Hanging somewhere between mainstream anime and hardcore pornography "hentai" is the large grey area called "ecchi", which has timid fan-service on one side and full-out softcore sex on the other side. And like with their live-action counterparts, hentai and ecchi are often total and utter garbage, though exceptions do have their mainstream supporters.
A recent ecchi series which was very successful is Monster Musume: Everyday Life with Monster Girls. It's basically a standard harem comedy, in which a hapless young male suddenly gets a multitude of girlfriends, all fighting for his attention. The selling-point of this particular title is that all the girlfriends are non-humans. The Japanese Government has conceded that other intelligent species exist, has signed a mutual no-harm treaty with them, and au-pair students of these species visit Japan, to live with foster families. Due to administrative laziness several of them get sent to the same wrong address, and mayhem ensues. Mayhem, and giant bewbs. Beeeeewbs...
I was going to disregard this series entirely but friends convinced me parts of it were truly funny (cyclops girls being excellent snipers, that kind of thing). Also, the manga it was based on has lots of fans, and Sentai released a very pimped edition back in September... so I got curious.
Delivery of the package got delayed and I was frankly thinking of cancelling the order, but something odd happened: the edition sold out FAST and the price rose... and rose... and rose... you need to look hard to find this new for under 300 dollars at the moment. So I got even MORE curious.
Well, it has arrived at long last, and while it in no way merits having to pay an astronomical fee for it, I can't help but grin at it a bit. The series is so-so (all your expectations will likely be met in full) but it's VERY hard to get the silly opening tune out of my head, and the packaging is... special.
Check out this gallery of shots. Click on the edge of the pictures to scroll through them, or at the centre of each to see a bigger version. Heed a mild NSFW warning for a couple of shots though.
Here it is, a big box made of folded thin cardboard. Some lewdness is hinted at but safely covered up with a ribbon.
Opening the box happens in a rather unique way, as you have to dis-entangle flaps and folds. But oh look, it's going to unfold into a heart-shape, right? How sweet...
..ehm, right. So much for the heart shape.
As a detail: the nipples have been embossed with glistening ink. Well, at least it advertises what the focus of the series is about...
Bad pun aside, the box is indeed stacked though: you get the series on DVD and Blu-ray, the soundtrack CD, a collection of cards for spotting demi-human girls in the wild, a lenticular card, stickers, a pin-up booklet and a mini-poster.
All contents opened and unfolded. Whoa!
The booklet is glossy but thin at just 28 pages.
It's indeed just a pin-up book: instead of getting a making-of or design details, it just gives character descriptions and glamour poses. There's even a nudie centerfold!
The (back)end of a bizarre edition.
What an incredible packaging for an "ecchi" series!