THEM Anime Reviews
Home Reviews Extras Forums
AKA: けっこう仮面 (Kekkou Kamen)
Genre: Cheeseball comedy
Length: OAV series, 4 episodes, 30 minutes each
Distributor: VHS from ADV Films
Content Rating: 17+ (nudity, sexual innuendo, attempted torture, really crude jokes)
Related Series: N/A
Also Recommended: Cutey Honey, perhaps? Outside of that, few anime get as lowbrow as this one.
Notes: There is a live action of this one as well. But unlike the live action version of LA Blue Girl, I guess this one isn't exactly something to get worked up about.

The title is a fairly involved pun involving another show called "Gekkou Kamen" (Moonlight Mask). Many of the original Japanese-language puns have been modified into even cheesier English-language puns for North America and Europe.
Rating:

Kekko Kamen

Synopsis

Sparta College, run by principal Toecheese (no, really), is one of the hardest (no pun intended) colleges for a person to attend to, because if you fail in anything, expect to be punished in the most perverted ways by the teacher's staff (again, no pun intended.)

But fighting for justice and decency (ironically enough) is Kekkou Kamen, a heroine well known for her attire: Red mask, red boots, red gloves ... and nothing else.


Review

I keep thinking I should be offended or disgusted by this one every so often. But then I remember that this one is from the venerable Mr. Nagai who is also responsible for the amazing piece of work that is Violence Jack. Compared to that, this is nothing.

I think we've established the fact that Mr. Nagai must possess one deviant mind, because if there are some things this OAV series is playing with a full deck of, it's nudity and perversions. Why, the principal; a rather ... interesting character named Satan Toecheese, never disappoints (himself) in finding cruel and unusual ways of torturing his female students, or rather; just one of them. A girl named Mayumi Takahashi. This is done, partly to get his jollies but also partly to lure out his arch-nemesis, Kekko Kamen.

The art and animation on this one is actually quite passable, though admittedly, most Go Nagai works I have seen have upheld said quality. The VA's is actually also doing a rather good job. One thing worth noting is the guest protagonist of the second episode, a certain Mr. Taro Schwarzenegger, has a suspiciously Austrian-sounding accent. Surely he's not a parody of.... nah, probably not. ^_^

I should probably be offended by this. But, like I said, seeing as Violence Jack has raised my bar of general loathing for certain anime titles very, very high, this don't rank even close. In fact, the complete lack of sex and the fact that Toecheese and his cronies never get as far as to actually torture the hapless Mayumi before Kekko Kamen arrives to ... well, do her heroic deeds, it leaves you with very little to get offended about save for the fact that it nevertheless ends up being just a juvenile, little series along the lines of American Pie, but with more perversions and less pie. Well, no pie actually, but that's beside the point.

All this considered, this still isn't a great anime, much less an intelligent one. It contains all the style and class of the smutty jokes we told each other in grade school and isn't ashamed to comment on its own cheesiness. Nevertheless, it never gets too offensive, except perhaps the swastika in the first episode, which I'm pretty sure not everyone will appreciate.

So unless you're up for some really crude humor and spending the night trying not to roll your eyes, I'd pass this one by. It did manage to make me crack the odd smile, but not often enough that I'd recommend it as a rental even.

The antics of the seriously inept principal Toecheese and his closest staff (reminder: NOT A PUN) almost made me consider upping it to a three star, but alas.....Stig Høgset

Recommended Audience: Adults only. Although this one really isn't anything but a series of smutty jokes and sexual innuendos heaped on top of each other in a generous helping of cheese.

Well, there IS the swastika, I guess.



Version(s) Viewed: UK release VHS (East2West), English dub
Review Status: Partial (2/4)
Kekko Kamen © 1991 Go Nagai / Dynamic Planning
 
© 1996-2015 THEM Anime Reviews. All rights reserved.