Mystery of the Necronomicon Anime Review

Quick Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2002-01-01 (updated 2011-04-23)
• 1.5 stars out of 5 (?)

Mystery of the Necronomicon is hentai anime (porn, for the jargon-impaired), but it's different enough from the norm that it caught my attention. It's very close to a reasonable quality B-movie, and while the plot is rather silly and riddled with holes, it strikes a decent balance as a sort of supernatural crime drama halfway between an old-school whodunit and a horror movie. The issue is that every episode includes a couple of gratuitous and very graphic sex scenes. In a way it's sad, because with a little more restraint, most of the naughty stuff could have been passably erotic instead of outright smut. Or, with about three minutes cut out of each episode, you'd have a mildly interesting horror series on your hands. As is, if you look past the extreme cheese and cheesecake, it's surprising how well the mystery/horror mix works, and there are a couple of fun, really weird sidesteps. The acting is largely good as well (look for Yumi Takada, better known as Ayeka, as an appealing traumatized tutor). It's not bad looking, either, although the character designs are seriously inconsistent and it has that awkward look from the cel-to-computer transition period.

Mystery of the Necronomicon is basically one of three things: A hentai flick with way too much plot, a decent but sleazy B-movie with way too much sex, or a good B-movie gone horribly wrong. Which one is your call, but if you look at it in the right light, it's at least surprisingly not bad.

Read the full-length review...

Full Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2002-01-01 (updated 2011-04-23)
• 1.5 stars out of 5 (?)

First things first: Mystery of the Necronomicon is hentai anime. For the jargon-impaired and those who aren't clear on the concept, that means that it is by almost any standard pornographic. It is to be watched by adults. Only. It goes far enough that even a significant percentage of adults will find it offensive. So why am I reviewing it? Despite the fact that it is dangerously close to standard "porn," it's different enough from the norm that it caught my attention.

To clarify: In your standard hentai flick (overlooking many exceptions), the nominal story is just a framework. It usually involves either demons doing very bad things to women, female subjugation of some sort, or a silly excuse to get pretty girls in bed with inept guys. There are variations on those basic themes, but in any case the entire exercise is dominated by graphic, gratuitous, and wholly unnecessary sex.

In this case, we have something that's much closer to a reasonable quality B-movie (the kind that you see on late-night cable, but is good enough that you might watch it if you were having trouble sleeping). The plot, while rather silly and riddled with holes, isn't all that bad--a sort of supernatural crime drama halfway between an old-school whodunit and a horror movie. The course of the story isn't painfully obvious, and although there isn't a great deal of brain-twisting to the mystery, it's not entirely laughable if you're willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

There's only one little thing keeping me from judging it like "normal" anime: Every episode includes a couple of gratuitous and very graphic sex scenes. Although sometimes at least peripherally connected to the plot, they're the kind of raging gynecological hardcore that makes most people squirm and all but the most hardened hentai fans at least raise an eyebrow. In a way it's sad, because with a little more restraint, most of the naughty stuff could have been passably erotic instead of outright smut. Or, with about three minutes cut out of each episode, you'd have a mildly interesting horror series on your hands.

As it stands, Mystery of the Necronomicon is one of three things: A hentai flick with way too much plot, a decent but sleazy B-movie with way too much sex, or a good B-movie gone horribly wrong. Which one is your call.

In the first two episodes, we're introduced one by one to the usual suspects, a Clue-style collection of characters at the condo. (Fun touch: They flash the name of every significant character on the screen when they first show up, a convention borrowed from some character-dense, live-action Japanese movies and TV shows.) There are some murders, our P.I. hero goes around questioning folks, and there are a few twists. Then we're off to a rustic hotel in the Vermont woods for something closer to your standard last-man-standing slasher flick, although even through this there's more investigating than screaming and fleeing going on.

On the down side, the plot drags in a few spots, and a couple of things require way too much suspension of disbelief (a bloody corpse gets up, kills a deputy, and the sheriff's reaction is something like "Woah... Don't see that every day."). Well, that and it's extremely cheesy, of course, but I was honestly surprised by how well the mystery/horror mix works, and there are a couple of fun, really weird sidesteps.

Visually, the series isn't at all bad looking. It definitely has the look of anime from that awkward cel-to-computer transition period around the turn of the millennium, but the animation is passable and the art isn't bad. Most of the character designs are attractive, and a few of the scenes have a fittingly dark, grim feel to them. On the down side, the abundance of flayed corpses could have looked scarier, most of the backgrounds are too plain and brightly-colored for my taste, and the proportions of the female characters' bodies (which we see plenty of) are inconsistent to put it mildly--somebody forgot to pass around the reference sketches.

The music is sparse, but there are a few very creepy pieces of ambient background "music" consisting of vaguely Middle-Eastern-sounding chanting.

The Japanese acting is surprisingly good, with several decent B-list actors. Our hero and his sidekick (voiced by Hidetoshi Nakamura and Yoko Asada, respectively) are both well enough acted, and most of the supporting characters sound believable as well. The one exception is Mina, the mysterious P.I. friend who shows up in the first half of the series--unknown Rui Katsura sounds stiff and artificial. The biggest name in the cast (and most recognizable voice) is Yumi Takada (best known as Ayeka from Tenchi Muyo), who voices Haruka, the traumatized tutor. She sounds distinctive and quite appealing in the part--I've never figured out why she doesn't get better roles.

In all, Mystery of the Necronomicon is not an anime series that most people will have any interest in. But, B-movie fans with a very high hentai tolerance might find it interesting, and hentai fans with a high plot tolerance should enjoy it as well. I can't say that I exactly enjoyed it, but looked at in a certain light, I can at least say that it is surprisingly... not bad.

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