English: “The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat” 

Here’s a good example of another light novel adaptation. For the most part, this is a comedy series dominated by the interpersonal relationship between the main character, who is an ah, let us say, enthusiast about the female physique, but not someone who would hurt a single hair on a girl’s head, and a pair of unfairly adorable younger girls who acquire crushes on him. The broader plot is very deeply about “be careful what you wish for“.

Quick note: No porn, nothing hardcore, not even close. Plenty of teases and suggestive situations, but they never cross the line into actual “hentai” territory. I thought you’d like to know that early on.

Wishing upon statues of the Cat God has both comic and very serious consequences for the characters of this show. The most long-lasting consequence that we see on the surface is the leading heroine, depicted above, who surrenders her on-the-surface emotion and becomes a “stony cat” herself in that sense, which lends fuel to the entire show by making her so adorable it hurts.

There’s other girls worth noting, though I’m not actually going to note them here; there’s some nice girls involved and that’s sufficient for a quick review. More importantly, I want to note that the plot is zany, a sort of “truth and consequences” theme with a lot of very weird situations and people in between, and those expecting a coherent plot expect in vain. This is character exposition, interpersonal conflict, and a lot of eye candy, which makes me rate it a solid 8 out of 10 for keeping me entertained and having cute girls without so much sugar one gags on it, which is actually an impressive feat.

Nonetheless, the limitations of a 12-episode anime run are evident in spades here and one has the feeling that the novels might be a tad more fascinating, but obviously well beyond the reach of most anime viewers. There’s also a very strong sense that more could have been done with this material, and could have been, but we’re not going to see it here. That’s a shame in some sense, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

Let’s get to the big question everyone hearing about this show is asking: Is this anime full, outright hentai??? No, not exactly, but it is the single biggest tease on earth. It shows glimpses of things that can’t be broadcast in Japan, existing safely (?) within the dirty imaginations of major characters for brief moments of time, but it’s a huge, huge tease.

So, an actual show happened, too, and I’ll get to that briefly after the spoiler space.

show

Rating: 4 of 5, I’ll say. I mean, it remains fun to watch, but I can’t give everything 5, even with those absolutely hilarious skits at the end (much in SD), and if I see anything better, I need room to give that a 5. But it has been by no means a weak show.

That is, by the way, despite being, and I repeat myself, the biggest tease around. It’s like a giant scam to suck people in… but at any rate, teasing is fine, and the high quality surrounding the art, voice acting, story plotting, and well… let me put it this way, I haven’t seen Whack-A-Mole done as fun as in this show, ever. I enjoyed this.

Just don’t get any wrong ideas. Or put another way, if you’re looking for hentai, don’t expect payoff from this anime, hentai-san. It’s just teasing.

…So far, anyway. Shall we predict bonus episodes for the BD/DVD going way over the top? Anyone?