Dokyuu Hentai HxEros – 01

OP Sequence

OP: 「Wake Up H×ERO!」 by HxEros Syndromes and Matsuoka Yoshitsugu

「光満ちるこのセカイで」 (Hikari Michiru Kono Sekai de)
“In This World Filled with Light”

And the race is on as Dokyuu Hentai HxEros makes it out the starting line for the Summer 2020 season. It’s what you would expect from a boilerplate seasonal ecchi that’s an antiquated pastiche of sentai shows and early aughts ecchi where it’s score comes equipped with “womp womp womp” effects when the main guy’s in trouble. But because it belongs to a clever subgenre of ecchi that plays on the fear of the declining birth rate in Japan, it adds a deeper layer to the show as a commentary on how many societal structures rely on puritanical ideals to shun any semblance of affection that doesn’t adhere to the status quo

The idea that sexuality is shameful and disgraceful is usually the lone suspect in these particular shows for the declining birth rate and the sanitization of cultural products. Shimoneta is easily the quintessential anime of this genre by highlighting how a full crackdown on anything remotely lewd can result in a repressed society that has no idea how to handle romance and healthy outlets for expressing sexuality. In spite of its cartoonish sense of humor, it was striking how much of the social commentary resonated with Eastern and Western societies that have cities, states, and prefectures stunted by its abysmal sex education. Even though Dokyuu Hentai HxEros doesn’t reach this level of sophistication regarding the politics of sex education, it reaches for a sociocultural perspective by framing Retto and Hoshino’s journey as a coming-of-age story where two childhood friends rediscover each other by facing off against aliens that had kept society trapped in a regressive, puritanical stranglehold.

One thing that’s nice about talking about ecchi anime is that there are different readings that can be made from them. This one’s most obvious reading is about the birth rate, but I feel one thing that the anime has a suitable platform to tackle is how sexual repression can create a toxic ideology on how women should behave around men and how sexual a woman is allowed to be. The message I got from the Kiseichuu that slut-shammed Hoshino as a child is that the aliens represent the kind of toxic mentality that is carried through contemporary society’s view on the precautionary measures women and young girls have to take to avoid harassment or assault.

Acting or dressing in a way that ticks off some creepy guy’s box automatically lands you a number of misogynistic labels and Hoshino’s past trauma really harkens back to all of the creepy dudes that have thrown around the word “prostitot” at children for the clothes they wear. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED talk comes to mind with how she discusses the societal standards that young girls and women are forced to undergo before they are considered acceptable. “Pretense into an art form,” is a significant survival mechanic mentioned where women have to play up the role of being pure and knowing their place in society in order to not be cast aside or seen as either a rebel or a harlot. It might be blasphemous to tie a seminal discussion with an ecchi anime, but when you have one that wants to address both the declining birth rate and the puritanical ideologies that influence them, it’s hard not to see these mirror why Hoshino pushed herself to resent men when her early crush on Retto was automatically seen as lustful by an alien symbolizing societal repression.

To lighten the mood a bit, it was funny to see how the main method of fighting these aliens was a wrist strap with the Monkey’s Paw of stripping off the user’s clothes as a result. It’s not an eccentric ecchi battle anime without an absurd concept. Actually, it kinda reminds me of Akiba’s Trip 2, which ended up being a fun game where you fought vampires by stripping each other while you bond with your friends to achieve a better understanding of the magic that Akihabara has as an otaku’s playground. But instead of redefining a vampire hunt as a love letter to a region in Tokyo where you and your otaku friends can be yourselves, it’s a sentimental message to try to keep the bonds you have with those you’ve loved throughout your life even if the world ends up changing the both of you.

It’s still a goofy ecchi show with big breasts and energetic fights, but it is nice when they give you a little food-for-thought on how we conceptualize sexuality as kids/teens and how societal views on sex can make it difficult to have a serious conversation about sexuality when society wants to frame eroticism as a violent force that can only be utilized by those in power. The art might look plain, but it’s very clean and polished for an ecchi series. For all the sophisticated jargon you might’ve read above, I was impressed that the breasts didn’t look like jagged plastic bags filled with sand like with some of the cheap ecchi I’ve seen over the years. The uncensored version comes out later on as it is with the shows you tend to want to watch every season, but it’s nice that the TV broadcast’s diamond censors aren’t too distracting. In contrast with the fog or light beams, you get just enough coverage to make out what is supposed to be underneath it all. It’s not a show looking to reinvent the world nor does it attempt to be the anime of the season, but for your ecchi needs and for those who have a bone to pick with sex-negativity, then Dokyuu Hentai HxEros wouldn’t be a bad anime to occupy your time with this summer.