The fourth part of the “Cream Lemon” series – which was the first X-rated anime in Japan – is an interesting little OVA from 1985 and still one of the very few ero-anime that are really worth watching. The lively mood and playful animation make it a real joy to watch and, fortunately, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s rather some kind of slapstick comedy than a fully-fledged ero-anime, even though there are two sex scenes with half-serious tone. “Pop Chaser” is set in some kind of SF-western setting vaguely reminiscent of the “Wild Arms” games, but all in all with a very conventional story setup. More remarkable is the fact that this OVA was the directorial debut of Hiroyuki Kitakubo who is known for anime like “Roujin Z”, “Golden Boy” and the “Blood” movie. Besides his responsibilities as director he also wrote the script, created the storyboard, supervised the animation and even did the key animation for some parts. Many involved key animators are just as famous with young talents (at that time) such as Toshiyuki Inoue, Masayuki, Mahiro Maeda, Hideaki Anno, Takeshi Honda and Katsuhiko Nishijima working under pen names. The animation quality is correspondingly very high, particularly the action parts stand out with some nice effects and punchy movements.
Script: Hiroyuki Kitakubo
Storyboard / Direction / Animation Direction: Hiroyuki Kitakubo
Character Design: Hiroyuki Kitakubo, Yuji Moriyama
Key Animation: Hiroyuki Kitakubo, Shinji Otsuka, Yuji Moriyama, Katsuhiko Nishijima, Tsukasa Dokite, Toshiyuki Inoue, Takeshi Mori, Hideaki Anno, Mahiro Maeda, Masayuki, Hiroyuki Kitazume, Hiroaki Gohda, Hiroshi Watanabe, Takeshi Honda, Hiromi Matsuhito
Production: Fairy Dust
I love this episode so much. A true precursor to Project A-ko and, as you said, a real slapstick comedy. Recently watched Nishijima’s Labyrinth of Flame, many of the same comic elements were in use to varying degrees of effectiveness. Though not a masterpiece by any means, it reminded me of this much older work he was involved in.
I really like Nishijima’s work, the guy knows how to put together a fight scene better than most action directors, and he has a kind of unique sense of humor… a sense of self-parody that has a actual feeling of satire underneath–playing to an understated overarching theme. Moriyama Yuji and Kitakubo (especially Kitakubo) are insanely talented, but to be honest their humor is kind of parody only.
I wish all these guys would get together again and make something really crazy.
According to his profile (http://www.ne.jp/asahi/viewn/net/profile/index.htm#hiromi – you need to cut&paste) Hiromi Matsuhito also did key animation for Pop Chaser (it is marked “himitsu” so I assume he was uncredited or something?).
Yeah, seems like he did some uncredited animation work on Pop Chaser. Not really surprising though as most animators use pen names when working on ero-anime or aren’t credited at all. I guess there could be even more uncredited animators, but who knows.
Anyway, I added his name to the key animation list above, so thanks for pointing that out!
[…] that award-winning veteran director and animator Hiroyuki Kitakubo (Blood Movie, Roujin Z, Pop Chaser, etc.) is involved in planning activities. I would be incredibly glad if we saw him doing other […]
[…] (right after middle school). And with 21 years he already directed his first anime, the ero-OVA Cream Lemon 4: Pop Chaser. He was attached to a variety of studios during his career, early on he worked for Nakamura Pro and […]