It’s not easy finding where you belong.
What They Say:
Based on the adult manga by Inu, Fuzzy Lips is about a disaffected young woman named Katakura Kon who enters a forbidden and hyper sexual relationship with her homeroom teacher, Mr. Kurosawa. She rarely attends classes now and has taken to living with him but neither one is willing to express their feelings to each other. Frustration overflows and even when secretly dating, they can’t quite communicate and connect unless they are having rampant steamy sex!
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this series brings us the original Japanese language track in stereo as well as the new English language dub, both of which are encoded at 192kbps. The show is fairly standard material for hentai shows in that it’s dialogue/moan driven and works the full feeling without a lot in the way of directionality. Not that it needs it since it tends to be pretty focused. There’s not a lot to it outside of these moments since there’s no “action” in the traditional sense and the focus is mostly just on the two main characters and their interactions through dialogue and copious amounts of sex. These are well played though and achieves the results it wants, though some of the English mix just felt a little hollow at times, a little more sound-boothy than it should have.
Video:
Originally released in 2014, the transfer for this two-part OVA series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is enhanced for anamorphic playback. Animated by Studio 1st, the show has a pretty good look overall with its designs and animation with some good detail and some very fluid sequences. Most of it is fairly standard in style and quality, though, which means it at least avoids the very low rent designs that we get with some hentai from time to time. The transfer captures the look of things well with clean lines, solid colors, and some good pop throughout. The detail where it stands out is pretty good, especially in some of the clothing choices from time to time.
Packaging:
The packaging design for this release brings us a standard sized DVD case that holds the single disc inside. The front cover goes with a fantastic piece of artwork of Kon that’s minimal in outfit and perfect in expression, making for a very inviting looking release. It has all the right design elements to entice as it plays off the source material to draw you into the work from Inu. The logo is cute and silly in an almost 80’s kind of way as well, which adds to its charm. The back cover uses a good deal of animation as we get a nearly full-length shot of Kon along the right while the left has a slew of images from the show itself. The premise is kept small in size and font but conveys things well enough while also listing the extra. The bottom is standard material with the production credits and a clean and accurate technical grid. No show related inserts are included nor is there a reversible cover.
Menu:
The menu design for this release works the manga angle pretty well with the large artwork of Kon along the right that goes with full nudity and the kind of comical presentation of breasts and nipples that make me laugh. The rest of the design is pretty good and sets the tone well as the left goes for a soft yellow circle to hold the logo and the navigation, which itself is fairly standard. The layout is quick and functional but it’s the artwork that sells it. There were no issues navigating it or getting the setup right, making it a painless experience to get into the show quickly.
Extras:
The release comes with a pretty nice little image and character design video gallery piece.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One of the best things about hentai in the last few years is the growing accessibility of it for fans that gets us past the usual hardcore/violent material that had dominated for so long. Getting to see so much more romantic material, comedy material, relationship material, in the manga side of it has certainly reminded that there’s a lot more to what’s out there. The anime side doesn’t produce this kind of show as often as one would like, and getting them brought over is even harder, but having been a fan of hentai since the 80’s, well, getting some fun material that doesn’t involve evil men dominating their partners is welcome. I’ve no problem with that kind of material – we’ve reviewed a metric ton of it over the years – but this kind is what I find more appealing. The work is based on the three chapters that appeared in the nine chapter manga collection from creator Inu that ran back in 2012 in Bishoujo Kakumei KIWAME Road.
Of course, you have to get past that whole teacher/student thing, but part of the appeal of hentai and porn and erotica is the fantasy elements. Fantasy is healthy and the appeal of innocence is definitely there, whether you’re older and looking to recapture a romanticized youth or if you’re young and envisioning what your first time could be like. Fuzzy Lips presents us that awkward pairing of a homeroom teacher that we only get referred to as Sensei, and a delinquent student named Kon. Kon has pretty much left home at this point with problems she’s had there and she’s been damn irregular at school as well. Suffice to say, she’s looking for a place to really fit in because of the poor relationship with her parents that have no care for her. She wants to be loved, to be taken care of, and to enjoy life a whole lot.
So naturally, trapping a young male homeroom teacher a bit kind of didn’t work out as she expected. She’s grown to really like him and has been spending a lot of time at his place teasing him and going the distance with him. He’s not really sure about all of this and understands how problematic it can be if they’re caught, but let’s be honest, the show (and the manga) doesn’t really want to deal with this. What it wants is to just enjoy the experience that the two get to go through here. It’s not looking for real world ramifications, social issues, or the power abuse dynamic that’s in effect here. Sensei is certainly concerned about these things at times, but the fact that she’ll torment him sexually in order to get him to take her to a local amusement park and he gives into it? That says it’s not going to be dealt with.
And that’s fine since these two are certainly fun together. Kon is a bit more playful and teasing in some ways than he’s comfortable with, but she’s trying to figure out what all this is in her own mind. And while it may be infatuation or more, he’s also falling for her and that makes things a little more complicated in a light way as it plays out because it’s not going to delve into it. It’s presenting that to make it so that the viewer understands that there’s real connections and feelings going on here as opposed to just lustfulness. It’s not explored nor is it deep, but it’s a fun little trapping added to it that makes it a little more than it might be otherwise. Again, the whole situation itself isn’t something that you’d promote in the real world, but that’s what fantasy is all about when kept harmless and no more than that.
In Summary:
Fuzzy Lips is a pretty fun little two-part OVA series that works the teacher/student dynamic about as you’d expect without the cruelty. The sex scenes are solid and consensual without any scat or anything that one might consider out of the “norm” in a sense. It’s a friendly title that plays well and enjoys its sensuality and sexuality while looking good with its animation and character designs. Coming off the manga story from Inu it has some good basics to work with and while I wish there was a bit more story to flesh it out I think it achieves what it sets out to do and results in about an hour of fun viewing.
Features:
Japanese 2.0 Language, English 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Image & Character Design Gallery
Content Grade: B
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A-
Menu Grade: B-
Extras Grade: C
Released By: Kitty Media
Release Date: February 18th, 2016
MSRP: $29.99
Running Time: 50 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
