What’s a widow to do when the young stud she likes ends up with an older woman?
What They Say:
It has been a year since Chiho became a widow and her nights alone have become very lonely. It’s a good thing that her friend Kanae is there to help. Kanae is experienced; she’s been married for eight years and she knows just what Chiho needs…
A little spice, a little color, and some new scenery are what’s missing from Chiho’s life…
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this series brings us the show in its original Japanese and English language forms, both of which are in stereo and encoded at 192kbps. The show has a fairly straightforward stereo mix with the bulk of the dialogue being through the center channel. There are a few ambient effects that use the stereo channels and the music does as well, but most of it’s relegated to the opening and closing sequences as much of the music is very low-key. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we had no issues with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally released to video back in 2003, the two episodes that make up this series are presented here in their original full frame format. With a normal world setting, the color palette would normally be somewhat subdued other than the character animation but this show goes with a very lively and vibrant set of colors, from the great looking blues in the skies to a lot of cherry tree moments. The character designs use a good set of colors as well while the show, in general, avoids problems with cross coloration and aliasing. The two episodes on this volume look really good and are essentially problem free outside of a few soft areas.
Packaging:
The cover artwork for this show is decent but not one of the better pieces out there. The background has the two lead female characters in various stages of undress but it’s done with a heavy softness to it and with a series of muted pinks and purples. Along the logo, the Kanae character is done with a more distinct and clear look which looks good but is awkward against the softer background. The back cover has a number of character shots of the two women done in soft colors underneath all the text that’s here. There’s a basic summary and the usual production information that’s covering up otherwise decent looking artwork. The insert does a silhouette version of the two leads kissing while listing the chapter stops for the two episodes. While this is in a clear keepcase, there isn’t any reversible cover or anything on the other side at all.
Menu:
Much like many of the Kitty menus, the layout here is very simple with a static image used from the cover artwork that doesn’t have any music playing along to it. With only the show and a selection of trailers on the disc, there aren’t many selections to make and access times are nice and fast. Submenus load quickly and the disc read our players preset languages half correct as the sign/song subtitle track was listed as the first English track instead of the full translation track.
Extras:
None.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With a name that sounds like it belongs in a horror movie, Wife Eater is actually something of an attempted sweet show that deals with women and their need for men as well as the one young man that gets caught up in the middle of a couple of them.
Young Chiho is a recent widow who is trying to move on from her husband’s death but ends up being reminded of him fairly frequently due to others in the apartment complex she lives in. She’s a generally quiet and reserved girl who doesn’t seem to leave her apartment much but she isn’t bad off from the experience. She still dreams of her husband but she’s not imagining him coming back to life or even amusing herself with the thought of him. Other than looking at a recently found picture from when they were in school together, Chiho seems well-adjusted.
Moving into the same complex is an “older” woman named Kanae. Mind you, older here probably means the late twenties. Her design is different enough from Chiho both in how she’s drawn and how she carries herself so that she does give off a different feel than Chiho so it works well enough. Her husband is mysteriously out of the picture by working elsewhere, presumably out of the country, so Kanae is setting up home in a new smaller place. When she arrives, she happens upon a young girl named Konomi and her “daddy” Satoru. He’s not really her father but just someone that the girls in the complex find easy to play with and Konomi has adopted him in a sense. The two of them help Kanae move in and eventually Konomi heads off home, leaving Satoru subjected to the wiles of the older woman who is learning that Satoru has the hots for Chiho. While feeding her own needs, she offers to teach Satoru some confidence so that he can pursue Chiho as he wants and before he knows what’s going on the two are knee-deep in each other and having a good time.
Each of the episodes has only one sex scene to them so a lot of time is given over to the characters getting to know each other and some verbal foreplay. Though it’s labeled as a comedy there isn’t all that much humor in here as it’s a slightly romantic dramatic show more than anything else with a healthy dose of good simple consensual sex tossed in. The two scenes are well done and with great looking designs both are appealing. Add in the differences in their characters and there is some nice variety to the encounters that Satoru has here. They’re not hugely explicit but everything is shown and there wasn’t any skimping on the details.
In Summary:
Wife Eater is a decent little show that’s great for first-time hentai viewers and couples. With all consensual sex, good character designs and a stronger focus on the characters and their emotions, it’s not one that goes in for the heavy nasty material or throws in anything that you wouldn’t expect to see in some soft core show really. The designs and animation are all well done and this was a pleasant way to spend about an hour but it’s not one that most hardcore hentai fans will find much to do with unless they’re looking for a break from the heavier things out there.
Features:
Japanese 2.0 Language, English 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
Content Grade: C+
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: B
Packaging Grade: C+
Menu Grade: B-
Extras Grade: N/A
Released By: Kitty Media
Release Date: August 21st, 2004
MSRP: $29.99
Running Time: 60 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480i/p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
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.