Suzuna is a young priestess who has to go through a special training before the official time of the ceremony. She has dreams of a mysterious shadow lover. She never sees his face and when she wakes up he's gone. She is told she must marry a guy she's never met. Though things between them get off to a horrible start they eventually fall in love with each other. It seems there is a curse upon this place. But they are unaware of this curse. But can they break free of it?

By: mew1mokuba

Story & Characters

(This review is based on the hentai OVA series, not the game.)

The story follows the tale of Kuraki Suzuna, a young woman training to become a shrine maiden. Each generation in her family has served in her family's shrine in the mountains, but Suzuna's generation is special. The "Expecting Moon Ceremony" is only celebrated every few decades, and Suzuna's generation has been chosen to participate in it. About two months before the ceremony, she is introduced to her fiance, Hayama Kouichi. Suzuna has no intention to marry Kouichi, but he is unfortunately vital to the Expecting Moon Ceremony. Neither Suzuna nor Kouichi know what is in store for them as Suzuna's own mother manipulates the two for her own selfish amibitions, but how can is it possible that they're being controlled by someone who's no longer alive? "Didn't my mother die two years ago?" Suzuna questions. And what of the camelia tree in her yard and the sudden carnal urges everyone in her household begins to succumb to, are they both connected somehow? And Kouichi, who is he exactly, and how does he fit into the ceremony exactly?

For a hentai series, the story is actually very good and is focused on pretty well. Though the concept of evil spirits and the supernatural is not new in the realm of hentai, the way the story was told in this series was exceptionally done that I couldn't help but dwell on what exactly was going on throughout the entire series. True the story itself wasn't very deep, but hey, it's hentai. What prevents me from giving the story a higher rating is the fact that many questions are still left unanswered at the end.

Rating: 8

Art

The art was beautiful in my opinion, you can really tell each of the characters apart from one another, even the twins Suzuna and Mizuna look different from one another. The colors were very vibrant and bright; unfortunately the U.S. version had the colors slightly dimmed (in the original Japanese version, you can see many different shadings in Suzuna's and Mizuna's hair). The only ugly-looking character throughout the entire series was the gardener, Gohei, but other than that, all of the characters looked great.

Rating: 9

Sound

The soundtrack was pretty well done for this series, the ending song is probably one of my favorite soundtrack pieces from an anime. Surprisingly the English dub was also well done; with the exception of Io's voice, the entire English Dub cast captures their character perfectly, this is the first (and probably only) hentai series that actually has good English voice acting and where the voices fit the character. The H-scenes switch to the original Japanese voices though for the most part, but that shouldn't matter.

Rating: 9

Presentation

This series has quickly become my favorite hentai series of all time, no other series comes even close to Kao no Nai Tsuki. Not many hentai series are able to combine humor, drama, and romance as well as this.

The evolution of Suzuna's and Kouichi's relationship was done well (for a hentai series anyway). I found it amusing whenever Suzuna would slap around Kouichi, though I did feel pity for the guy at times. I don't know if a romance would even develop between these two in real life though after watching some of the events that happened between them, but I still enjoyed watching their relationship grow.

Suzuna's relationship with her maid, Tomomi was also touched upon as well a little, I just wish it was given a bit more screentime to show it evolve a little more. There were some characters that I wish were given more depth, namely Sayaka and Io, their roles were pretty much non-existent in the story after episode 3.

Overall, the presentation was just very well done, there aren't very many hentai series that actually pay this much attention to its characters and story. Up until I watched this series, I always thought that all hentai characters and stories were one-sided, but Kao no Nai Tsuki broke this rule and executed it very well. I just wish that this series was longer so that it could explain everthing that was going on and flesh out some of the other characters out a bit more. If you're looking for a hentai series that actually has some plot and character development (and a very good English dub), this is the only series I can recommend to you.

Rating: 8

Final Verdict

8.33 (good)

Reviewed by LGAMARK, May 07, 2005

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