Kowaremono Box Set

By Chris Beveridge     October 13, 2002
Release Date: September 14, 2002



What They Say
Aki, an Andmaid (Android-maid) made for the purpose of collecting high-quality sperm from all over the world. Thanks to a mad-scientist, she can now transform into a super-heroine!? A plot more twisted than the last...

Aki was supposed to become scrap by now, but thanks to the professor she is now working in his laboratory. One day, the professor asked Aki to become a guinea pig for his research. Aki was to become a Super Andmaid and protect the world's peace. Just at that time, a giant robot begins to wreak havoc nearby. Now is the time for Super Andmaid Aki to rise to the occasion!! In the end however, she got captured. What awaited Aki, defender of justice, was torment and humiliation.

The Review!
Android Maids in hentai just seems like the culmination of two fads in anime over the past couple of years that I’m really surprised we don’t see a lot more of it.

Audio:
For our primary viewing session, we listened to this disc in its original language of Japanese. Though this is a fairly recent release, the show is a pretty basic stereo mix with most everything being center channel dominated. The only real exception is the music, but even that is pretty much just filling up the entire forward soundstage with no real directionality. But in the end, it's a decent sounding track with no dropouts or distortions.

Video:
The transfer for these two episodes is quite good, though there’s some minor little problems with it. Colors are well saturated and backgrounds have a great level of solidity to them with no noticeable grain or breakup. There’s some light cross coloration around the edges of the characters, but varies by setup and player. During panning sequences, you get some noticeable aliasing going on from the cross coloration.

Packaging:
The two keepcases for Kowaremono in the box have some decent covers, each one featuring the lead female character in various serious poses. The covers do look great with good looking colors and character poses, though, the uncensored and adults only logos make it feel somewhat crowded. The back covers show off some animation shots from each show and have a good summary of each episode. Features and technical information is nicely listed as well. The box set itself features a different piece of artwork from the keepcases while the back does a summation of the three keepcase backings. As with all NuTech releases to date, there is no insert included.

Menu:
The menus here are pretty decent once they’re loaded, with a mix of animation and CG providing the intro animation to the menu and then going into a mix of showing the selections with actual shots from the show. The loading sequence is overly long through and shows off far too much of the program. If it had just launched to the menu and used the animations there, it would have faired a whole lot better. While there's a decent bit of intro to it, once you get there you don't see it again unless you start the disc from scratch. Submenus have brief transition animations from the show as well and access times are decent with them but not as fast as we'd normally like. Overall the look and designs of the menus are pretty good.

Extras:
The usual minor extra shows up in this series with each disc featuring the same thing. The video gallery runs between one and two minutes with some nice clean shots and cel work

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The story of Kowaremono is a pretty varied one. At first, it feels like it’s going to be a series of tales that have little in common with each other, as we’re introduced to Aki, an AndMaid. AndMaids are the big things these days, and people buy lots of them. Aki’s one of the more rare and expensive models. One thing all models have in common is that they must do everything that their master tells them to do. Unfortunately for Aki, her master is one who likes to simply humiliate her, at least for the first two episodes. She’s sent through a train car where she has all sorts of things from other passengers happen to her and then to a private car where she’s instructed to wear a specific uniform and then have even more acts happen upon her.

The second episode takes things in a slightly different direction, as she’s told to go to an electronics district to buy some parts for herself, only to end up kidnapped. But it’s a kidnapping her master has orchestrated, as she’s getting all sorts of new things modified on her. She’s being entered into the Maid Fight underground contests, where she must battle it out with other AndMaids. And, being hentai, the battles are both physical and sexual.

All of this is tossed out the window apparently on the next disc, where she’s now the property of some mad scientist and he’s making plans to turn her into a superhero as well as giving her some powers. The links between the episodes are minimal to none for the most part, which means you basically have to take each short tale as it’s own ministory with little bearing on the other episodes. That is, of course, if you’re actually interested in the stories at all.

The sexual adventures of Aki are pretty much in the humiliating department, and she’s usually unsure of why she’s suffering through it other than that she must do it for her master. That gets old kind of quick, but I must admit I was rather intrigued by the whole variation on the catgirl outfit. It’ll certainly add a new spin when I see cosplayers.

Kowaremono isn’t an recommendation unless you’re into the humiliation side of things. Aki has lots done to her, and for the most part it’s decent animation and designs, but nothing near the usual Pink Pineapple level. This is the first release I’ve seen from this animation company (whose name I couldn’t figure out in the opening credits), but I’d rather see more from them than some of the other production houses I’ve seen lately.

Features
Japanese Language,English Language,English Subtitles,Art Gallery

Review Equipment
Toshiba TW40X81 40" HDTV, Panasonic RP-82 Progressive Scan codefree DVD player, Sony STR-DE835 DD/DTS receiver, Monster component cable and Sony speakers.