just because I’m not into teacher-student relationships, for obvious reasons, but also because you’re forced to kill your brain cells when faced with h-anime such as this.

The first episode was actually promising, I must admit. Despite the fact that the students were cruel and that Keiko was a schemer, I actually thought that the ring leader, Koh, would be transformed by an overwhelming feeling of tenderness for Miyuki. Or something to that effect. His bullying ends in episode 1, but that’s only because episode 2 had a completely different story line. In episode 2, a higher authority takes over the role of master torturer and pimp. More stupid scenarios take place right before the yawning begins. Nothing here is remotely original, they just repackaged it in a more disgusting manner.

(I don’t think I need to elaborate why it’s stupid for a teacher to allow herself to be used like that in the name of “helping the students”. You’ve read enough from my rants against blackmail themes. What baffles me is why Miyuki doesn’t just quit and live in the red light district so that she could earn more. I have never seen her teach in this anime anyway, but I always see something plugged up her ass. She might as well get paid for it. So if I were in Miyuki’s shoes and the ugly Headmaster Sugai threatened to fire me if I didn’t sleep with him, I’d probably just laugh in his face and move to Ginza pronto.)

Forgive me if I prefer to use the word “hentai” and won’t even use the word “erotic” because really…any sense of eroticism flew out the window the moment I saw Professor Miyuki shit her brains out.

Yep, you read right. This is the new generation of hentai, people. Tentacles are now considered outdated, because human excrement is in. Whoever is making up these things seriously needs to get laid. It gets hilarious after this, because one of the later characters actually had his penis injected with silicone to make it lumpy in different areas. It’s not always outlandish, though. There are bouts of normalcy here and there, if you can consider threesomes and bondage normal. All in all, the only good thing I can say about Xtra Credit is that at least they’re a little less detailed when it comes to the fuglier men.

I don’t even know why they attempted to put a story in there about Miyuki’s fiancé and Koh’s reaction about this news. The writers didn’t pull through, anyway. An ending where Miyuki slits her throat or turns into a full-time whore would’ve been a bit more dramatic, given Miyuki’s background.

Sigh. I told you I’d ruin this for you.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 9; Story 4; Characters 4; Sounds 5; Ecchi Level 10

Xtra Credit Xtreme
Genre: Blackmail, Romance(??)
Credits: 2002 Discovery, Anime 18
Shop: Xtra Credit DVD, Hentai Item Shop

Skysenshi’s Description:
Music Professor Miyuki Hara is always bullied by her students. With each passing day she spends in school, she loses her confidence until she ends up wallowing in self-pity. Professor Keiko finds her in such a pathetic state that she offers to help the new teacher get along with her students.

Little does Professor Miyuki know the life of debauchery that awaits her…

Genre: Action / Mecha
Parental Guidance Recommended
Credits: 1989 Sotsu Agency / Sunrise Inc. / Bandai Entertainment / Takayama Fumihiko
Shop: Gundam 0080 Artbooks and Manga, DVD, VHS, Game Shop, Toys and Accessories

Shunichi Sakurai’s Description (written October 29, 2006):
It is late into the year UC 0079, and the historic One Year War between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon is in its closing stages. For 11-year-old Alfred “Al” Izuruha, a resident of the neutral Side 6 colony of Libot, his days at school are filled with him and his friends acting out war games and imagining mobile suit battles. All of a sudden the games become real as a skirmish sparks in their city streets. For Al, a crashed Zeon mobile suit found in the forest brings him closer to his wildest dreams. Little does he know that he embarks on a journey of realization that war isn’t all fun and games…

(6 episodes)

Read full info and review here. >>>

I’m the type of person who never reads covers when it comes to choosing her anime (I just pick a title from a list then rent immediately), mostly because many cover writers tend to spoil everything. So the first thought that came into my head when I saw the opening credits were, “Blond. Pink dress. Huge breasts. Oh, gawd, I’m going to spend the next twelve episodes with a candy-coated airhead!”

When the protagonist, Rushuna Tendo, whipped out her gun, however, I was hooked. I love the idea of a gun-toting heroine (which was why, despite my complaints about FFX-2, I still loved its battle system). Furthermore, the girl is a master at looking stupid when she’s actually not, effectively reminding me of myself. She would smile and try to settle things peacefully — her mantra being to disarm the enemy’s will to fight — but she turns into this badass strategist when encountering particularly stubborn opponents.

With Rushuna are the samurai Yajiro and the balloon specialist Mikan. Their goal is to spread love, hope and courage throughout the land. Heh. Almost. The Empress sent Rushuna out on a mission to unite the borders by using non-violent methods, a task that a lot of those who believed in power begrudged. Every episode is light-hearted, as Rushuna and the gang meet up with one weirdo after another in their quest to fulfill this. Even with the added tinge of drama in the last few episodes, Grenadier still maintains the feel-good atmosphere that leaves one sated in goofy love-love feelings.

There’s one thing that a viewer would notice in this series, though. That would be the amount of fan service. Rushuna has a big…chest, and it’s almost always the focus of the camera. Since she wants to look sweet and cheerful, she’s always hugging someone — that involves a lot of scenes with heads placed snugly atop you-know-where. She loves baths and when she’s not bathing, her clothes get torn off in battle. I suppose you can already imagine how often fan boys will drool over this one.

I know that there have been issues regarding scantily-clad women in anime, but this title is actually a lot of fun. Yes, the shoujo-esque spiels about hopes and dreams may seem cheesy at times. I would, however, like to congratulate its creators for making it entertaining enough. Heck, I did a marathon on this and this is the first anime in year that I’ve seen. Not bad for a refresher drive into the fandom.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 8; Story 8; Characters 9; Sounds 7

Action, Adventure
Parental Guidance Recommended
2004 Hiroshi Koujina, Grenadier Production Project, Group TAC, Kadokawa Shoten, Toshiba Entertainment
Shop: Grenadier Item Shop, Hentai Item Shop

Amazon Editorial Description:
During the age of Japanese Civil War, the faithful samurai Yajiro Torajima is surrounded by an enemy army. At the last moment, the bountiful Rushuna appears and saves him with a smile… and a high -caliber revolver. She is traveling across Japan in search of a way to bring an end to war. Yajiro and Rushuna challenge countless opponents with his sword and her talent for reloading on the bounce.

After a whole month of beta testing, we’ve decided to close the registration process. We found out that a lot of people will try to abuse the system, which is kind of funny because spammers and dubious usernames are automatically filtered by the site anyway. From now on, only people who have been approved as Contributors will be registered into the site.

Non-contributing readers are still welcome to comment on the articles and reviews, of course. Your thoughts and ideas are always welcome. You can register on the boards, if you want to talk to other users. ^^

As for spammers, well, I still get a kick out of the attempts since I’ve seen really creative ones captured by the filter. Once in a while I approve a spam comment through, mostly because some can be quite amusing.

Oh and…I’d like to thank the spammers who attempted (and utterly failed) to fill the site with garbage. Without you, we would never have found out how adorably tough our filters are. =^.^=

Genre: Adventure
Credits: 2003 Capcom Entertainment, Inc.
Shop: Monster Hunter Freedom Item Shop

Amazon.com Product Description:
In Monster Hunter: Freedom, non-stop adventures await you in the land of ferocious bloodthirsty beasts. Master a dynamic, ruthless game world and carve out a name for yourself, through immersive gameplay and action packed battles. New Felyne Kitchen - Hire feisty chefs to produce unique meals to help enhance your abilities.

2006 Shukou Murase, Akio Matsuda, Michiko Suzuki (WOWOW), Takashi Kochiyama
Genre: Sci-fi, Horror, Myster, Supernatural, Drama
Shop: Ergo Proxy Item Shop

Amazon.com Editorial Description:
The broadcast series Ergo Proxy (2006) attracted considerable attention because Radiohead let them use “Paranoid Android” as the closing theme. Detective Re-l lives in the domed city of Romdo, a pseudo-utopia where humans and robots exist under a Big Brother-esque government. When a powerful monster begins attacking the citizens of Romdo, Re-l discovers the word “awaken” scrawled on her mirror; she’s attacked by the monster but somehow survives. As she investigates these events, she discovers the inevitable government conspiracy. Ergo Proxy borrows heavily from Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. and Boogiepop Phantom, but the icy Re-l lacks Major Kusanagi’s fascination. Director Shukuo Murase employs a monochromatic palette so dark it’s difficult to see what’s going on. He tries to distract the viewer from the extremely limited animation with camera moves and dialogue, but the hokey, oblique story feels recycled and uninteresting. (Rated 16 and older: violence, violence against women, grotesque imagery) –Charles Solomon

When I still used to run Hentai Neko, one of the most visited sections of the site was “Hear Me Roar.” It was a section that contained all my general opinions about hentai and the fandom in general. I would get letters from various other feminists and sympathizers and I’ve corresponded with the most intelligent of them.

When I sold HN, I had to struggle with the decision of including the roars in the new Otaku Fridge. Some of the articles aren’t very relevant to what the Otaku Fridge has become, although many still explain what kind of community we’re running here and what kind of a reviewer I am. I’m keeping about four of the articles and I am archiving them, the rest…will forever remain in my hard drive. They’re a reminder of what I was when I started and what I have become now. (While I still get major goosebumps over Yuki Yoshihara’s highly romantic erotic manga, sadly, the licensed hentai materials are still predominantly male-oriented and repetitive. I’m still on the lookout for the good stuff, though…hentai or not…)

The articles I’m keeping online will now simply be…articles. I don’t roar anymore. Except, perhaps, if a particular title (hentai or otherwise) disgusts me. Life’s too short for negativities (and quarrels that stem from differences). I’m cultivating a more open-minded atmosphere, where differences in opinions shouldn’t keep the members of this community from being friends. By that, I mean, let’s all happily disagree if we are to disagree. (I’d still kick you in the nuts if you dig rape and you go anywhere near me, though.)

If you want to re-visit the articles or you’re someone new, just click on this link:
http://www.otakufridge.com/archives/category/articles