Today’s “anime” isn’t so much interesting for its actual content as it is for the history of its creation. Police Girl Yayoi, sometimes abbreviated to just “Yayoi”, is a hentai OVA born from the doujin scene. You thought doujins were just some nerds selling lewd pictures of whatever anime girl was popular last season? Think again.
Credit for Yayoi is given to Shinda Mane, an artist for the doujin circle “Union of the Snake“. These guys have been around since forever, starting—from what I can tell—way back in the 1980s. Both the circle and Shinda Mane himself continue to be prolific in doujins today. Nowadays focusing on creating short erotic stories around Western cartoons like My Little Pony, Fairly Odd Parents, Phineas & Ferb, and other licenses I don’t want to see any porn of, if I can avoid it.
However, way back in the olden days, Shinda and his slithering friends were known for putting out a lot of doujins centering around policewomen. These were some really good books; usually focusing around the non-hetero relationships of the girls, with occasional ventures into other genres. Then, in 1997, they went one step further. They produced their own hentai OVA for VHS, which then later made its way online from there.
Such is the legend of Police Girl Yayoi, but is it actually any good?
The story centers around a young woman who wakes up in a strange room. Her hands are cuffed, she is partly undressed, and she doesn’t remember who she is or how she ended up there. The only clues are the police uniform she’s wearing and an assortment of strange toys littered about the room.
Naturally, she begins to work on an escape plan while also attempting to figure out who she is. This is made difficult as she begins to experience intrusive thoughts, unsure if they are fragments of memories or mere erotic fantasies. With her attention increasingly drawn towards the toys, she figures they must be the key to unlocking the truth. Thus, she decides to “investigate” them.
For a 7-minute OVA thrown together by a bunch of Comiket friends, Police Girl Yayoi is remarkably well-animated. Its amnesiac protagonist is expressive and her design is very cute, with some surprisingly okay voice-acting to boot. The room around her is fairly static, but detailed enough to have some atmosphere. I have certainly seen worse environments in more high-profile OVAs, that’s for sure.
The actual hentai scenes also look pretty dang good and there are several different ones crammed into here. Masturbation, bondage, even a few actual sex scenes in the flashback/fantasy scenes. The animation for these is impressive and having so much of it back-to-back makes it feel like you get a lot more out of this OVA than its short runtime would imply.
As with the actual doujins, storytelling does remain thin. The initial setup is quite strong, but it’s clear that there’s little drive to actually tell much of a story around the amnesiac heroine or her escape from imprisonment. After several erotic scenes, the plot just kind of peters out on an open ending; having achieved and told very little.
I am somewhat disappointed that they went with bondage instead of the yuri themes that were prevalent in Shinda’s work. It’s fine, but getting to see more girls from the doujins animated would’ve been cool. Also, not gonna lie, I rate yuri a whole lot higher than bondage and the other, darker genres that Police Girl Yayoi touches on.
If you’re interested in hentai beyond just the sexual appeal, then Police Girl Yayoi has such a unique history that it’s almost a must-watch. Even the typical audience for hentai may like it thanks to the cute protagonist and frequent sex scenes. Though the dated artstyle may be a turn off. Not everybody is horny for the VHS era.
