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It becomes almost a bore, as lengthy reports on Nanase’s actions accompanied by the same stills appear over and over again.

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Classroom of Atonement

Review by: Maria Lujuria

2 Episode Hentai OVA

Company: Critical Mass Video

Running Time: 60 minutes (2 episodes)

Region: 1

Rating: NC-17 (Scenes of nudity, graphic sex, urination, and rape)

This DVD is preset at Parental Control Level NC-17

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW IS ONE OF AN ADULT NATURE. PARENTAL DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

EXTERNAL EXAM

Nanase Hiramatsu’s father is arrested before her eyes for the murder of a colleague. Before her father can be judged in court, a group of deranged young men at Nanase’s college have already judged father and daughter. They are both guilty. Since the father can’t be punished, the men decide to punish Nanase by forcing her into sexual situations that she must obey. Not only is Nanase being a daily sex toy, but an anonymous author is publishing something called the “Atonement Newspaper” that details everything that is done to her.

Can Nanase free herself from the twisted gang torturing her and find out who is writing this “Atonement Newspaper”, or will she remain the plaything of her fathers’ enemies?

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: The final transfer gives a crisp and clear picture. Some characters look a little sharper than others in the line work, but nothing too severe to distract from the eyes. Regular English subtitles are used as well as the addition of “soft” subtitles.

AUDIO: Dolby Digital 2.0 is used for both English and Japanese tracks. The Japanese is much louder and fuller in volume than the English version. However, the English has a sharper sound than the Japanese track.

EDITS: No questionable edits.

EXTRAS: A series of “outtakes” that are sex scenes with the voice actors applying awkward noises in place of the acting they did during the feature. There is also an animated art gallery, original U.S. trailer, and a few Critical Mass Video trailers of other releases.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: Classroom of Atonement is just exactly that. Archiving and taking atonement is main purpose of nearly all of the main characters involved and the sins of the parents are clearly put on the children. Nanase Hiramatsu is an ordinary college girl until her father is arrested for murder. This is the beginning of a twisted descent into madness. Forces that were against her father for the crimes he committed are now turning against her. Now a gang is torturing Nanase with an unnerving interest in her as a murder’s daughter. Everything that is done to her is documented in the “Atonement Newspaper” and is distributed freely throughout the school.

ACTING: The Japanese cast deserves their credits for acting very believable. Even with the simple and limited animation presented, they add enough to make the characters feel human. Mai Arai, who plays Nanase, and Masakazu Oonishi, who plays Ohbari, are both convincing of their characters. Ohbari especially has such stinging lines; I flinched when he was angry.

The English cast sounds like they did give some effort to their characters. Mo Wood, who plays Nanase, is very convincing, especially during the scenes of her questioning what is happening to her. Ohbari’s voice actor, Cory Howard sounds a little flat, even when he’s angry. It is very funny to watch the ending English credits. With voice actors calling themselves Stinky Pinky, Cucumber Float, and Mya Gorgeonthis, it is almost a guarantee the English voice actors did not take things seriously with this piece.

SEX SCENES: Gangbangs are the leader here. Every female ends up having at least two men in each sex scene, with the exception of a single one on one scene.

There is missionary, doggie-style, cowgirl, and reverse cowgirl. There is also oral sex, use of toys, public sex, exhibitionism, and one lesbian scene.

FINAL EXAM

"Classroom of Atonement" is the third installment from the "Vanilla Series", a Hentai franchise that is known for non-consensual domination titles with dark themes. For Nanase Hiramatsu, her life changes when her father is arrested for murder. Because it's a high profile case, everyone knows about it. So immediately, a group of young men take Nanase away to have her atone for her fathers’ sins. At first she questions why she is being punished, but eventually she submits to the young men as they torture her on a daily basis. This includes many romps in the school, being sold for sex to professors, being forced to have sex, and exposing herself in public places. She also has to watch other women being taken against their will when Nanase refuses to do certain things for the men. Aside from this, something called "The Atonement Newspaper” is being passed around, showing everyone in the school what Nanase is forced to put up with. Fans who love domination and humiliation will get gluttonous delights with this title.

Ultimately, something her father does stops Nanase’s torture and exposes her captors and their true purposes. Surprisingly, those purposes for the repeated rape and torture of several women go to the left of normal reason. It is almost laughable that some characters would do such awkward things when knowing perfectly well that a crime is being committed and that they should go to the authorities. Both men and women are not given gold stars for being smart. The end is almost anti-climatic. This being a hentai title, I was going to assume that the twisted plot that had turned routine was going to be transformed into something even more bizarre. In other words, sex would solve everything and save the day (in Hentai, that’s usually the case). The ending is so far from the last climatic sex scene, I’m not even sure why it was done that way, much less even put on screen. I lost interest at the end and now I just stop the DVD after the last good sceen.

The character designs are rather plain. There is cuteness about Nanase, but nothing overtly attractive about her. All of the characters are drawn in the simplest of designs. Their private parts clash more so than I have ever seen on any animated character. It looks funny to see a body that is one color from the waist up, and a darker color with the parts that count. There is nothing desirable about that image.

Sex is abundant, but still shots are used too often and are often repeated. It becomes almost a bore, as lengthy reports on Nanase’s actions accompanied by the same stills appear over and over again. These “newspaper” scenes are hardly erotic and they take up so much time. I have to fast forward though all of them. They serve no purpose other than to fill time.

I was expecting a lot more to Classroom of Atonement than what I got. The set up is perfect for the domination and nonconsensual themes, but fails to follow through. Too many still scenes, too much repetitiveness, lack of experimentation, and low quality animation fail to make any of the sex scenes worthy of attention, much less feel erotic. There is a point where the psychological views of Nanase and her captors are more interesting than the sexual situations! That is the kiss of death for a title that is for adults only.

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