Ask John: What Are Some Good Ecchi Comedies?

Question:
What are some great ecchi comedies? Like in the vein of Indian Summer or KissXSis?

Answer:
I suspect that few American otaku are aware that ecchi comedy dates back to the very beginning of modern anime. One of the very first TV anime series, 1963’s Sennin Buraku, was a sex comedy. However, while nudity and sexuality have always been prevalent in anime, risqué comedies seemingly didn’t become frequent until the late 1980s. 1987 in particular saw the release of Junk Boy, Body Jack, Minna Agechau, and Pantsu no Ana. The 1990s and 2000s have given rise to a plethora of risqué comedies including largely forgotten titles like Dochinpira (1993), Tanin no Kankei (1994), Let’s Nupu-Nupu (1998), and Nanako Kaitai Shinsho (1999), and series more familiar to American viewers like Eiken (2003), Girls Bravo (2004), DearS (2004), Amaenaideyo!! (2005), Kodomo no Jikan (2007), and Rosario to Vampire (2008).

Ecchi comedy has a rather poor reputation in America. While numerous American viewers watch these shows, they’re not respected. Personally, I think that’s a bit of a shame because risqué comedies are one of the most unique aspects of Japanese animation. While Japanese society seems to think that combining sex, humor, and animation is normal and routine, the combination is provocative and rarely done in American productions. While Japan’s anime industry views animation as a cinematic medium, America perceives animation as a children’s medium. So combining animation with sex is taboo in America, and is typically only done to make a production seem edgy and provocative. Look to American animated films like Fritz the Cat, Cool World, Heavy Metal, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit for example. So, in effect, ecchi comedy gives American viewers an interesting, subtle insight into Japanese psychology. Furthermore, the primary goal of anime is to entertain. So it’s always seemed ironic that so many American anime fans criticize ecchi anime for being pandering, exploitative entertainment.

To help portray ecchi anime comedy in a more positive light, I’ll identify a few titles that I’ve enjoyed and recommend. Since comedy is highly subjective and many of today’s American anime viewers prefer to take the age of an anime into account when considering what to watch, I’ll introduce my list in chronological order rather than attempt to rank them by quality.

The 1988 Doctor Chichibuyama OVA series isn’t sexy, nor is it especially hilarious. Yet I still think it’s worth mention because of its uniqueness. Unlike most risqué anime that star attractive women or young people, the star of Doctor Chichibuyama is a middle-aged man, specifically, voice actor Akira Kamiyama evoking the full force of his lecherous turn as City Hunter’s Ryo Saeba. This strange gag humor show includes gay humor, masturbation jokes, children with inappropriate sexual knowledge, and even an alien invasion by giant space bats.

The Golden Boy (1995) OVA series doesn’t have the prominent profile in the consciousness of the American otaku community that it once did, but the show remains a fun and good looking comedy revolving around sex without actually including any sex. I consider episodes 1 (the software studio) and 4 (the swimming pool) the best of the six.

1998’s Yoiko television series is especially difficult to find because it’s sadly never been released on Japanese DVD. This series about an innocent elementary school girl with a college girl’s body contains plenty of nudity and plenty of hilarious situational gags ranging from children discovering their teacher’s sex toy collection to sneaking a wild deer onto a crowded commuter train.

The Colorful sketch comedy series from 1999, in my opinion, gets tiresome and redundant quite quickly because the show consists primarily of the same simple panty flashing gags over and over. But while the novelty is still fresh, it’s tremendously amusing.

Iketeru Futari is another sex comedy without the sex. This highly enjoyable racy romantic comedy works well because its characters have great personalities and the show keeps its character relationships tense and crisp. The show also benefits from using one of vocalist Yuki Kimura’s best songs as its opening theme. It’s regrettable that despite being a Pioneer production, Pioneer/Geneon of the US never released it domestically, possibly due to fears that it was a bit too risqué for America.

The Ippatsu Kiki Musume series isn’t strictly about sex, but protagonist Kunyan does spend much of the series in her underwear or nude. The combination of Kunyan constantly getting herself accidentally stuck in dangerous or life threatening situations and the series’ narrator providing scientific explanation of the impending danger and the steps necessary to avoid it make this bizarre comedy fun and memorable. It’s difficult not to laugh at the absurdity of a woman sticking a broom in her butt to scare away a giant python that’s in the process of swallowing her.

Gainax will always be respected for productions including Royal Space Force, Gunbuster, and Evangelion, but die hard fans will always love Gainax for its 1999 Oruchuban Ebichu TV series. This hamster’s eye view of the sex life of a frustrated 25-year-old secretary unabashedly pokes fun at the irony and silliness inherent in sexual relationships. It’s frank depictions of violent tendencies, sex, and human vices including laziness and greed are both shockingly crude and incisively hilarious.

The first Hanaukyo Maid Tai television series from 2001 sets out to be a nudity and sex filled harem comedy, and succeeds better than many other harem anime precisely because of its lack of self restraint. Rather than try to apologize for being a gratuitous fan service comedy, the original Hanaukyo Maid Tai indulges in excess. Its cute design and its decision to keep the sex literally under the covers allows the show to be innocent fun rather than offensive sexism.

The 2003 Popotan television series just can’t seem to catch a break. The show has gorgeous character designs by Poyoyon Rock (Akio Watanabe) and an affecting story depth that even its critics concede. But due to its prominent nudity and origin as an erotic PC game, this wonderful, humorous fantasy never got the respect or success in America that it deserved.

Like Hanaukyo Maid Tai, Kanokon (2008) succeeded by merging comedy with “cute” and taking its nudity and sexuality as far (actually, farther) than Japanese broadcast television allows. The series succeeds by introducing likable characters that viewers actually care about, and concentrating heavily on developing its core character relationships.