Getting what you want doesn’t always get you what you think it will.
What They Say:
Shinta Murakoshi just scored the best toy a guy could ever ask for: a hypnotic gun. Armed with the power to make anyone do anything at any time, he sets off to fulfill his fantasies and turn every woman he meets into his secret personal love slave!
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language track in stereo along with the English language dub from a few years ago, both of which are encoded at 192kbps. The show is what you’d expect to get from an adult release in that it’s all about the dialogue and expression thereof, so it’s center channel based for the forward soundstage. It does sound quite good as it goes through the episode, but it’s the kind of show that really isn’t going to dazzle in the slightest. It has a solid sound to it that’s free of problems and we had no dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally released in 2009, the transfer for this show is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is enhanced for anamorphic playback. This release combines the two separate DVD releases into one package so each episode is on its own disc – which you have to be careful about because one of the discs is under the paper insert in the case and you might start with the second episode. The show has some good looking colors to it, very vibrant and strong without being oversaturated or bright to the point of distraction. There’s some slight noise in a few areas but it’s very small and not terribly noticeable overall. Cross coloration is a non-issue but there is some mild jaggies to be found within the animation itself, notably with Midori’s hair. Beyond that however, this is a good looking show that will generally please with its visuals and transfer.
Packaging:
How can you go wrong with a cover that has three attractive young women in their uniforms, or at least partial uniforms, looking like they just got caught with their hand in the cookie jar? Well, you can’t and this cover is spot on as it has the trio with blushes and just right expressions with some very teasing areas of skin showing. The characters look good and the colors are very appealing, only adding to it with some very good shading. The logo is nicely designed and kept to the bottom so the focus isn’t taken away from the selling point of the artwork itself. The back cover has a fairly traditional Critical Mass layout with several shots from the show spread out, a bit bigger than most other companies do them, and a brief summary of the premise for this episode. The rest is given over to some basic production information and a technical grid. No show related inserts re included with this release nor is there a reversible cover.
Menu:
The menus for Hypnolove take from both the front and back covers to make a decent looking piece. The background uses the hypnosis visual from the background of the back cover and on top of that brings in the front cover artwork to a smaller box on top of it. That looks a bit softer and less defined than the actual cover artwork which is a little disappointing. The navigation is along the right and it uses a cute piece for the navigation icon as you move up and down. Submenus load quickly and the entire piece is simple but quick and easy to use while also being fitting for the show itself. The release gets a bonus for actually showing what the language selections are set for even after they’re changed.
Extras:
The only extra, outside of the trailer made for the show, is a brief art gallery.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The two episode OVA series revolves around high school student Shinta, a young man who has some real issues that are bubbling just under the surface. His life changes dramatically when he mysteriously receives a strange looking boxy gun that actually allows him to instantly hypnotize anyone. Giving them key phrases that make sense only to him, he’s able to bend them to his will. And like any good little depraved teenager, he sets everyone up to be his sexual conquest and for them to not remember it when they’re done, at least in general. Once he has the device, he tests it out easily enough on a couple of attractive female students and puts them through the wringer as he takes advantage of them. He also steps up his game by taking a teacher down a peg or two with it but he also does it – and her – while the principal is watching and under his control. A rather creepy control at that since he instructs the man to masturbate himself to death, which sets up the teacher for the position of acting principal at some point.
Things get complicated when a new girl comes into his school and his classroom, a very attractive redheaded girl named Midori. Midori is the essence of a good sweet girl that’s all smiles but not overpoweringly so that you want to smack some reality into her. She ends up sitting next to Shinta and proceeds to slowly get closer to him by walking home with him part of the way and eventually making more overt requests of him as she’s fallen in love with him. While this song and dance routine goes back and forth between the two of them, Shinta shows a stronger side of himself with other women as he’s used a hypnosis device on them to make them his willing sex slaves upon hearing a key command phrase. Whether it’s a fellow student in the hall after hours or the new acting principle that he helped to get into that position, he has no compunction about taking them when he wants to. And he does so quite thoroughly with very good results since the settings are slightly different than the norm.
While Shinta has his fun elsewhere, he does get a lot closer to Midori as well. Midori isn’t overly earnest, but she comes across as interested in him and pursues him in a way that doesn’t make her annoying. There are cute and almost sweet moments as she reaches out to him, but it gets really obvious where she wants it to go when she invites him over when her parents are away. But this is just the precursor to the larger mystery of what’s going on as we get a clear picture of the device that Shinta has been granted to test to hypnotize others and use them. He hasn’t used it on Midori at all, though he was obviously interested in doing so until she pursued him on her own, and that has thrown his thoughts out of balance as to what he should do. But as the veil of mystery is pulled away, it turns out that he’s not the only manipulator in the game and it’s amusing to watch how he reverts when the truth starts filtering out.
The story for Hypnolove is pretty fun but what sells it a bit more is that the character animation is pretty good as well. The designs are certainly appealing and none of them are disproportionate for their age, at least in comparison to some shows that go pretty far over the top as a norm. Each of the characters stands out on their own and don’t seem like any of the other characters with a slight change. The animation for it is about average, maybe a bit more, with a decent sense of fluidity and movement to it. There aren’t any really noticeable repeated animation moments either which makes each of the scenes all the more enjoyable as well.
In Summary:
This is a fun little show that plays with the hypnosis angle nicely, adds in some revenge sex to it and a bit of a mystery as well as a little heart. There aren’t too many shows that dabble in this particular area but when they do they tend to be a bit more cruel and evil, which this one does touch upon at times. It certainly stakes out its ground and plays it well, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. This is a good release overall though and easy to recommend to those in the mid range of their hentai experience. Newer viewers will probably like it while long time viewers may find it to be a touch simple and almost naïve, but fun and well executed.
Features:
Japanese 2.0 Language, English 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
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: June 3rd, 2014
MSRP: $19.99
Running Time: 60 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.
