Synopsis:
According to the video cover, "Lust and adventure lurk in a secret garden of delights. One man will penetrate its depths – will its jealous inhabitants ensnare him forever?". Forget that. Pure Love is about an adventure freak named Hiro. Hiro acquires this mysterious old book which he can't read, so he enlists the help of his childhood friend "Cori"(?) I read somewhere that her name is Puni but it sure sounded like "Cori". So Puni reads the book for Hiro and Hiro gets loads of new adventuring ideas -- like venturing to the palace gardens to find a hidden cave. Puni, in turn, is frustrated because Hiro doesn't seem to notice her true feelings for him. Will Hiro find the great adventure the book describes? More importantly, will he ever see Puni as something more than a buddy?

Review:
With only the video cover's vague description to go on, I really didn't know what to expect from this title. The first thing that struck me was the strange visual style Pure Love employs. The characters sport this oddly flat look which makes them seem like brightly-colored paper dolls being moved across the screen. The backgrounds are reminiscent of those used in old 3D video game environments... you know -- polygonal trees, non-detailed structures, and the like. While the art and animation are similar to the hentai parody "Sailor and the Seven Ballz", the PL characters are consistently better-looking.

The plot starts out simple. The problem is, all sorts of characters pop up with no sufficient explanation. This greatly complicates things, and by the time the two eps are through, you'll find yourself lost. To give you an example, in one instance, Puni is reading the book by herself on a park bench. She's approached by a weird guy who likes her, but she is oblivious to him. Hiro arrives and reads the book with Puni. The weirdo continues to disturb the peace until a carriage passes by, supposedly carrying the princess. The weirdo chases the princess and disappears. Later on, when Hiro and Puni wander into the palace garden, they see the weirdo having sex with a mysterious woman (not the princess). In the last ep, the weirdo is suddenly shown trying to take advantage of a masturbating girl. What is this??? Most of the characters (and there are a lot) are portrayed in this half-baked and chaotic fashion that confounds the whole story into little more than senseless drivel.

Sex-wise, PL is very detailed and leaves nothing to the imagination. Someone always finds some reason to screw around so there's plenty of action. A lot of the sex is totally unrelated to plot or character development, but then since things are already f*cked up anyway, it doesn't make much of a difference. The English dubbing is bad, as is usually the case with hentai titles. None of the voices sound natural, despite the obvious efforts of the cast. PL is not the worst I've seen, but it does make my no-no list. Don't waste your money on this one folks.

Miscellanies:
There is no subtitled version, even the DVD features only the dub. This anime is based on a popular bishoujo game. The problem is, when the rights to the anime version was licensed, the licensee (Dreamy Express Zone) decided to use this title as an experiment in CG animation on a low budget... hence the not-so-great visuals.

Screenshots:

Shopping - click on title to purchase:

Rightstuf
Pure Love (DVD Vol. 1)
Pure Love (DVD Vol. 2)
Pure Love (DVD Collection)

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