Seifuku Shojo The Animation

Seifuku Shoujo makes me want to curl up in the fetal position and cry. I'd leave it at that, but I don't think that makes for a particularly helpful review. My mind is totally numb from watching it, but I'll try my best to provide a good look at one horrifying hentai. This title is DEFINITELY not for everyone. Seifuku Shoujo is a hentai about girls getting raped. Constantly. And that's all there is to it. The art in Seifuku Shoujo is probably its greatest asset, and even then, it isn't perfect. Colors are bright, and the lines aresharp, and the animation is fluid when it counts (and even sometimes when it doesn't count). The lighting, however, comes across as dim, which not only darkens the whole show but washes out the colors in a sort of nauseating manner. It doesn't help that there are shading gradients that make no sense and simply increase the haziness and nauseating visuals. The character designs of the girls are generally pleasant, although the eye designs are weird, and the head-design occasionally takes on a strange inverted-raindrop shape (bulbous at the top of the hair and tapering off with a pointy chin). As there are five different lead girls, expect a bit of variation, although only one has short hair. The character designs of the younger guys are not repulsive, and that's pretty much all I can say here. The older guys, however, definitely do not come across as attractive, and that's really a huge understatement. The general cinematography is really inconsistent, running the gamut from interesting to boring. The sex...is well-animated. Positions are varied, there's a lot of energy, and the seximatography is very erotic. It's fluidly animated and quite detailed, especially when dealing with bodily fluids, of which there are a lot, and I mean A LOT. The way semen is drawn is going to be a love-it-or-hate-it thing, I'm guessing, since it tends to be very off-white and lumpy. There's a little cosplay (ep 2) and bondage (ep 3), for people who are into that. But now, here's the deal: almost all of the sex in Seifuku Shoujo is the rape of the heroine by a repulsive older man. In addition to rape not floating many people's boats, it's not even very hot because of the disgusting images of the males involved. Also, in general, the females do absolutely nothing during sex. They are being raped, and it is clear that they don't enjoy it at all. In fact, it is clear they are suffering. There are all kinds of people in the world, but I do NOT find this sexy. I find it painful. THIS is what really kills Seifuku Shoujo for me. Part of why I find Seifuku Shoujo so painful is because the voice acting of the girls is fantastic. They make you feel what they feel, and what they feel is pain and anguish. As impressive as that is, the effect is not good. I have nothing to say about the male voice acting other than that the male lead in episode 3 sounds appropriately creepy and disturbed (which is to say, VERY). The BGM for the most part does a great job supporting the mood, generally consisting of creepy ambient breakbeats, occasionally developing into faster techno and drum 'n' bass, often to match the pace of the sex. Speaking of sex, it is generally well-acted, although the girls aren't doing much but breathing heavily and expressing pain. The sound effects did their job. The ED is okay, upbeat happy J-Techno or what-have-you. Overall, the sound is quite good. The stories in Seifuku Shoujo are generally pathetic, just excuses to have the girls raped a lot. They aren't even very good excuses, often seeming like they come out of nowhere. The plot in episode 4 is a little better than in episodes 1 and 2, in that the setup is a little more complicated, but it's still atrocious. Episode 3, however, deserves something of a special mention. Its plot, while simple, is executed in a way that is hypnotic in its creepiness. Like the other episodes, #3 is disturbing, but it adds a psychological aspect to it. This episode may actually be good, but it's probably just less bad than the others. As I write this, I'm still rather dazed, and the context I have for comparison is the rest of Seifuku Shoujo. Anyways, in that episode, it's the characters that make the difference. The characters in Seifuku Shoujo are impressively one-dimensional. Pretty much all you have are the female leads and the old men who rape them. In episode 1, there's a loyal boyfriend and a sex-crazy girl, and in others there are...oh, what's the point? I can't describe the characters because there's nothing special about them AT ALL. Except, of course, in episode 3. This happens to be the one episode with a rapist from the same age category as the victim, but that's beside the point. I can't fool myself into thinking that the characterization in the episode is anything but shallow. So then, what makes episode 3 special? The male lead is genuinely insane. If I HAD to draw a parallel, I'd say he's a male, hentai equivalent of Yuno Gasai; he's a male yandere, except instead of lethal violence, he uses rape (because this is hentai, duh). This makes for a stunning contrast to the female lead, who seems astoundingly sane and lucid. Perhaps this is only by comparison, but it's still quite an effect. It's a rather fascinating thing to watch, but don't get me wrong: it doesn't make the episode even remotely pleasant or enjoyable. So, no, I did not like Seifuku Shoujo. I couldn't even find it sexy, despite how explicit and erotic the sex scenes are. No doubt there are people who will like it. If you can filter out (or take pleasure in) the screams of pain and pleas for mercy, then you'll probably greatly enjoy Seifuku Shoujo.