Hen Zemi (TV) Review

This is review number one hundred and forty three. This anime is part of the Spring 2011 lineup. It’s a dirty anime called Hen Zemi. Yeah, nothing more to say, really. It’s a twelve minute anime that is thirteen episodes long about the colorful cast in the little Abnormal Seminar where a lot of weird things happen. Let’s read on.

Story

The anime is about a group of people in the “Abnormal Physiology Seminar”. They are a bunch of people that explore perversion and fetishes for studies but they also embrace it. They’re a group of sexually deviant people putting their energy to good use. Everyone seems to fit in except for the level headed girl named Nanako Matsutaka, who has since regretted her decision in enrolling in the seminar. To make matters worse, it seems like the perversion of the people in the club is slowly rubbing off her.

Taking the Pants Off

Let’s get this out of the way. This anime is very dirty. It borders Hentai without actually being graphic and it tackles some pretty gross out conversations. The anime is about fetishes and a group of people embracing the act. If you do not like super explicit anime where the characters talk about ejaculating or drinking piss then stay away from this one. It’s not something mentally unprepared people can handle. With that being said though, I was tested a bit by the anime as well. I’ve seen a lot of things that I just shrug off but there are some things in this show that even I couldn’t take. My reaction isn’t being gross out though. I was laughing out loud at the seemingly weird presentation of the anime. The remarkable approach in having sexually mature content yet being smart at executing them is something I really admire in Hen Zemi. BUT, like I said, it’s not for everyone.

The anime has a simple set up. It usually revolves around an “experiment” or study done by certain members of the seminar. They usually submit a research paper to the professor but they often practice their concept first. The experiment often involves other members of the seminar unknowingly participating in the study. They often go as far as peeing into a bottle and then serving it to a fellow member who mistake it for beer.

This anime is super weird and super dirty. There are certain scenes in the anime that are just plain weird and often feel wrong. The major theme of the anime is about fetishes . Certain fetishes feel wrong from other people’s perspective but it feels natural to the person who has them. This is heavily explored in the anime because almost everyone in the seminar has a particular fetish and they are often seen acting on it. So don’t be surprised to see random scenes of bondage, sadomasochism and other form of weird sexual acts.

Now, I’m an open minded guy and I give certain things the benefit of the doubt. Some scenes in the anime will never make sense to the people watching it. It’s hard to grasp its idea except if you are into fetishes yourself. The anime feels random but there is actually a very smartly placed social commentary on the anime. The Japanese are perverts and they’re pretty wild/weird in bed. The anime was able to capture that social understanding and explores it. You may be asking why I know so much about weird Japanese fetishes and the answer is simple, I read up on it. No, I don’t share the same hobby. I like weird and nothing borders insanity than certain things you see when you download JAV videos. Ehem.

Anyways, I’m saying that to the unaware, the anime feels random and weird. To those familiar though, they fully understand the extent of the fetishes presented in the anime. Gosh, I bet I just involuntarily confessed into being a massive pervert, huh? Well, screw it. That’s basically the anime’s charm. It feels random but there is a stable base behind the things it present. The social commentary aspect of the anime doesn’t really come up though until you reach the second half. So you’re stuck with weird non sense like stuffing food in a girl’s rafflesia or conversations about sperm.

The characters in the anime are pretty plain but the thing that sets them apart is their perversion. The cast is a bunch of perverts and all of them have a unique fetish to them. They also have a particular role so it is pretty easy to follow the anime. There is the “normal” girl, the guy into netorare, the mangaka obsesses with boobs, the anarchist who is into mannequins, the masochistic girl, the submissively quiet girl and the bipolar girl. The anime was able to give each character a decent introduction and some pretty nice character development.

Throughout the anime, there are episodes involving certain characters and I’m a bit amazed that the anime had room for exploring its cast. There is a decent transformation for some of the characters that is pretty interesting. It’s nice because there’s nothing dirty during these scenes. It’s just plain character development with certain people forming a bond special to them. I know, it’s weird, right? There’s a massively dirty anime having room for character development? It’s unheard of.

The Comedy in the anime is a hit and miss at times. Like I said before, if you don’t get the sexual theme then you won’t understand the references in the joke. The viewers are required to have a pretty dirty imagination and a fast intake of sexual innuendos. If you do understand the context of the joke then it is pretty funny. Mostly because of the shock factor some scenes hold. I often go “holy sh*t, they showed that? Sunnabapeach”. Despite the viewer’s hyper active imagination, there are some jokes that are hard to understand because they are often word plays and cultural jokes that are pretty obscure. I fixed that problem with Translator Notes so don’t be afraid to search them up if you feel lost at the jokes. Translator notes are there to help you, not to make you feel inferior. There’s not a lot of cultural jokes though so you’re safe letting some things fly over your head because sexual jokes transcend any form of barrier.

This anime is remarkable. I’ll admit that it’s not for everyone and I actually urge anyone reading this to think hard before trying it but you can’t deny a smart anime when you see one. I get turned off by toilet humor when it’s blatant like in Gokujo but the ones in Hen Zemi had a bit of a brilliant set up to them that requires a bit of thinking. They’re sophisticated toilet humor which, to me, sounds pretty amazing.

Sight and Sound

The character design is moe with explicit sexiness. They don’t look sexy because you can see that the limbs look like they have baby fat in them which feels pretty weird. The character design is pretty weak. They do compliment the personality but some of the characters look alike at times. There is also very little detail to differentiate them. I notice that most on the girls because the bland personality and the similar looks confused me when I saw the first half. It got better on the second half though.

There aren’t any sexually direct scenes like exposed body parts or blatant cum shots or stuff like that. They’re often conveniently censored or they’re set in double entendre scenes. Erections are often replaced with a bullet train and bodily liquid are often just other form of liquidy substance. Nothing visually striking but the thought behind them is pretty strong. The dirty scenes are nicely detailed though. It was able to deliver the shock value of the content pretty nicely.

The animation is pretty normal. Nothing really stands out because majority of the anime is just dialogue. When there is some movements though, it’d be dirty and I already said that the dirty scenes are pretty nice. The background is plain and nothing really stands out magnificently.

The anime’s OP is “Hen Zemi Hajimaru yo!” by Masaru Yokoyama. The OP has no lyrics so it’s just a rock beat. It’s a pretty catchy beat though and the guitar riffs are pretty impressive. The OP sequence feature still poses of the girls in the anime where it shifts into pictures of them in bikini. It’s a bit hard to explain but it certainly captured the Ecchi aspect of the anime. I also notice the limbs having baby fat during the OP.

The anime’s ED is “Punctuation!” by Hanazawa Kana. The song itself has some innuendos in them but I did think that Hanazawa’s voice is pretty nice. She voiced Nanako in the anime and I love how she captured the character’s sweet nature in the song. The song is Ecchi though and so is the OP sequence. It features a lot of indirectly dirty things, I guess.

Overall Score

5/10 “How dirty is your mind? Test it out with this anime.”

If you’re into fetishes and lewd jokes and a lot of dirty scenes with sexual innuendos then this anime is for you. No one in their right mind would admit that they’re into things like that though so just leave this anime alone. Comeback after you’ve seen Highschool DxD and R-15 or something. As an impartial note though, I do recommend this anime.