Junk Boy

Junk Boy is a 1987 ecchi OVA produced by Victor Entertainment. Having no Wikipedia nor TV Tropes page, I think it's safe to say I'll be reviewing another obscure anime today.

As an aside, while I don't want to get into the habit of spoiling anime in my reviews, as this is a forty-five minute OVA, its almost inevitable that I'll spoil most of the anime if I describe anything. On the bright side, knowing the plot doesn't detract from much in Junk Boy's case.

In the first minute or so of Junk Boy, we are treated to no less than four pairs of bare anime breasts. The OVA wastes no time in telling viewers exactly what type of anime it is - a hardcore ecchi at best and a tame hentai with a plot at worst. If you have someone that may enter your room, it's best to sit this one out, folks.

Step into the sneakers of Ryohei Yamazaki, a shameless hypersexual man who aspires to work at the gravure magazine, Potato Boy. If you're tired of the shy, dense, and borderline asexual protagonists of harem anime fame, Ryohei will be a breath of fresh air.

Or at least he would be if he wasn't a grade-A creep and jerk, a trait that's stated in exasperation by other characters in the OVA. If you destroy the seriousness and charm of characters such as Master Roshi or Jiraiya and ramp up their skeevy pervertedness to eleven, you have Ryohei. It's hard to not roll your eyes in disgust as he embraces random women and rubs his giant gag penis against them while having a perverted fantasy. In the first five minutes, we see the extent of Ryohei's character - he's horny to an utterly obnoxious extent. The beautiful editor of the magazine causes his hormones to go wild, and he botches his interview.

He is promptly hired.

A big problem I have with this anime that it seems that for far too long, Ryohei's antics go unpunished; he's often rewarded for his bad behavior. Towards the end of the movie, he starts getting rejected and slapped around, but by then the damage has been done. Junk Boy is completely ridiculous and not in the good way.

The OVA's too crude for my tastes, and it often ruins moments that could genuinely be good. As an example, there's a scene where Ryohei and the photographer go to take a gravure shoot of a singer. The singer seems disinterested and thus her shots aren't particularly appealing. Ryohei then decides to reveal how she was his idol and he masturbated to her when he was younger and encourages her to be better so she can be like the woman he once fantasized about. It would have been sweet...in a strange, off-color way. But then the anime ruins it by having him then lustily rub against her with his erect penis, followed by her being pleased by its size.

While breasts and derrieres are all that's shown, it still seems a bit much for an ecchi and comes across as the writers needing to slap a plot on an animated pinup. While this would be fine for a hentai, it's not and the poor plot shows.

Another problem the anime has is that it seems to have an identity crisis. In addition to being ecchi, it's a comedy. The problem with this is that it more often than not isn't funny and I was pretty ashamed the few times I laughed (which were due to facial expressions more than anything, if nothing else the anime is well-animated). More ridiculous still is that it tries to become a romance in the second half. With Ryohei being nothing more than a creep that lusts for any feminine woman that moves throughout the first half, I wasn't buying it. The fact that after getting the girl (because of course he does), he decides to harass his boss again just drives the point home that the romance plot was shallow. It doesn't help that the first half moves briskly while the second half is a crawl (or as much of a crawl you can be with twenty animated minutes).

Junk Boy could have worked, honestly. Focus on Ryohei's antics and show off a few more scenes of him getting raunchy material for his job. You could dial back his personality to make him bearable and you'd have a pretty decent ecchi. If you actually do want to have him grow as a person, you'd need to have a few more episodes or an entire series. This was adapted from a manga, and I believe being one forty-five minute OVA could be the cause of many of my problems.

Overall, while this isn't anything to write home about, it's not terrible. It has that sleek, 80s anime look, the dub is pretty good for a late 80s anime, the music is decent, it's funny at times, and the women look nice if that's your thing. If you're just looking for a goofy ecchi, you could probably do worse. If you're looking for anything else, you could definitely do a lot better.

5.8/10