Ask John: What is Kakyusei?

Question:
What is Kakyuusei about? Is there a subtitled version of it? And what is it rated and why is it rated that?

Answer:
Kakyusei literally means “under-classmates.” The Kakyusei anime series is part of the vast life-sim (life-simulation) genre that’s very popular in Japan. Kakyusei itself is a spin off of one of the two best known life-sim titles, Graduation. The other big life-sim title is Tokimeki Memorial. The life-sim genre began in the early 1980s with PC adventure games- text based games with illustrations that had the player interact with school-girls in an attempt to date them, and in many cases, have sex with them. Graduation, which started as a mildly hentai PC game series, spawned an OAV series, and several spin-off series including Dokyusei (Classmates), Debut, Sailor Victory, and Kakyusei. Some of these anime OAV series, including Graduation, Debut and Sailor Victory, are mainstream life-sim drama or action/parody. Dokyusei and Kakyusei are high-school relationship drama series that usually manage to include one soft-core sex scene per episode.

Simulation games are immensely popular in Japan but have yet to really catch on in America. America has had a taste of this market through arcade games like Brave Fire-Fighters and the dating simulation aspects of the Playstation RPG Thousand Arms, but the Japanese market takes simulation to the utmost extreme, creating literally hundreds of life-simulation video games for console and PC systems every year, and Playstation and arcade games based on simulations of such varied activities as walking a pet dog, running a ramen noodle restaurant, mountain climbing, piloting a hot air balloon, being a father to a princess, and even dieting. Kakyusei has not yet made it to America, but the first Dokyusei anime series is available in America from AD Vision, re-titled End of Summer. Media Blasters has released the giant robot parody Sailor Victory in the US, which is actually the third and fourth Graduation OAVs. Mixx Entertainment released the first Graduation PC game in America two years ago, but it’s now out of print and may be difficult to find.