Forsaking the fun of single life and all the sex involved, Natsumi takes a husband but finds she can’t leave all of her past behind.
What They Say:
This feature details the life of a happy housewife. She, however, lived on the edge in the past meeting many people and therefore experienced a dark chapter in her life. She has worked hard to forget her dark past but her mind and body will not allow her to do so completely. She has done a good job of controlling herself until one day her husband brought a friend over to the house and that particular friend happened to be someone that she had a fling with during her wilder, darker days. The lust that was caged for so long has now broken free…there is nothing holding her back now!
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language track in stereo encoded at 192kbps. The mix included is the only language track available on the disc and it’s pretty decent but there isn’t a lot involved with it beyond dialogue. Other than some ambient music in a few places and some incidental sound effects, this is pretty much a dialogue and moan driven mix and it carries that job off pretty well and without much issue. We didn’t have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally released in 2004, the transfer for this OVA is presented in its original full frame aspect ratio. The source materials for this look to be in good shape with a clean and clear look to it and one that is free of problems such as cross coloration or much in the way of aliasing. The transfer here does look a bit soft though and not too detailed in some areas but a number of shows from Milky tend to exhibit this. Colors look good throughout and the pinks and purples, in particular, have some good depth to them. Only a few areas such as some of the background scenes looked like they had much in the way of posterization or minor blocking/gradient issues.
Packaging:
The cover for this release looks quite good with the visual of Natsumi in her little pink sweater and yellow apron being molested from behind by two men. Her expression is the kind that mixes the bit of fear of the situation with the actual enjoyment of it. The cover is very heavy on the shades of pink and they, along with most of the other colors, just look really great here. It’s an attractive and eye-catching design particular for those who favor this kind of material. The back cover is a bit more mellow though it keeps with the pink and has a lot of white space as well. There are a few shots from the show, nothing explicit, and a decent summary of the premise as well as mentioning its manga origins. The production information is clearly listed and the technical section is spot on. No insert is included with this release nor is there a reverse side cover.
Menu:
The menu layout is simple but effective as it uses the artwork of Natsumi from the front cover and plenty of pinks and whites to soften the overall image to good effect. The navigation is quick and easy to navigate, especially as they do a good job of making it as seamless as you can with the DVD menu software. Access times are nice and fast and due to there being only one language and set of subtitles, our players’ presets were pretty much a non-issue with this.
Extras:
There are no extras included but the extras menu does feature the ipod/psp instructions as well as a sex-only selection.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One of the things I find enjoyable about the adult anime genre itself is seeing all of the various subgenres that come out of it. The “housewife” genre is one that has at times been quite good, such as Taboo Charming Mother being a prime example. Insatiable is the latest entry from that genre and it follows some of the things that seem to be established within this area.
One of the areas of appeal is that it typically features women who are a bit older than the schoolgirl tarts that populate a lot of the other subgenres. This shift away from the school setting brings in some more interesting premises I think or at least not quite as much of the same thing. One of the things that seems to be common among them is that they all have deep purple hair. I can’t actually complain about it though since I find it to be an attractive feature and one that helps to keep the show within some kind of sense of reality. Insatiable brings us the latest woman with the purple hair whose life has undergone some changes.
In the first five minutes or so, we get treated to a series of brief sexual encounters featuring a short haired Natsumi as she lived her single life strong and loved every minute of it, finding sex wherever she could. But as time went on she wondered if she shouldn’t try to change her ways some and she found herself a husband through an agency that deals with that. It’s hard to say that the two of them are passionately in love with each other, but they’re compatible and get along, both outside the bedroom and inside. They’ve lived this way together for a bit now, as evident by her slightly longer hair style and the way she seems so comfortable as a housewife. But as she tells us, she’s started thinking more of her old ways and wondering if she is missing it more than she realizes.
Her relatively happy domestic life takes a twisted turn however when her husband brings home an old friend for dinner. He’s said little about having friends in the past and one like this seems strange but she’s glad to know that her husband has someone like that in any case. To her surprise, after the evening starts to get underway, she realizes that he’s one of the guys she had an affair with some time ago and he hasn’t forgotten. Before she realizes it, her husband has passed out from what little he’s drunk and the friend, Megumi, is now making sure to have his way with her by ensuring his silence to his friend. Natsumi, already tipsy from her drinks, finds she’s all too willing to do what it takes to save her husband from this.
Natsumi now finds herself caught up in Megumi’s web again and forced into doing his bidding after he gets an incriminating picture of her. She’s apprehensive about what he has her doing but at the same time she’s quickly falling into finding it to be exactly what she’s needed, but there are some blatantly obvious secrets being passed around as she falls into her next encounter with him, but they are secrets that are kept for now. Insatiable is actually a fairly slow show in its initial progression but it does do it right by tantalizing us from the start with a number of strong but brief sex scenes. Once past that it takes a bit of time to get going properly again but the payoff is good as Natsumi is very emotive in her scenes and gives in to everything after a few half hearted denials.
Insatiable in terms of its design is interesting. While the actual locations and set designs are straightforward pieces that don’t stand out, the characters themselves feel a bit of, but not in an entirely bad way. The three characters that make up the bulk of the show are ones that you could say are based off of very standard designs but the men are given a bit of a harder edge and somewhat curious style for their eyes while Natsumi herself is familiar but also different in her facial and hair design. It’s hard to pin down exactly if they work or not. Natsumi’s more domesticated version of herself feels a bit odd after seeing her rough and tumble nympho side which is part of it I’m sure. The animation quality itself is pretty good though and it’s consistent throughout with much in the way of problems or repetitive sequences.
In Summary:
Just going by the cover artwork, I was expecting something a bit more familiar and predictable but Insatiable surprised me with its character designs and by the way Natsumi was so open about her sexuality in her past. Often we get characters that are either prudes or just inexperienced and then they find their way. For her, she’s found her way and has tried to deny it but now finds that it may be the salvation she needs. While it isn’t a stellar production, it’s one of the better ones out of Milky that we’ve seen recently and it doesn’t answer everything, as obvious as it may be, in the first volume. It’s got us curious to see what it really wants to do next and how it will go about it.
Features
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
Content Grade: C+
Audio Grade: B
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: A-
Menu Grade: B+
Extras Grade: N/A
Released By: Japan Anime
Release Date: September 26th, 2006
MSRP: $24.99
Running Time: 30 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.
