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
Ani no Miyako 