Taking on the role of a teacher who only wants to help, Shino’s the teacher who is always there for everyone.
What They Say:
Professor Shino’s out to change the world – one lusty lesson at a time!
Shino might be a science teacher, but her specialty really lies in teaching her students about their sexual chemistry! Whether it’s guiding two virgins through their first time or teaching a tough guy what it really means to make love, this sultry Professor has all the gentle advice and sexual skill to make a man out of anyone.
But even though her sex ed is second to none, Shino has needs, too. She aches to find that special someone who can help her achieve the fulfillment that she teaches to others. How many lustful encounters will she have before she finds someone who can please both her body and her heart?
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release comes with the original Japanese language as well as an English language dub, both of which are in stereo and encoded at 192kbps. The show is done in a very simple stereo mix that does have some minor amounts of directionality to it but it is by and far a dialogue/moaner piece of work where outside of the music you just don’t notice a lot of things being directional. Not that there’s much need for it either but what little there is does at least reflect events going on in the show. We did listen to both tracks since it’s such a short show and we didn’t notice any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally released in 2004, the transfer for this single OVA release is presented in its original full frame aspect ratio. The source for this looks to be in fantastic shape as the end result here just looks really great in all regards. Colors maintain a very solid feel, there’s very little noticeable video noise and the print is free of both cross coloration and aliasing. At most there’s some mild color banding going on because of the digital coloring used but it’s so minimal that it only hits in a couple of areas. With only one episode and not a lot of high motion scenes for the most part, this is a very good looking release.
Packaging:
Going right for the obvious and being a cover that I want to pass along to my teacher friends, we get a shot of Shino with her outfit laying around her while she sits in front of the desk podium in her classroom. It’s nicely detailed and the colors and design are solid enough as it teases with what it shows. The back cover follows up the blackboard concept with an image of Shino at the bottom writing on the board and the summary and discs features filling that out. There’s even a couple of lightly chalked in nude images of some of the characters there and a few shots from the show. The discs technical information is all clearly listed along the bottom in a very easy to read and good looking format.
Menu:
The menu is similar to the front cover in that it takes the artwork of Shino partially undressed and moves her to in front of the blackboard itself where the selections and title are done in white as chalk on the board as a bit of music plays along. It’s a simple static menu but it does look decent and it is easy to navigate around. Access times are nice and fast and strangely we our player wasn’t able to get at least the audio track to pick up since it was labeled properly and the subtitle track didn’t load since it was labeled as Japanese. Language selection had to be done either on the fly or through the menu.
Extras:
The extras are short but cute in that we get an art gallery with scenes from the show and a brief run of dub outtakes which are fairly amusing. The outtakes may be short but damn they hit some of the best spots on there, including the last one.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Classes in Seduction is one of the many single-shot OVA series released over the years in Japan to make its way over here and it’s something that I’m glad are being checked out since there are some good ones that just never caught on to make more episodes of. This show is one that at times does feel like something of a training guide for students but at the same time it has that light and almost good natured feel to it that’s so different from many of the shows out there today that it’s appealing for that alone.
We’re introduced to Professor Shino of a private academy who only wants to do good by her students and those she considers her friends. For example, we’re introduced to her as she provides a very good blowjob to a friend whose wife died some time back but he hasn’t dated or had sex since then, so she’s helping him out by relieving all that stress. Of course, he’s completely into it and they progress into a full sex scene in which he reveals his thankfulness for all of this by proposing to her. But for Shino, it’s not about being committed to just one person but rather she has all of her students to think of and can’t imagine leaving them just yet for marriage.
On campus, Shino isn’t like most other teachers since she’ll go right up to the bullies and make them stop and question them without fear. She’s a decent enough teacher and is someone that her students feel that they can talk to. Take Sayaka for example, she’s feeling pressured by her boyfriend Tamotsu to have sex but she wants her first time to be memorable, not the roll in the bushes he keeps seeming to want to have. She comes to Shino about this and she promises to take care of everything, which times out well as Tamotsu has just hurt himself at baseball practice and is in the nurses office. What she ends up arranging is amusing as she gets Tamotsu to undress in the office and then brings in a naked Sayaka in order to have them understand each others bodies.
While there isn’t a lot of class biology introduced here, it’s an amusing approach and you have to wonder how real sex education would fit into a class schedule. The results of this little get together gets Shino just as excited as Sayaka is and she heads off into the sunset looking for some pleasure herself, only to come across the bullies from earlier. Can you guess where it leads from there? It’s pretty obvious and like the rest of the show fairly predictable but it’s all done with some very good looking character designs, very smooth and attractive animation and generally quite enjoyable sex scenes. The dub for the show is pretty accurate which is a plus and the actors there do justice to their characters in at least sounding like they’re enjoying what they’re going through. It’s not high art but it was a pretty enjoyable way to spend about half an hour.
In Summary:
Classes in Seduction was a title I can’t say I was holding out much hope for when I first saw the thirty minute run time but it turned out to be a rather enjoyable show that plays with some of the teacher and school concepts a bit and avoids a lot of the regular clichés such as the truly evil student that takes over the school or the wimpy teacher or even the evil teacher. While it’s not a tale of the real world it’s one that’s closer in potential than a lot of other shows out there, not that we’re exactly looking for reality here. With good animation, simple but fun plot and enjoyable sex scenes, this is a fairly easy recommendation even with the short running time.
Features:
Japanese 2.0 Language, English 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Art Gallery, Outtakes
Content Grade: B
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B-
Released By: Critical Mass Video
Release Date: November 6th, 2012
MSRP: $12.99
Running Time: 30 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 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.