Small standalone tales populate the show once again as it titillates with short quick bursts of varied erotica.
What They Say:
“Hah, and you thought my sex-fest was over? Wrong! I still have 5 beautiful step-sisters that I haven’t touched yet. There’s Rulisu, the girl who likes to dress up as a maid. There’s also Anne, which should be fun because she has never had any sexual experience with a guy before – not even a kiss. Well, you get the picture. Now the real fun begins!”
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this series brings us just the Japanese language track in stereo and encoded at 192kbps. The stereo mix is essentially what you’d expect from the show as it handles dialogue well and the few music pieces and ambient sound effects are well placed. There isn’t all that much in a real sense of directionality but it works for the content at hand. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we did not have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally released in 2006, the transfer for this OVA is presented in its original full frame aspect ratio. The materials for this release are in very good shape and overall it’s a good clean and very pleasing piece of work. It manages to avoid some of the softness that seems to be (intentionally) plaguing other shows that have been out recently while not going overboard with being too vibrant. Colors look good and maintain a solid feel while cross coloration and aliasing is, for the most part, a non-issue. There is a fair bit of shimmering showing up in some of the panning sequences, notably during the first vignette with the maid girl but also in other ones as well.
Packaging:
In an attempt to appeal to as many people as possible, the front cover provides a bevy of beauties from which to be enticed by ” though not all of them have actual scenes in the show. With a simple but nicely colorful background, all the girls are able to look good here while wearing different undergarments. The artwork and design is simply very eye-catching. The back cover continues the bright colors by using a mixture of pinks to lay things out with along with a dash of green. The summary is a bit brief and doesn’t really say much of anything and it even covers up some of the shots from the show that are provided. A good chunk of space is given over to the production information (white on lime green!) while the technical grid along the bottom conveys the rest. Overall it’s an appealing looking but a few areas just seem to be off. No insert is included nor is the cover reversible.
Menu:
JapanAnime has some of the smoothest menu transitions out there though the menus are fairly basic otherwise. The layout for the menu starts off with a brief roll call of some of the girls before it settles into the static menu that has all ten of them lined up in regular clothes. The background uses the artwork from the cover but obscures it a bit, teasing with a bit of flesh here and there. Similar to the cover, it’s just a good looking piece if you like any of the characters from it. The menu selections are quick and easy to use and the transitional animation for them gives the entire menu process a bit of a smooth feeling. Access times are nice and fast and due to there being only one language, our player presets were a non-issue.
Extras:
None.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The first installment of this series was one that was quite a surprise in how good it was. Often when you have these sort of shows where it’s just a series of vignettes you end up with a good bit of content that’s just not appealing. It’s a Family Affair ended up being rather enjoyable throughout all of the vignettes and this set of them is no exception.
Other than the bath scene at the beginning where it pans across various girls from the series, there is no real connection between them. Each of the stories, often about five minutes or so, stands alone and just puts you quickly into the action. The opening tales is a fun master/maid bondage piece which has some trouble in the subtitles by keeping Rulisu’s name straight. Another is a positively hilarious one featuring blonde vixen Tokiko who is apparently a robot from the future sent to the past to service Keisuke’s every desire. Between the way the robot voice gets mixed into the situation and the way she opens her mouth in a mechanical fashion, it’s positively hilarious. Add in that it’s all about sex in a car in a public place and it hits a number of amusing fetishes.
Kaoruko’s tale was also very titillating as it has her in a high rise getting off on a toy thinking about the manager she wants. Of course, he shows up and has his way with her against the windows so the whole world can see, providing they’re looking. It’s got a really nice moment of exhibitionism as you see her pressed against the window from the outside and on the floor above there are people milling about. Anne’s tale is an interesting one though as she works with a film crew that does adult movies. When the shoot with the actual actors are over, she heads over to the bed thinking everyone is gone and pleasures herself. But before long, Keisuke has shown up along with a lot of other men and a big bondage scene ensues.
The animation for the show is essentially the same as the first volume just with a different set of characters. Their designs are once again attractive and everyone seems to have a good bit of fun getting into their roles. There isn’t much in the way of repeated animation for the sex scenes and the backgrounds and locations for each vignette are generally well done even if a bit bland for a couple. Some of the scenes do have a bit of softness to them, such as the start of Lemon’s story, but it’s generally an artistic approach to help minimize some of the mosaics that would appear on the original versions. Thankfully, we continue to get mosaic-free releases in the US.
In Summary:
In terms of actual story content, It’s a Family Affair doesn’t rank high. But in terms of actual titillation, the series continues to work very well with a nice range of variety. Though they aren’t brutally hardcore, there is a likely something for almost everyone here. If there is any kind of problem it’s in that you wish some of these scenes would go on longer or be expanded upon in more detail. But for a quick fix of sex with a light touch of story and no commitment to it, It’s a Family Affair is a real winner once again. Definitely recommended even with its short run time.
Features:
Japanese 2.0 LPCM Language, English Subtitles
Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: B
Video Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B+
Extras Grade: N/A
Released By: Japan Anime
Release Date: February 27th, 2007
MSRP: $24.98
Running Time: 25 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.
