Popotan – Vanishing
House (Volume One/Animé TV)
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: D Episodes: C
Though meant for ages 16 and up, the drawn nudity in the
Animé TV series Popotan is more so than we have seen in the dozens of
Animé titles we have covered to date.
With that said, it is not as outrageous or offensive as something
exploitive like Cosplay Complex (reviewed elsewhere on this site), but
some may think 16 is possibly not old enough in some situations considering the
mix of nudity and animation is still somewhat taboo in American society.
The show is not anywhere as obsessed with nude body
images, but is shockingly casual about it.
Vanishing House features the first four episodes of the series,
which includes storylines of a young boy who has broken into a house of girls
because he thinks it is haunted. The
girls laugh, but he may be right.
Before you know it, more mysterious persons surface, as do magic occurrences
and getting a doll repaired turns out to be a task like nothing anyone expects. Unfortunately, the narrative does not match
the promise of those situations, as the humor is too often as overdone as the
nudity, but it is different enough to at least gain a cult following of some
sort.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X1 image is better than
what we usually see in such Animé TV production, both because of the good color
fidelity and the near-abandonment of images made purposely softer than
usual. That is an annoying cliché of
the genre and it’s about time another show broke it. The Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo has just enough surround information
to consider using Pro Logic surround in home theater playback, making this one
of the best performing combination from Geneon DVD to date. The lame extras are the opening without text
credits and a full color art gallery, plus a small paper foldout in the DVD
case. Popotan is nothing great
except in its technical playback, but there is obviously an audience for
something sexual like this, just in its casual attitude.
- Nicholas Sheffo
