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The series makes some vague motions to imply that their relationship is getting bumped up a level emotionally, which I suppose is better than random fetish-bait, but that's about it. Even when they start doing dirty things-attempting to shoot a peeping-Tom (peeping-Jane?) documentary of Nozomu-it ends up being less filthy and more fun than I was expecting.ДЄs for Kouta and Chizuru, they're still one-trick ponies-Kouta squeals and squirms while Chizuru gets naked, does fanservice-y things, and molests him.

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The two girls' cheerful chit-chat has a loose, natural flavor to it-something the TV series offered tastes of but never capitalized on.

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It's unusual to put two straight-man types together, and the resulting awkward interplay is surprisingly cute and kind of appealing.Д®ven the pair of normal human classmates-whose brief vacation escapades consist mainly of video camera shopping and then figuring out how to waste time with said camera-are unexpectedly entertaining in a slightly-exaggerated slice-of-life way. Since they're not stuck playing straight-man to the crazier characters, the two have the chance to act more or less like functional people. This very low-key bit of romance, in addition to being refreshingly clean, actually works. Most notable is Chizuru's far-less-lecherous brother doing his best to get a date with the prudish class rep.

Set during summer vacation, the episodes divide their time between Chizuru and Kouta doing characteristically filthy things, and an assortment of much-less-filthy interactions between various classmates on their time off. Who, frankly, are a lot more interesting than the leads. In particular, it puts more focus on the secondary characters. So what went right? In essence, it picks through the TV show for the interesting bits and focuses entirely on those: A sense of functioning normalcy to the otherwise-broad characters, light, fluid banter, appealing secondary characters, a degree of slice-of-life realism, flashes of artistry in the locales, and rather creative raging, near-pornographic fanservice. Meaning they apparently had the skills necessary to make something other than vapid (if lurid) drivel, they just didn't. I don't know which is harder to believe-that someone managed to take this uninspired concept and pull a half-decent little series out of it, or that the creative team that pulled it off was the exact same one responsible for the TV series. Not literally, of course-it's still Kanokon, meaning all kinds of dirty. Through a combination of unexpectedly subtle artistry, giving more screen time to the less-crazy secondary characters, and focusing on the bits of good buried in the sleazy mediocrity of the TV series, it had me doing a slow-motion double-take as I realized that it not only wasn't awful, it was actually kind of decent. Long story short, the two-episode Kanokon OVA is rather shockingly not bad. Either way, if you actually liked Kanokon, you should love this little bonus slice-of-life take on it. It's hard to say which is more shocking-that someone would apply the considerable skill necessary to build the few bright bits in Kanokon into a half-decent pair of OVAs without abandoning its mind-in-the-gutter mentality, or that the creative team that pulled this off was the same one responsible for the TV series. The visual budget is lower and there's almost no music, but in spite of this-or, perhaps, because of the creativity forced by it-the OVAs are surprisingly artistic, and better-looking than the TV series, which hinted at some artistic skill but failed to capitalize on it. The colorful (and less filthy) secondary characters turn out to be more interesting than the two leads they get the time to do some amusingly real-seeming slice-of-life things. Of particular note is how good of a job the two episodes do at capturing the hot, lazy days of summer vacation-the pacing is languid yet not boring, and the sense of heat is almost palpable.

Not literally, of course-it's still Kanokon, and still all kinds of dirty (although even the rampant fanservice and dirty jokes come across better). Through a combination of unexpectedly subtle artistry, giving more screen time to the less-crazy secondary characters, and focusing on the bits of good buried in the sleazy mediocrity of the TV series, it not only isn't awful, it's actually kind of decent.

Put bluntly, the two-episode Kanokon OVA is rather shockingly not bad.

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