Rape or not rape? That is the question.
- Episodes : 12
- Genre : Drama, Romance, Ecchi
- Airing Date : July 2017 - September 2017
- Studios : Magic Bus
Contains Spoilers
Skirt no Naka wa Kedamono Deshita. Introduction and Story
The shy and conservative college girl Kominami Shizuka went to a college mixer, so she could hang out with other people and perhaps get rid her uneasiness around men. There, Shizuka meets Kirishima Ryou, a tall beautiful woman who is extremely polite and mature. Enamoured by Ryou’s beauty, the two spent the night talking and drinking. After too many drinks, Ryou takes the drunk Shizuka to her apartment only to seduce her. The worst part is, Ryou is actually a cross-dressing man.
Skirt no Naka’s viewing experience entirely depends on which of the three versions that are available to choose, namely “all-ages, R15, and R18. For this review, we’ll be focusing on the R18 version because this gives you a complete version and is closest to the source material in terms of content.
The story starts out with Shizuka and her friend hanging out in a college mixer to hit on the hot hunky men. Though the real reason is Shizuka wants to get rid of her shyness around men. While Shizuka’s friend is having a blast, Shizuka is still uncomfortable and excused herself to the restroom. Over at a distance, we see a tall beautiful blonde woman who was watching the situation follow Shizuka. After much contemplating at how hopeless she is, the blonde girl approached Shizuka and introduced herself as Kirishima Ryou. Enamoured by Ryou’s beauty, and friendliness, the two got along very quickly and spend the night at a bar, drinking and conversations like Shizuka sharing her dilemma around men, share what universities they’re studying at, and Ryou inviting Shizuka for lunch sometime.
After drinking the night away, Ryou invited Shizuka to her apartment to spend the night. As the two get ready to bed, Ryou embraced, kissed, and pinned Shizuka on the bed, signifying her intentions. Despite being drunk, Shizuka soon realized that Ryou, the beautiful, tall blonde woman whom she admires turns out to be a guy. With no energy left to resist, Shizuka was molested by Ryou. On the following morning, Shizuka wakes up thinking nothing happened until she read a letter from Ryou. This concludes the first episode.
The following episodes then introduce additional supporting characters, background information regarding why Ryou crossdresses, and tons of ecchi scenes, all leading to the final conclusion of the two becoming a true couple.
What We Liked About Skirt no Naka wa Kedamono Deshita.
Checking out an anime series with a story of a girl who is uncomfortable around men (fans think this makes her a lesbian somehow), but slowly falls in love with a guy who cross-dresses as a woman, is indeed interesting. In the first few episodes, the relationship between Shizuka and Ryou is nothing more than just sexual pleasure. True romantic feelings eventually developed as the two went back to basics.
And the second thing we liked about Skirt no Naka is the copious amounts of ecchi scenes that, if you watched the R18 version, turn the anime into a hentai series. Though thankfully, the sexual content isn’t as explicit as actual hentai shows.
Discussion Time
Skirt no Naka has a runtime of around 4 minutes and 45 seconds per episode, so there are only a handful of key points to talk about. Despite its length, the story and romance between Shizuka and Ryou are very controversial.
Was It Date Rape?
On that fateful evening, Shizuka was just a naive girl trying to get rid her shyness around men. In that college mixer, Shizuka met Ryou, a person she thought was a girl. Shizuka got drunk, let her guard down and was taken to Ryou’s apartment to spend the night. Ryou, who is also influenced by alcohol, and being a healthy young male seeing a cute girl in his room, made his move. Do you blame Ryou for his sexual advances? Shizuka was begging Ryou to stop but he didn’t, do you think Ryou’s judgment was clouded due to alcohol?
Are the Constant Ecchi Scenes Needed?
Each episode is less than 5 minutes episode long and the bulk of the scenes are ecchi scenes between Ryou and Shizuku. Would the anime benefit from less ecchi scenes and more on character development because sex is sweeter if there’s foreplay first? Or do you think the in-your-face nature of the ecchi scenes are all right because this gave Skirt no Naka its uniqueness?
1. Unconventional Love Story
As highlighted several times, the story can be hard to stomach morally, but if you choose to ignore that and just want to watch an anime series to keep you distracted while waiting for the next episodes of other shows, or an anime series that is definitely unique featuring a very odd couple and nonstop ecchi moments.
Ryou, despite his aggressiveness towards women, he’s actually very loyal, romantic, sometimes is quite sensitive, and he eventually fell in love. And so is Shizuka. If Shizuka has met him under different circumstances that don't involve a wig and alcohol, the two could still be a couple. But, yeah, if that were the case, go watch other romance anime. As it stands, Skirt no Naka is offensive but unique and cute. And who knows, stories like this may happen.
1. It’s Rape
No matter how the anime glossed it over with lots of cute and ecchi stuff, and no matter how Ryou explain his actions with sweet lying words, what he did was wrong. Ryou took advantage of a drunk girl, took her to his room and proceeded to molest her. Thankfully there was no real penetration until the very end after the two confirmed their feelings to each other leading to a happy ending. But it’s still a fact, everything started with rape.
2. One-Dimensional Characters
Skirt no Naka wa Kedamono Deshita. focused too much on the ecchi scenes and less on character development. There were some good moments like the revelation why Ryou crossdresses, and how they planned on sorting out their relationship by declaring they’re not a couple yet, but the pacing and story pattern never changed. Ryou apologized for his actions, and yet he keeps on fingering Shizuka. Nearing the last part of the series, Ryou overheard Shizuka likes someone, but Ryou was too dumb to know Shizuka was talking about him. Dying to know, what did Ryou do? He’s forcing an answer out of Shizuka through sexual intimidation. Uh, what happened to him apologizing?
Shizuka is equally guilty to the point that she may be either too much of a textbook maiden, or she was traumatized since the first episode, or she’s suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Shizuka constantly allowing Ryou to feel her up, not because she likes it, it’s because she can’t think of other options. And with this lack of action may have convinced Ryou that it’s all right to keep on fingering her. There was this scene that the two agreed to start back to basics by declaring that they’re not a couple yet, but regardless, the two continue to get raunchy. The pace of the anime and the direction remained the same, making all these decisions by the two main characters pointless.
3. It’s for Adults Only
Even watching the all-ages version, the story, scenes are all the same but with zoomed in shots and still images to cover the ecchi and sex scenes. You may not see the actual sexual acts, but you can’t enjoy the anime with anyone because 80% of the time you’ll keep on hearing Shizuka moaning. And watching the all-ages version or even the less graphic R15 version, you’re not experiencing the full experience.
4. Extremely Short Episodes
Episode length is one of the biggest flaws in the anime. A lot could’ve been done if the show is more than four minutes long. If each episode is at least 15 minutes long, the anime could’ve covered more ground, give the main characters more time to develop, and tell a lot more stories. If you combine all of the episodes, you’ll notice Skirt no Naka is one long OVA that got cut to 12 pieces and give the illusion the story covered a lot of ground since episode 01. This is partly due to the anime being based on a manga with few available chapters and it’s still ongoing.
Final Thoughts
Outside of its shock value and unconventional take on romance, Skirt no Naka wa Kedamono Deshita. is an abrupt, demeaning filled with moans and bodily fluids that should be totally okay if this was exclusive to the hentai anime side of things. The motives of the characters are all over the place, the morals found in the story is highly controversial and the lack meaningful storytelling make Skirt no Naka wa Kedamono Deshita. a very hard show to watch, love and recommend.
The heart of the anime is there, but you can hardly hear its sincere beats. To those who love the anime are better off reading the original manga. The artwork is beautiful, the story has more meat to it because of more dialogue, and it’s still ongoing. Who knows, maybe we’ll find out more about Ryou and we may perhaps forgive him in the end.
Author: Antoine Rizal
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