Ask John: Why Isn’t Discipline Better Known?

Question:
John, can you tell me what the situation is with the Discipline hentai DVD. Wasn’t it released in Japan last year? How come I can’t find anything about it except for the official site. It’s like nobody even knows about it, which I can’t understand! Have you seen the screenshots of the hentai!? The animation looks to be even better than that of Bible Black! I know it was done by the same people and that is why I don’t understand why there is nothing to be found of Discipline. Please give me and the fans any information you can regarding this hentai.

Answer:
The Bible Black: La Noche de Walpurgis computer game produced by Active Software was released in Japan in July 2000. It quickly became a hit and was adapted into an anime OAV series beginning in July 2001. Active Soft then released the Discipline: Record of a Crusade adult computer game on August 30, 2002. Discipline was then likewise adapted into an anime OAV series with the April 11, 2003 release of Discipline OAV 1. So far three of the planned four Discipline OAVs have been released in Japan. The fourth episode is scheduled for Japanese DVD release on April 23, 2004.

Within the fan community, the Discipline OAV series hasn’t created quite the stir that Bible Black did because, frankly, the Discipline anime isn’t nearly as good as Bible Black. Although both series were originally created by the same computer game development studio, and the anime versions of both series look similar, the Discipline: Record of a Crusade anime series is actually produced by an entirely different studio and staff than whom produced the Bible Black anime. The character design and animation direction for Bible Black was performed by Yoshiten. Discipline features character design by Akira Kano, and storyboards and direction by Shigenori Kumai with Takashi Kondou assistant directing. While the character design for the Discipline anime is very attractive, the beautiful women have very little to do. Unfortunately, unlike Bible Black, which had an interesting supernatural story enhanced by creative and interesting sex, the storyline of the Discipline anime is rather dull, and the sex very mundane.

The Discipline OAV series has received a rather cool reception from the fan community, especially in America, because it’s simply not really that good. There are unquestionably many, many adult anime series available that are far worse than Discipline, but while the Bible Black series rests near the very top of the list of best hentai anime ever released, the Discipline series lies towards the middle of the ladder. It’s not exactly bad; it’s just not something worth getting excited about either (no pun intended).

Thanks to Yuji Mori for providing some of the production crew details.