WHEN anime popularity was at its height in the UK a few years ago, a three episode animation rode into the UK on the back of the classic sex, rape and violence flick UROTSUKIDOJI. It was released one episode at a time as YOUJYUSENSEN, literally ADVENTURE KID, but translated on the UK packaging as THE ADVENTURE DUO. The change in title, costing its marketing department a small fortune in the process, was insisted upon by the Big Brother British Board of Film Classification on the dubious ground that 'the word kid may attract a kid to it'. In addition, one suspects that the ADVENTURE DUO episodes themselves qualify as the most badly 'mauled' adult animations ever released in the UK. All scenes of forced sex, so beloved of the hentai anime genre, are snipped. By the time the censorship board had finished, this dark sexual fantasy had lost so much of its sex that it was practically little more adult than a Scooby Doo cartoon!

Now as if that wasn't enough to get all us anime-loving Brits to our browsers to import the uncut American versions, let us also consider this: ADVENTURE DUO was released in the UK one episode at a time at the exorbitant price of £12.99 ($26) per cassette. As noted, all the sex had gone which, of course, had an effect on the running time. Ep 1, which is 40 minutes uncut, finally stretched to just over *17* minutes after the censors were through. (Eps 2 and 3 fared similarly as, the BBFC stated, they originally contained scenes 'of a pornographic nature'. Hardly surprising, one might have thought, when this was a pornographic series!) $26 for the placid 17 minutes of Ep 1 was just not on when $50 (plus the cost of Air Mail) would net you two tapes from the US featuring all three episodes uncut.

ADVENTURE KID was introduced to me by this route (I saw the hacked versions of all three episodes and uncut versions of the first two) about five years ago and all tapes I once had have now been sold on. However, considering (a) the censorship of the UK remains as strong as ever (b) THE COMPLETE ADVENTURE KID DVD is now being offered in the US at a giveaway price; and (c) I was feeling 'frisky' at the time, I recently bought the full uncut collection on impulse by mail order from the US. It is now just $14 to see ADVENTURE KID as it was meant to be seen; an offer that I think all anime hentai fans of UROTSUKIDOJI, be they UK or US citizens, should be encouraged to take up.

The DVD consists of all three episodes of the ADVENTURE KID story on one disc in the very slimline and superficially attractive packaging you've come to expect from Anime 18 releases. The story is outlined on the back cover; whoever had to write this blurb obviously struggling to find some way of expressing its disjointed structure and finally settling on what happens in the first episode alone. Here, Norikazu and Midori uncover an old World War 2 computer in Norikazu's backyard, possessed by the spirit of an evil scientist. In fact, there's a lot more to it, as you will soon discover...

Episode 1 opens on a Japanese battlefield during WW2 with a lot of blood, violence and horror. It then moves to the present day where Norikazu and his girlfriend Midori are boyfriend and girlfriend who seem to take boring days playing computer games and action packed nights fighting tentacle-sprouting, sex-crazed mainframe systems all in their stride. Ahem. So a bit of a weird, and in this last respect irrelevant, beginning then ADVENTURE KID settles down into the adventure of the title when, one night, the evil machine 'sucks' the couple into it. They wind up in the middle of the opening battlefield, all the blood, violence and horror from the intro is repeated and then a calm-spoken but very menacing army officer appears to inflict various unpleasantries on them.

Watching overhead is the 'memory' of the computer, a large disattached head of one Masago. "I have created this world of endless atonement," he whines to Norikazu. "You may love Midori but she will betray you. There is no escape from me." He prevaricates but, without more explanation, then casts the pair of them into the desert and, leaving the viewer in complete and abject confusion, that's the end.

It is not though the whole story. As with UROTSUKIDOJI, Toshio Media's episodes are disjointed and in ADVENTURE KID, they are quite unnecessarily so. Although it's fine to leave the viewer with questions at the conclusion of an episode, one always gets the feeling with ADVENTURE KID that Media never plans the next episode in advance whilst he's writing the current one. This also seems to be reflected in the artwork of each episode. Episode 1's artwork is not of a particularly high standard and, in comparison to the better artwork of Episode 2 and the best artwork of Episode 3, it starts to look so shoddy that you wonder whether he had originally had any faith in the pilot episode of what he was creating.

Now although each character in the ADVENTURE KID episodes is so two dimensional that one waft with a piece of A4 would knock them over, that does not, as someone might like to point out to Media, mean that his viewers cannot remember what they said in the previous episode. Evidently, in the gap between Episode 1 and the funding coming through to make its sequel, Media had had time to construct a motive for Masago's restless spirit. He therefore uses the introduction to Episode 2 to go back to the WW2 period again, this time to recount Masago's wife being raped before his eyes, and enjoying "the shame" of it immensely. Then he zips back to the desert where the action left off and it's time for some childish and naughty fun with the desert's sex-mad (What else?) inhabitants.

The explanation for all the rape, torture and humiliation Masago now inflicts in his "world of endless atonement" seems to be simply that Masago was once a decent man and these consequences result from this one act that so infuriated him. Mind-bogglingly if you give it thought, he wishes to have his bio-computer creations make MIDORI suffer because she is the re-incarnation of his wife. Ahem. Rather a co-incidence that Midori just happens to be the girlfriend of the boy who dug the computer up, of course! However, anime is somewhat notable for its failure to account for such discrepancies so I will let it pass as SOME justification of all those prolonged rape scenes of her in episode 1.

But the trouble is, having divulged this premise, the animation now goes awry in a big way. Media sticks in 'cut-in throwbacks' in the title sequence to Episode 2 that DIDN'T OCCUR in Episode 1! He then befuddles the viewer by having this new desert world inhabited by very friendly 'creations' of his (I assume they must be creations although it is never explained!). The story becomes a time-travel jaunt to rescue the 'old' WW2 Masago from death, hence making the evil 'new' spirit of Masago disappear in the present.

The mission and episode come to an explosive end but Episode 3 goes on without Masago OR the computer but WITH the characters that Norikazu and Midori met within it! Back in the present day, this last episode is by no means as dark as the preceding two. It is a tale played out in the schoolyard of unrequited love - and LOTS of sex - which, because of its very high quality artwork, is rather superior to a lot of hentai. It seems exceedingly odd though to see this kind of 'mini adventure' as an epilogue and what is going on in the very final scenes after the titles is anybody's guess!

This resume might indicate to you that I was unimpressed with ADVENTURE KID. I was not. As with many adult animations, the plot is of little importance and, despite all the faults you will probably find with the structure of each episode, at least Episodes 2 and 3 are 'classy' hentai. If you compared it to your average porn film of course then the plot would be quite strong. The trouble with doing so is that the sex is not always erotic, primarily in Episode 1 where too many shortcuts have been taken. Another distracting aspect if you simply must listen in English is the incredibly bad dub; the voice actors simply sound like they're reading the lines from a book!! Fortunately, the original Japanese actors can be restored with the DVD 'Language' button, and subtitles added as appropriate, on this release. How much better this is cannot be understated.

Now although some care has obviously been taken with the DVD, there was an irk to my mind in that the chapter stops are only Ep 1, halfway through Ep 1, Ep 2, halfway through Ep 2, Ep 3 and halfway through Ep 3. I would have preferred more chapter stops at shorter intervals to make finding that particular scene a lot quicker.

All this constructive criticism apart though, I must confess ADVENTURE KID in its uncut DVD format is certain to be watched over a few times before you tire of it. Episode 1 and 2 are interesting and the plot manages not to drag despite the copious amounts of sex each contains. Episode 3 even manages to be rather funny (and rather tragic in that Midori seems willing to forgive Norikazu for two big sexual indiscretions in one schoolday; both of which she bears unfortunate witness to. Just sad, Midori, leave him!). The dub doesn't work but, with subtitles and on DVD, its superior quality of artwork has to make it a must for the hentai fan. And for those UK fans who are anxious to finally see the full feature, there could not be a better version.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age