Back in my younger days ::cough:: I was quite the connoisseur of adult style anime. Now I wasn't an expert by any means mind you, let's just say that I knew what I liked. I would scour comic book conventions for bootlegs of uncut anime with one of my first purchases being Urotsukidoji, alas with no English subs. It didn't matter though, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on and my anime purchases soon started to increase. I was hooked and it wasn't long before my collection was filled with titles like Violence Jack and Angel Cop and at one point, I was even able to take in the American theatrical cut of Urotsukidoji at an art house theater downtown. It's been a while since I've been in the mix, but after taking on the responsibility of reviewing Demon City Shinjuku (and old favorite of mine as well) for the site I was ready for more. I decided to tackle Central Park Media's recent release of individual episodes of the Nightmare Campus series myself. First up, Volume 1 - The Resurrection of the Demon Lord Esedess.

While looking for his father during a vacation in the Himilayhas, Masao Sera and his mother stumble upon an ancient demonic ritual. It appears as if they are both killed, but a return for Masao is not out of the question. Meanwhile, at Masao's old school (dubbed Nightmare Campus) things are getting progressively worse with the local gangs. Some of the gang members including the brutal Abe, have become possessed by demons and are become increasingly more violent. While attempting to take over each of the rival gangs one at a time, Abe becomes acquainted with Reiko Aomon, a sultry student who also happens to be a demon herself. After the two rape the girlfriend of one of Abe's rival gang conquests, the two keep a close eye on a returning Masao.

Upon Masao's return, he's cared for by his best friend Akira Mido (a teachers assistant and also a demon) as well as a possible crush in the young and cute Yuuko. Abe and Reiko are bent on destroying Masao when it's discovered that he possess an inner demon as well, unfortunately they don't know how powerful his inner demon actually is. Reiko uses her womanly charms (among other things) to bring the beast out of Masao, which she successfully does (incredibly so!) in one particularly "adult" scene. Now that it has been revealed that Masao is indeed harboring the all powerful Esedess within him, where do we go from here? As you can see, this is quite a build up for a 40-minute introductory episode. Yup, just 40 - minutes! This is only the first episode in the series, and with this kind of build up one can only imagine where we'll be taken from here.

I was actually struck by how much character development was stashed within this 40-minute episode and I really appreciated it. I've found in the past that many of these anime are quite often built up to be a heck of a lot more than they actually are. More often than not being a disguise for pure debauchery just filled with sex and violence from top to bottom. Not that there's anything wrong with that mind you! It's just that every once in a while you want a little bit more. I may be jumping the gun on this one after only seeing the first 40-minute episode, but it looks like Nightmare Campus will allow us to have our cake and eat it too.

The animation is on par with other's I've seen of the sort and the action does get really naughty, this one is definitely NOT for the kiddies. Some characters are a bit more detailed than others but overall I really dug the look of Nightmare Campus. The creatures I've seen so far have been pretty inventive, I'm curious as to what the future of the series has to bring. The naughty animation not only verges on hardcore, but does indeed cross the line, while the detail of the animation seems even more sophisticated than I remember (depends on what your definition of sophisticated is). Needless to say, if you're easily offended, this is NOT for you, stick with Disney.

Quality wise, Nightmare Campus looks quite good on DVD. There's really no evidence of print damage and colors are really sharp and vibrant. The stereo surround track available in Japanese or English with optional yellow English subs also fares quite well. Surround tracks don't offer much to the viewer, but that's OK because the front separation is handled quite well. Both audio tracks (English and Japanese) are comparable in depth of sound and clarity.

Extras include a brief art and sketch gallery along with a host of trailers for other Central Park Media titles including Nightmare Campus. Also featured is a segment called Anime Artform, which provides an insight into this type of animation geared towards beginners. Also included is a host of DVD ROM features including more galleries and production notes/credits.

I really enjoyed the first volume of Nightmare Campus. There was just enough of the dirty stuff and a clear enough build up that enabled my interest to be peaked. I'm really looking forward to Volume 2, bring it on!

For more info, visit Central Park Media online right here!