euphoria

EUPHORIA

OVA

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
6
RELEASE
February 26, 2016
LENGTH
30 min

DESCRIPTION

Based on the erotic game by Clock Up.

They wake up in a white room remembering nothing—

The protagonist Takato Keisuke and 6 others are locked up in these hidden white rooms. His childhood friend Hokari Kanae, classmate Ando Miyako, underclassmate Mikaba Rika, English teacher Aoi Natsuki, same year Byakuya Rinne, and classmate Manaka Nemu. While still confused about their unusual situation, a "mystery voice" suddenly speaks to them: "A game has now started. In order to escape the room, Keisuke is the "unlocker" and one heroine the "keyhole". With an assigned act, he must "use the key".

After hearing the unreasonable and immoral requirements to win, Miyako gets pissed and snaps on the "mystery voice". Suddenly the lights go out. The girls scream. The lights come back on, reilluminating the white room. They can see Miyako bound to a grotesque torture device.

"Anyone who quits the game will die."

Her screaming begins in tandem with the electrical current. With eyes wide open in fear, she pisses and shits herself. Everyone else starts freaking out. However, Keisuke seemed to be getting aroused by Miyako’s appearance. That was his secret, his urge to assault and humiliate girls.

However, Nemu could see right through him and knew. Nemu takes advantage, forcing the protagonist to submit to him as she brings her lips up to his: "This is a contract kiss."

Keisuke was surprised by Nemu’s behavior but he wants to protect Kanae and decides for the sake of escaping, he will violate the others. Can Keisuke escape the white rooms and return to his normal life? Or will he hold back his own dark urges?

(Source: Necrosis)

CAST

Nemu Manaka
Ringo Aoba
Rinne Byakuya
Matsuri Mizuguchi
Natsuki Aoi
Sahomi Koyama
Kanae Hokari
Maki Tomonaga
Keisuke Takatou
Mitsuhiro Ichiki
Rika Makiba
Yukina Fujimori
Miyako Andou
Yukari Hirayama

EPISODES

Dubbed

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Not available on crunchyroll

RELATED TO EUPHORIA

NOVEL HentaiEuphoria: Another Room

REVIEWS

t4t
32/100
Disappointing and mediocre.
CW FOR RAPE

I was mainly interested in Euphoria simply because of the brutality of it. I enjoy things with high stakes and bleak environments, and I thought the visual novel was pretty enjoyable. The anime adaptation was a major disappointment for me, though. Now, full disclosure I understand adapting a VN with many different endings and routes into an anime is difficult. And please don’t get on my case about how I dropped it. I did skim through the latter half. With that out of the way let me break it down. Spoilers ahead.

When I went into this, I was hoping for a lot more Death game/murder aspects, while the brutal rape and sex scenes were more of a side to it (it was on hentaihaven, after all). What I got, however, were back to back scenes of just rape. Almost predictable. It got boring halfway through because I pretty much knew what was to come of each scenario. And I know that the VN had a lot of those aspects to it, I’m not upset about it but I am let down. There are many interesting and traumatizing murder scenes in the source material, ( i.e. Rika getting crushed, Aoi being drowned, etc. etc.) and yet the only scenes I could see with that murder aspect was the opening electric chair, and Rinne strangling MC.

Now I understand that this is a death/torture game, and that rape will indefinitely play a role in this. But eventually it has to feel repetitive. At least for me. Like I said before, each episode has a formula that is very predictable and gets very boring after a while. I also did not like how MC was made to be in the anime, one second he’s scared for his life and is worried for his classmates, then before you know it he’s violently taking someone’s virginity and acting almost psychopathic. Those parallels make him seem like 2 different characters forcefully rolled into one.

It also bothers me that all the promotional material for the anime (covers etc) promote this as a rape fetish hentai rather than a psychological horror death game, like the original. I’m not saying it didn’t have to be a hentai. I think it suits that genre more especially because of the sexual elements of the VN. But all of that should be secondary to the murder and torture and high stakes. It seemed like it only wanted to appeal to creeps who get off to rape porn and lolis instead of wanting to actually tell a story. And while I understand that those tropes are definitely part of it, again, it felt unnecessary.

However, it has a few things going for it. The opening scene with the electric chair for example. It pulls you in with an immediate character death. With the abruptness and brutality of it putting you in shock. The feeling of high risk that it puts the viewer in definitely holds strong in the beginning.

Overall, for me at least, this adaptation was a huge let down, and I wouldn’t really like to go back to it. It had a couple highlights, but for anyone new to Euphoria, just play the damn VN.

3.7/10
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omn0mn0m
38/100
Came for the shock factor, stayed for the plot I guess.
WARNING : Rape, Blood, Urination, Scat, Humiliation, Electrocution, Gore, Death, Bondage

WARNING: Minor Higurashi When They Cry spoilers

(Yes, this is me coping with what I watched. No, this is not fully serious.)

After much dismay, I decided on April 1st, 2021 to watch the classic hentai series Euphoria. My reason for embarking on this endeavour was three-fold. The first reason was the series' name recognition, even outside of the hentai-viewing community. It has been reviewed by numerous anime YouTube content creators, such as Sydsnap, and even had a song written as homage to it by BTS member Jungkook. The second reason was my love of the visual novel genre, having created such classics as the "Science Adventure" series and Higurashi When They Cry. Having almost reached the end of Higurashi When They Cry, I had an unquenched thirst for more visual novel content. But, as much of a fan of the medium as I am, I have still yet to finish a visual novel in its entirety, and Euphoria was no exception. Rather than reading the visual novel, I did what most sensible anime fans do: they watch the anime adaption instead. The third was because I slid into a girl's DMs and she had it on her Anilist, IDK. Regardless of the reason why, I watched it, and so I will review this masterpiece of an anime.

Euphoria takes place in what the viewer assumes is the not too distant future, having many of the same technology as we do in modern times. The story is solely focused on the perils of Keisuke Takatou, the male protagonist of our series, and his cast of five supporting female characters: Nemu Manaka, Kanae Hokari, Rinne Byakuya, Rika Makiba, and Natsuki Aoi. While there is a sixth girl, Miyako Andou, the series opens with her execution by electric chair. This serves as a forewarning to the viewer that Euphoria does not provide plot-protection to any character, no matter how few characters exist in the cast or how important variety of girls is in this kind of series. At this point, the viewer rightfully will feel unhinged. No other anime dares to kill off a main cast member so quickly and apathetically. Euphoria is bold and unafraid of taking risks for the sake of storytelling.

From this first death, the story begins to truly unfold into a thrilling tale that captures the viewer's full attention. We watch as Keisuke must pick one girl for each trial, only after which they are instructed by a computer the torturous acts they must perform. Of course, the computer also reminds the pair that rape must be involved. If he or the girls fail to perform any of these tasks, every member of the party shall die. This provides a heavy question of morality, and while many are quick to judge the main character of his actions, the moral grey area becomes apparent once one realises that he has no choice. If he chooses not to perform these actions, then everyone will die. He is forced to carry this burden as he commits horrible acts episode by episode. We shall discuss Keisuke in detail soon.

Finally, as the first episode ends, we move onto the second episode. The events seem familiar, yet different. What I originally thought was poor storyboarding, becomes a psychological trip for the viewer. What is real? What is fake? The characters begin to realise that their consciousness is not truly their own, but of the lab experiment that they are participating in. It is not until after three episodes of watching Keisuke be the most hatable character I have ever seen in anime, as he performs unspeakable acts to each girl, did the story reveal a different side of him. And in that moment, you as the viewer start to understand: this anime is based off a visual novel, and we are viewing every possible route. The route where Keisuke becomes a sadistic piece of excrement that deserves worse than death. The route where Keisuke hates every moment in the lab, and wishes that there was another way. The route where the teacher is a secret agent tracking down the secret society holding them all hostage. Everything falls in line, and crafts what would have been a masterpiece, if it were not for this slow reveal that causes the viewer to absolutely hate the first three episodes.

This form of story-telling is reminscient of Higurashi When They Cry, as the viewer is left to piece together the puzzle. In Higurashi, we watch the same events over and over, in the same way we watch the events of the lab unfold over and over. And just like in Higurashi, we watch as the characters cause deviations in the story. But unlike Higurashi When They Cry, Euphoria dares to make us realise that these aren't just characters suffering and performing acts unspeakable in modern society, but these are projections of the human condition. As the hentai is based on the a visual novel, we as the reader would have had complete control over Keisuke and the choices we make. We, the anime viewer, must understand this. Every gram of feces forced down Kanae's throat, every hymen torn by force: someone had to have conscientiously made that choice. Should we therefore be disgusted in Keisuke, or in the human race? I would argue we should be disgusted in ourselves. Even when Keisuke is at his worst representation, he still believes in aftercare. He still wants everyone to survive, even if he has sick, twisted fantasies. And by the final episode, we understand that he did not have autonomy in his choice, but rather was just the vehicle for ours. If Keisuke, an exhibitionist to the human condition, had only had more benevolent readers/viewers from the start, maybe he would have reached his good ending sooner.

In the end, I rated Euphoria 3.8/10 due to its lack of inspiring art and sound. Not only that, but the overall enjoyment was less than mediocre, as I still felt disgusted by the scenes like most people. The characters and story, however, prevented it from receiving a score of 1/10, for how can I poorly rate something that so masterfully raises the question of whether or not we should be horny in the club or crying in the club.
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GonzyChan
71/100
A hentai not for the faint of heart, only for the strongest of degenerates.
There are fetishes or taboos that almost nobody will ever understand or appreciate. Especially ones that might make someone feel nauseous or disturbed by how it is portrayed. When you first encounter it, you will likely feel repulsed or distressed when you aren't ready for it. Let me clarify; this hentai is not for the faint of heart. Why is it, you may ask? Allow me to elaborate.

Euphoria has all of the following scenes that can please a wide variety of fetishes: A girl being electrocuted to death and pissing herself, a girl tied up with a toilet seat around her face as a guy shits in her mouth, a girl getting shocked with electrodes to the point of climaxing in a tsunami of cum, a group of girls gets tubes shoved up their assholes to another one's mouth in a circle as they form a poop ring, and a girl being branded with hot irons as she is tied up; Not to mention lots and lots of rape. These scenes don't seem that big of a deal, considering most hentai nowadays incorporate rape, but Euphoria takes it to another level. Unless you've gotten deep down into the rabbit hole of guro manga/doujin written and drawn by very depraved individuals, the things you'll see in Euphoria might make some people feel squeamish and distressed. I know because I was one of them.

I remember watching the first episode when it came out, and at first, it was relatively tame compared to other stuff I've seen. Then the 2nd episode came out. I was not prepared for what was about to happen here. The first that anyone tells you about is the shit-eating scene that lasts about 10 seconds. While that was gross, it didn't nearly hit me until the next one. The scene involved Kanae-chan being strapped in a chair with muscle stimulators and electrodes all over her body and electrocuting her for an eternity. How the music plays this creepy piano melody and how brilliant the voice actress portrays her character being electrocuted presented this anxiety-filled atmosphere that I've never had with anything I've ever seen. If I could, I would find a way to watch her do this scene for how she did it. I can only imagine it was hilarious for the crew to see.

Now, what about the rest of the episodes? Are they just as disturbing as the first two? Personally, the last four episodes don't equate to the first two. Yes, the poop ring I mentioned before is where girls get connected by a tube from their ass and mouth in a circle, human centipede style. I found that more hilarious and somewhat sexy in a very sadistic way. It depends on how squeamish you are about poop, I guess. None of the other scenes are as disgusting if you aren't already used to hentai involving rape.

What does make Euphoria stand out other than the fetishistic content is its visuals and animation. This was Magin Label's first OVA, and after this they made Kuroinu, so they were starting out on fire to say the least. The girls all looked fantastic, from the line drawing to the body types they gave them with thicc booties; that's always nice. The sex scenes didn't look cheaply produced either. There are some that I don't go back to only because they didn't spice up my interest due to situations like a milf being forced to wear a diaper and fed laxatives and semen milk. You know how it plays out, and I'm good.

Euphoria is a story-heavy hentai, something you don't see very often. However, as many will tell you that have read the visual novel, the story is all over the place in each episode. You can tell that they are not bothering to connect the story linearly. It's your stereotypical: let's quickly adapt each route into each episode of every girl by hitting the highlights without bothering to add any exposition to not let the viewer be confused. Visual novels tend to have multiple endings, and trying to do one route would have been more sufficient, and people would be less confused. However, that would not satisfy fans who wanted to see their favorite CG scene not being animated, so it's a lose-lose situation for Magin Label. It's a mess, is what I can gather, but at least in the context of it being hentai, it isn't terrible in its purpose.

Earlier I commended the actress who played Kanae. The other actresses and the actor who plays the lead did a pretty good job. You can tell they took the roles seriously and were not half-assing it for a quick paycheck. The music also helps with the horror aspect of Euphoria quite a bit. Something about creepy piano music during a sex scene gives it an anxious edge.

Like I said before, go to this hentai with a warning from me. Not for the faint of heart. But if you're open-minded enough, there are plenty of scenes to enjoy, thanks to the great production value and talented voice acting. Personally, there were only a few scenes I ever go back to. The ones I didn't like ranged from being too gross to boring compared to those I liked. But I will definitely go back to the ones I liked when I'm in the mood to fap to something fucked up.

Grade: B-
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