Title: Angel Blade Studio: Anime 18 Genres:: Hentai Reviewer: W. McQuade and E. Nagy

Rating:

McQuade here. The producers of Angel Blade gave us not one, not two, but three warnings before the beginning of the feature, telling us that this material is for adults only, and they’re not kidding, etc. But other than the fact that our eponymous hero’s boobs hang out of her costume, there wasn’t that much to differentiate this from a lot of other anime.

Now sure, the bare-breasted savior has to stop a bunch of monsters from violating innocent women, and there were a couple of scenes depicting such violations, but aside from that, we’ve got your standard sci-fi/fantasy anime setup. Post-apocalyptic future? Check. Mysterious monster villains? Check. Hover cars…and not just any hover cars, but really, really fast hover cars? Check. Oh, and for you Miyazaki fans out there, the film makes a point of telling the viewer that the world was destroyed by pollution. So, you know, recycle and all that.

This episode is the story of Moena, a young, shy, small-breasted college student who, much to the surprise of everyone who finds out, turns into the magnificent mountain of mammary, Angel Blade. The episode introduces us to her supporting characters, including a somewhat annoying friend, and a Fruits Basket-esque photo of deceased mother. It also sets up the villains, Mistress Phantom and her apparent clone Nailkaizer. I do have to say it was refreshing to have women being the masterminds behind the wave of monster beasty female violation that’s been terrorizing our fair city for once, although they do have a male cohort in the Dean of the aforementioned college.

Anime 18 does give the viewer the option to use the original Japanese dialogue with subtitles, but we found the dub actors to be quite good, and didn’t need it. The girl also feels the need to point out that although the Dean is credited as “Sandy Parks” he’s fairly obviously voiced by either Yu-Gi-Oh’s Dan Green or an amazing impersonator. The translation is pretty good, and generally sidesteps the usual awkwardness.

While much of the animation is exquisite (backgrounds and motion scenes especially), the characters often look crude, almost like a Flash animation – although it was clearly made before this would have been possible. It makes for a unique contrast, and the occasional crudeness doesn’t detract. The sex, on the other hand, detracts. First, we should say that there isn’t a whole lot of sex. Nudity and discussions about booies, yes. But as for actual intercourse, there are only a few scenes. But these few scenes, as one might expect from a sci-fi themed hentai, focus on the tentacle-y and drippy sexual torture of women.

Overall, Angel Blade is fun, well-produced, and generally enjoyable even for people who don’t get off on tentacles. Oh, and make sure you recycle.