Kokudo Oh Box Set

By Chris Beveridge     July 04, 2002
Release Date: June 26, 2002



What They Say
Follow the excitement as a young, newly crowned King is sent two beautiful princesses to choose between as his Queen. Together, they must live with him for a month and a half and continually try to win his heart...any way they can!

The Review!
Ah, the story of a young king without parents who must choose between two princesses for one to become his queen. Add in a little intrigue and politics from the surrounding countries, and you get some royal hentai.

Audio:
For our primary viewing session, we listened to this disc in its original language of Japanese. Things here are your basic stereo mix with most of the track seeming like it’s coming through the center channel outside of the music. Dialogue is nice and clear and we noticed no dropouts or distortions on either language track.

Video:
The transfer for this series is quite nice, with hardly anything visibly wrong throughout the four volumes. With the show being recent, the source materials are solid. Colors are vibrant and solid, cross coloration is pretty much non-existent and there’s only a few instances of noticeable aliasing. This is pretty much on par with a lot of NuTech’s releases, so we’ve got little complaint here.

Packaging:
Each of the four keepcases is nicely presented once you get past the standard inclusion of the Totally Uncensored and the adults-only warning. Each keepcase covers features either one or both of the main women from the show either intimate with each other or by themselves, almost in a manga style artwork. The inclusion of the voice actresses occurs again here, but they’re done up fairly well by including them in the “card” format that’s themed for the set. The back covers give good summaries of things as well as laying out all the technical information and what's included. The only thing not listed is the running times on each disc. The box uses a great full cast shot of the girls on the front while on the back there’s the combined summaries and a number of character shots done up as cards. This set contains no inserts.

Menu:
The menu layout is based around the mansion of the series, with that being static and animation from the show playing in the windows we peek into. There’s also static shots outside of the mansion, where we get artwork similar to the covers in its manga style look and feel. There’s little load up time and the access times between menus is nice and fast. Selections change the images sometimes, but there’s hardly any noticeable lag from this.

Extras:
Two sets of the voice actresses video photo galleries are included here while the actual anime-related extra is a video image gallery with stills from the show.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Something of an alternate world show, the setting is late European and takes place in a small country that’s politically strategic. Nestled between two kingdoms, it provides the main trade route between them and survives by the tolls and tariffs it imposes. At the age of twenty, Isiodore has become king of the country and is settling to the business of choosing a queen.

To keep things smooth, he must choose between a princess from each kingdom. One is Ariel, a young and introverted girl with blue hair who only wants to please. She and Isiodore used to play together well over ten years earlier, back when it was necessary to keep families apart less they be ripe for an easy overthrow. The other princess is Bellecher, a buxom blonde who met Isiodore at the academy where she constantly outscored him as the best in every class.

The castle where Isiodore lives is treated mostly as an overly large mansion these days, and the only servants there are Irene, the maid, and a male advisor. Both serve Isiodore completely, in their efforts to keep the kingdom running smoothly. With the arrival of both princesses, and the attending entourages at the outskirts of the mansion, both have plenty to do. It’s a typical setup of a small number of people who know what Isiodore has to do.

Isiodore also has his hands on a gem that will let him force his will over another persons when used properly. Apparently this item was created some time ago about a resident of the kingdom who had some elf blood in him, but the items past isn’t all that important. It’s the use of the item that comes into play later in the series. Early on, Isiodore has no issues in getting the two princesses to attend him.

In fact, they’re quite eager. Ariel throws herself on him the first night, moving faster than Bellecher expected. Of course, Bellecher gets her chance later on, which lets Ariel and Irene get together, where Irene teaches her things she needs to know to please Isiodore. And as things progress, the two princesses end up becoming more involved in things around the mansion, as with so many attending guests outside, both are forced to wear maid outfits and help out.

While Kokudo Oh didn’t deeply impress us, it’s not a bad offering. The animation is decent, though it does look cheap at a few instances. The character designs are very nice for the women, which is where it really counts. The transfer is vibrant and there’s little issue with the discs. The action is mostly consensual based on the situations of the characters, though to some it will seem forced. While not a family title, it’s definitely on the less hardcore side of things.

Features
Japanese Language,English Language,English Subtitles,Photo Gallery,Voice Actresses Photo Galleries

Review Equipment
Toshiba TW40X81 40" HDTV, Skyworth 1050P Progressive Scan codefree DVD player, Sony STR-DE835 DD/DTS receiver, Monster component cable and Sony speakers.