30-Sai No Hoken Taiiku Review

Plot: Based on a novel called “Health and Physical Education for 30 year olds” (Please don’t stop reading) this anime is about a man named Imagawa who has recently turned 30. The god of sex appears in his home, determined to help him lose his virginity. In fact, he can’t and won’t leave until the man has done it with someone. The anime follows Imagawa through his love life as he finds the one to which he will lose his virginity.

Along the way, Imagawa meets a girl named Andou, who is also a 30 year old virgin who also has a god of sex helping her lose her virginity.

Breakdown: Before I continue, I want to assure everyone that I, no lie, give this anime a high mark. Why? Because it was very funny, the characters were very likable (Barring Andou, kinda) and the story was actually believable (barring the….well, you’ll see in a minute) Sure, this anime got somewhat pervy sometimes, but everything was censored. And I mean everything.

When I first read the premise, I was certain this was going to be insanely perverted, sexist, offensive to virgins and just overall trash. But, to my surprise it’s only slightly perverted and slightly sexist (It’s on both sides of the genders though) and really quite good. I still don’t agree with the initial mentality of “if you’re of a certain age and you haven’t screwed someone yet, you’re a loser” but that mindset seems to wane over time, so it’s not a big issue.

What’s even more is, I liked the characters a lot, and when the sex gods left for heaven, they did it in a fairly sad manner. I didn’t cry, but I did feel emotional.

Daigorou is the first sex god to appear and he’s assigned to Imagawa. He seems to think of nothing but his job and doing his job well. However, later we see a little more to Daigorou as he seems to care more about Imagawa’s happiness than ditching his v-card. He’s also the funniest in the bunch, in my opinion.

Macaron’s very cute and not that irritating like other little kids in anime. He’s the little brother to Daigorou and the second god to appear. Imagawa had a point, though, if not a somewhat creepy note. How does Macaron call himself a sex god when he’s too young to have had sex? He seems to know as much about sex as his brother, but….I don’t even wanna think about it. He’s still a cute, adorable little kid, though.

There’s not much to say about Imagawa. He’s a horny, relatively average 30 year old who has no idea what he’s doing in the realm of sex and dating. There’s not much to like or dislike about him.

Kuu and Pii are the female love goddesses who mentor Andou. Though they’re twins, you can easily tell them apart. Kuu’s the one with the sailor moon-esque hair and she’s more vocal than her sister. In fact, Pii acts more like Macaron. Kuu’s no where near as stoic as Daigorou, though. I can’t say they particularly annoy me. I like the boys better, though.

I don’t particularly like Andou. I thought I was timid. Damn. Andou’s really timid and kind of a pushover. She’s not the worst female lead…They could’ve done FAR worse, but, still. The male half of the cast definitely holds stronger than the female side, which is disappointing.

I can’t really put into words how….weird this anime gets sometimes. Not only do we have gods of sex helping 30 year olds put out, but we also have a god of virgins, who just happens to be Imagawa’s landlord, and Macaron looks to be like eight, but when he first appears he’s in the form of a young girl that looks like she’s about to have sex with Imagawa. Don’t worry, he never touches him.

The gods get sick and the cure is cooking stew or something on their heads. We also have Andou’s weird-ass AKfield which is a force field she emits when she wants someone to get away from her. In the final episode in which it appears, she even goes so far as to turn into an android and beat up Imagawa with her robot boobs…

And then no one ever mentions it again.

We even have a weird Dragon Ball Z reference when Imagawa leaves Andou after a fight. He finds the virgin god in the desert and he trains him to use the Virgin Ball (Which acts exactly like the Spirit Bomb, except taking the energy from virgins…and it’s shaped…like a….sperm….)

It’s all done in a funny manner, but I will say there’s stuff I didn’t enjoy about it.

I didn’t like how Andou was so upset over Imagawa leaving that she became a shut-in and got fat. Or how Imagawa was so upset over Andou forcing him to trash his blow-up sex doll that they had a big fight and he left on a journey. Dude, you have a real girlfriend now – give up the sex doll. Or when Andou got jealous of the sex doll and imagined competitions with her. This would’ve been funnier if the competitions weren’t sexist (Cleaning contest, cooking contest…)

Still, I enjoyed it, and there was something clever at the end of each episode. At the end credits you’d see Andou and Imagawa as babies, then the next episode as toddlers, next episode as small children and so on and so forth. I believe this was signifying their maturity through time with the gods, which I find pretty cool.

Art and Animation: Very nice, even though a lot of it looked like it was done in Flash. Not that that’s, by default, a bad thing, though. Kinda makes some scenes funnier.

Music: Ehhh, average. The ED’s the most standout song.

Bottomline: It’s an enjoyable, funny, short anime with likable characters and a relatable storyline, even for people who aren’t 30 year old virgins. It may teach you something amidst the weirdness.

Additional Information and Notes: 30-Sai No Hoken Taiiku was based on a novel series by the same name written by Mitsuba. It had a manga adaptation also of the same name written by Mikako Inomoto and published by Ichijinsha.

The anime was directed by Mankyu, written by Ryo Akiyama and produced by Gathering. It does not currently have a US license.

Episodes: 12

Year: 2011

Recommended Audience: I don’t even know how to gauge this. There’s no swearing, but lots of sex talk and sexual visuals. However anything sexual in nature is censored. They won’t even show french kissing, with fake mouths no less. Even the most clueless can get what’s in the picture (if it’s just blurred and not covered in the total censor) and there’s still tons of fanservice…Kinda implications of physical romance with a kid (even if nothing happens)

15+


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The Salty Anime Challenge Day 21: An Anime You Thought You’d Hate (Due to Genre/Tropes) But Actually Love

What has become a bit of a theme for me during this challenge?

‘You don’t like harems or fanservice?’

Mmm…I’m definitely not a fan of harems, and I can tune out fanservice. I can’t be a hypocrite and say I hate fanservice, because I, admittedly, like the fanservice meant for women.

I don’t tend to like crass humor, and humor based on fanservice or sex is not a far cry from that.

That being said – I love B Gata H Kei and 30 Sai no Hoken Taiiku.

Yamada’s First Time: B Gata H Kei is a show about a high school girl named Yamada. She has a goal of having sex with 100 guys. Problem is, she’s a virgin, and her inexperience makes her very uneasy when trying to initiate even slight romantic contact.

As a way of easing herself into the world of sex, she decides to have her first time be with a guy who is also clearly a timid virgin – a boy named Kosuda. They start a relationship, Kosuda forever unaware of Yamada’s goals and intentions, and they each go through the various trials and tribulations of trying to reach their first times.

Sounds like a stupid show, right? While I’ll admit the premise is crass and Yamada’s goal is misguided to say the least, this show is actually hilarious. The fanservice isn’t really that high in this show, which is surprising (most of what there would be is censored heavily), and while there’s obviously a lot of sexual situations, they never go that far with it. They only even get to the actual attempt of sex at the very ending, and even that is as tastefully done as a sex comedy can get.

Yamada is just so driven to achieve this goal, and it frustrates her that she can’t even get out of the gate. Poor (or lucky?) Kosuda is along for the ride (bad choice of words) and they play off of each other really well. She’s super hyped about making her journey to non-virgin-ville while he’s just confused and aroused most of the time. It’s not even like Yamada’s a pervert or anything – she gets very flustered when it comes to facing the sexual aspects of a guy. She damn near had a heart attack when she realized she gave Kosuda an erection once.

Kosuda’s not a pervert either – he gets equally freaked out, if not worse, when faced with Yamada’s body. They’re both cute little dorks, and I really liked that their relationship actually developed out of this whole ridiculous situation (at a reasonable pace, even) instead of Yamada just using him as a stepping stone to orgy city.

And don’t worry, Yamada never achieves her goal in this series, I think she even gave it up in the end, and she appears to be knowledgeable on safe sex.

30 Sai No Hoken Taiiku is a similar beast, but on a goofier level.

The show is based on a novel titled Health and Physical Education for 30 Year Olds, which sounds boring, but more to the point, the show itself is about a 30 year old virgin named Imagawa. Being a virgin at 30 is deemed unacceptable by the gods (no, I’m not kidding), so the sex gods Daigorou and Macaron devote themselves to helping Imagawa pop his cherry.

On the female side, another 30 year old virgin named Andou is put in the same situation by the sex goddesses, Kuu and Pii. They lead the virgins to each other in hopes of killing two birds with one romp in the sheets.

I thought I would deplore this series when I first watched it. Like B Gata H Kei, this premise also sounds stupid and misguided, but the show itself is actually pretty damn crazy and funny while simultaneously providing us with a fairly realistic and likable romance. Even the relationships between the gods and the humans was heartwarming and nice to watch.

Like B Gata H Kei, it’s also a sex-based comedy where nearly all of the even slightly sexual stuff is censored – even French kissing…that is being depicted on fake faces.

There’s still plenty of fanservice, sexual discussions and some crass humor but they do it in a surprisingly tame manner…most of the time….One time, they parody DBZ and make the Spirit Bomb a Virgin Bomb that only draws energy from virgins and the bomb itself takes the shape of a giant sperm…..Yup.

It can be stupid and a tiny bit offensive sometimes, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.