a.k.a. Step Up Love Story
Director: Hiroshi Ishiodori and Yuji Moriyama
Screenplay: Chiaki J. Konaka
Based on the manga series by Katsu Aki
Voice Cast: Tomoko Kawakami as Yura Onoda, Yūji Ueda as Makoto Onoda, Naoko Takano as Rika Kawada, Yuu Asakawa as Miyuki Kikuchi, Ai Uchikawa as Kaoru, Fujiko Takimoto as Hiromi Takai, Kappei Yamaguchi as Taku Yamada, Kenichi Suzumura as Manabu Okahama, Kumiko Yokote as Jun Onoda, Miho Yamada as Mika Yabuki, Reiko Takagi as Satoko Maisaka
Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles
Not only was I a virgin, I'm a premature ejaculator as well!
Based on a manga which was a light hearted sex comedy about a newly wedding couple, both twenty five and virgins in an arranged marriage, Futari Ecchi was also an erotic work with informational detail, even with spin-offs with one for women and one for men, making it also a story which functioned as a how-to manual. The manga was even released in the United Kingdom, seeing a volume in a Waterstonesin my home country a long time ago and sadly never picking it up. The franchise, originally created by Katsu Aki, is a case of an obscure title that was yet popular in its homeland, as Futari Ecchi had run up to eighty volumes and going, had live action adaptations, and here an OVA release of four episodes, made with a split over four years just for four episodes.
Beginning with Episode One, we follow the actual marriage of Makoto and Yura, Yura a timid young woman whilst Makoto is the stereotypical male protagonist, if more likable at points as the two do actually fall in love very quickly. Neither of them, as virgins, are knowledgeable about sex and are exceptionally shy, Makoto also having sexual fantasies so vivid they distract him from reality, even blurring them, to the point he should probably get mental health treatment in regards to them. The show is entirely a sex comedy, which is positioned on scenarios where these two's marriage may be fraught with outside threats or tensions. In the first episode, before they are even marriage, it is ridiculous - where random men come up to Yura to ask if she wants to star in adult films or not, Makoto propositioned by a young woman if he is interested in sexual relations, only for her to be Rika, one in a long line of younger sister characters to female protagonists whose relationships to the male leads is fraught. Rika's scene does come off as tasteless, as when asking if he is gay, he says instead he is "normal", but it thankfully ends with her calling him boring as a result, Rika in her few scenes a significantly more open figure in her sexuality, even having multiple boyfriends at once. She is sadly not in these OVA enough, as whilst Futari Ecchi does reach a glass ceiling of how more conservative it actually is, the female cast stands out greatly.
An early 2000s production with digital animation, Futari Ecchi is not hentai but it is very explicit and frank, to the point it does feel at times like hentai with the insert scenes excised, even if having more value for money than actual pornography in the amount of sex and, in its best virtue, being so much more what you wish softcore or hardcore anime was in terms of its attitude. You get this when, at her sister's own wedding reaction, the first scene is Rika in the men's bathroom with a man, definitely feeling like hentai in presentation and the voice cast (especially the actresses) having a go at the moaned vocals, but not actually so and ending with a gag of someone nearly catching something in the zipper.
The characters, especially with their stereotypical big eyes, do look at first too "cute" for this content, particularly with the 2000s digital animation and the music evoking vaporwave, all emphasising a cheesiness to this material. It however feels apt eventually as a huge part of Futari Ecchi, following two lead characters fully in love and eventually having a great sex life beyond their shyness, is the property trying to make sexiness and even a prideful sensuality something to admire, making the soft and bright coloured tone an advantage in this regard. With the first episode Yura accidentally finding a porn tape of Makato's after just marrying but merely revealing their awkwardness, the show does not beat around the bush in its explicitness but is also far more defendable in terms of its treatment of the subject. In mind that a lot of anime being unfortunately scuzzy, or even offensive in terms of its content, means that even if this adaptation was clearly made for a male audience at times, with all the female nudity, it has something I wished was in more anime than the problematic lewdness you sometimes find if with some of the kink kept and emphasised.
Episode Two, as part of its plot is even about the issue of Makoto being a premature ejaculator follows forth with the sex comedy content as a part of the ecchi genre, entirely about sexual content in a playful, but is also happy to take it as far as possible whilst being strangely sweet. Rika can call her older sister in the midst of cunnilingus, and there is the bizarre scene of two of Yura's more experienced female friends book a hotel room together to practice technique on bananas to educate her, yet it feels wholesome. Even that episode's other subplot, where one of Makoto's co-workers was once a girl he did private classes for school with, now infatuated with him and trying to seduce him, dodges so many potential bullets of being offensive and crass by merely being this wholesome.
All of this comes with cheesiness, and some things do emphasise clichés that will cause viewers to roll their eyes; one in particularly, found in a lot of anime, is female characters being envious of bust sizes, causing me to legitimately wonder is this is a cultural issue for Japanese women or merely a male fantasy. But it is sweeter attitude to sexuality, all whilst still being happy to be more blatant and eroticised about it, a breath of fresh air even to anime which, whilst trying to be lewd, skirts around the subject with awkwardness that feels questionable. Here it embraces this fully by Episode 3, with an invitation for the central couple to Hokkaido by their neighbours leads to everyone wishing to kindle their romantic lives more. The kink if anything in the series is everyone's walls being thin, including (an admittedly a very eyebrow raising) moment in Episode 2 of Makoto's sister overhearing them to arousal, but in terms of people being conscious of their desires, they are not buried, the couples in Episode 3 being open about their romantic lives, both their neighbours but also a friendly couple they meet and befriend. Even a second cousin to Makoto called Kyouko, whilst the anime cliché of a cousin attracted to the male protagonist, means introducing someone who, despite having a complete lack of a romantic life which torments her, is still a gynaecologist knowledgeable and able to help Makoto grow up as a person.
Even when the show plays with the clichés of anime sex comedy, like his fantasy of the unisex bathing areas in Hokkaido, or his sudden fantasy about everyone including Yura suddenly deciding to swing and switch partners there and then, there is enough here content which is tasteful and tender. This is in mind that, as an OVA production, it does not feel the highest and most elaborate technically at all; it has to rely on its characters and whether they are interesting, and a scene like Yura and Makoto watching a documentary on red foxes she is engaged with, only to suddenly find a passionate spark of intimacy in the heat of the moment, is a lot more interesting and mature than other anime in tackling this subject. These are actual adults, but I think of how many anime fell back on timid teenagers paradoxically set against wanting to titillate the viewer with a lot of near-nudity, let alone anything remotely explicit, and think so many would have been improved if they took this show's attitude. More surprising for me in mind to this is that the main screenwriter is Chiaki J. Konaka, who I know (and admire) for content which is completely alien to this. He is known for very cerebral, sometimes obtuse and difficult anime like Serial Experiments Lain (1998), full of heady ideas and wandering away from conventional narratives, making it such a surprise he penned this entire OVA. It offers a new juxtaposition that, even whilst not perfect, he can pen light hearted material like this.
It is with some shame that Episode Four does show the limits of Futari Ecchi's open mindedness, though the plot takes the right direction in how you should react, when Yura decides (having left her job before marriage to be a housewife) to become a maid at a cafe, only for Makoto to become jealous. The impact on their romantic life from tiredness is one thing, but his jealously does paint him as a bad person, something the female characters actually task him for by pointing out that it is a good thing for have a part time job whilst questioning his attitude. The disappointment comes from her eventually quitting the job, as this is definitely a work where status quo is returned to if it had lasted, even if the original source material did eventually lead to characters changing or marrying. This OVA series did not, with a 2014 adaptation exiting; it is a curiosity then one of the best of its era of anime, but that is not a bad thing when it is still intriguing to witness. Certainly we could do with more work like this brazen in its subject matter that does not leave one dirty either, and as someone always fascinating with pop culture that is obscure, this in particular stood out immensely as a nice change of pace.
