This Week in Anime

Porn From Before We Were Born

Sylvia
Hey, Chris! This week, Lynzee wants us to investigate the recipe for something called "Cream Lemon." Can't say I'm much of a baker, but I think if we hit the books, we can crack this nut together.

True! Did you know they've got Scum's Wish on there? This has literally nothing to do with the column, but you should watch Scum's Wish if you haven't. It's very good.

But anyway, we're here to discuss and commemorate what some consider to be the hentai OVA urtext, from which all manner of smut, porn, and lasciviousness has descended. It's the legendary Cream Lemon, available to watch in the States for the first time in an age.

In other words, this is historically significant sister-fucking.

You can't put a price on history. Don't think about it as paying for pornography. Think about it as paying for cartoon renditions of mid-80s stereo systems.

I am looking at it and imagining the tactile sensation of pressing one of those buttons, with the smooth plastic and the bit of resistance before the mechanism gives with a satisfyingly chunky click. And you know, having just written that, I am kinda getting hot and bothered, so point taken.

And lots of WD-40, by the looks of it. So what is Cream Lemon, for those of you who might not be aware? That's a complicated question. Most basically, it's one of the very first hentai OVA series, with its brand spanning from 1984 to 2006. I could not tell you when and where I first heard about Cream Lemon, but it's a name that would invariably pop up when the topic of animated hentai would arise. It's also renowned for the pedigree of certain staff members who worked on it, some of whom would go on to make and contribute to the most important series in the entire medium.

Oh, did I say staff members? I meant stuff members. As in, there is also a lot of member stuffing in Cream Lemon.

We all start somewhere. And I think Cream Lemon's siscon beginnings are, at the very least, anthropologically and literarily interesting. It's fun to see all the tropes in one place: step-siblings, the parents on a business trip, walking in on the other in the bathroom, and so on. I'm sure much of this had already been codified in hentai manga at that point, but you can really peer into the code behind the scenes here.

There's something very psychologically interesting going on there that's beyond the scope of this column, but the result is that I was actually pretty invested in the story parts of Cream Lemon. Ami, for example, gets a sequel where she's been separated from her brother after their mom walked in on them, and her attempts to cope with that sadness take her into dangerous yet dramatically compelling territory. It's a surprisingly sophisticated iteration on the first part. I also might be going crazy, but these shots in particular screamed at me with how much they evoked the Utena episode "The Prince Who Runs Through the Night." The situation is pretty much the same, too, with an older man in a sports car trying to take advantage of a young girl's supposed innocence. I have no evidence of this, of course, but if that Utena episode was drafted at least in part with Cream Lemon in mind, I would believe it.

Same, girl.

I love that this notoriously perverted Holy Grail of Hentai does get most of its sauce from the narrative, context, and atmosphere surrounding the sex scenes. Every one of them possesses an artistic flair of some kind. I am, of course, partial to the Catholic schoolgirl yuri BDSM two-parter, and the mood is impeccable. Longing gazes. Stained glass. Classical piano. Shibari. It's a vibe.

It's definitely a simpler story than Ami's, but depending on who you are, the lesbian floor makeouts in front of an altar might make up the difference.

And seriously, the line from Cream Lemon to Dear Brother to Utena is as straight as they come (in every sense but sexually). Whoops, don't know how Sakiko got in there, tee hee.

I'm just glad the anthology format lets the artists try out a bunch of different stuff. Don't care for incest or lesbian bondage? Well, surely you like Dragon Quest! Just ignore the part where this is 1984, and you have no clue what Dragon Quest is yet.

This is a good place to mention that the production of Project A-ko began as a part of the Cream Lemon series before the A.P.P.P. staff decided to turn it into its own film.

So chalk that up as another thing we can (technically) thank Cream Lemon for.

It's a kinetic romp through a bunch of sci-fi/fantasy tropes with a dash of tentacle porn for extra flavor. It's good! Trust me, I've seen so much isekai slop at this point. I would much rather watch a full series of these shenanigans than another one of those. Even the staff roll is really charming on this one, with the little snippets of epilogue in between.

By the way, you had better continue to take me seriously once I change my full legal name to Sylvia Southern Cross.

I don't think there's a bad option in this opening salvo of eight episodes, but I 100% agree, "Pop Chaser" is the cream of this Cream Lemon crop. It has it all. The Western setting. Cool mechs. Sailor-uniform-themed saloons. One of the finest lesbian sex scenes I've ever seen animated in anything. And more!

It is like DARLING in the FRANXX if it was good! They figured that shit out 30 years prior. Yet another reason to toss Franxx in the dumpster.

If you'll forgive me for doing the thing where I lightly paraphrase a Bluesky post I already made: "Pop Chaser" seriously blew me away with how well-directed and intricately animated the porn was. It smartly cuts around the genitalia entirely, so the scene doesn't get marred by a censor, and it instead focuses on the full body erogenous minutiae, the complicated articulation of hands and cloth, and the overall intimacy of the act.

There is real, carefully considered artistry on display here. It's a triumph. And it's hot.

And it's funny, too! I love our "girl with no name" protagonist (even though she has a name) rolling into town and immediately meeting its bullshit with confusion and exasperation.

Furthermore, if you really want your mind blown, go here and look at the list of key animators.

Mahiro Maeda is in there, too! And trust me when I say that this is important. I know "porn vs. art" is a legally and philosophically contested battleground that people continue to wage war on. It's especially relevant now in our current era of online age verification, payment processors as the arbiters of propriety, and legislation that aims to further censor the internet. Cream Lemon is certainly not without its objectionable facets. But I think it's also a way to see that porn and art are not mutually exclusive categories.

And sadly, there's no guarantee it will remain there. We can't take its presence and availability for granted. That's why I also hope Discotek manages to put these on disc at some point, as an act of preservation if nothing else. Because why wouldn't you want to own something called "Super Virgin" on home video?

Please. It would make me and my family proud.