Hitch's VHS Collection: Sprite: Between Two Worlds

For those who don't know, I have a hobby of collecting anime movies and series on VHS. Why? Cause I like the format and there are a lot of movies that are on VHS, but not on DVD. Sure you can get them digitally if you look hard enough, but I love going to a used media store, finding a random title and seeing something I haven't heard of before.

I have a lot of tapes, most of which are in boxes in the shed right now, but most of the tapes I have I haven't gotten around to watching due to my crazy work schedule. But last night after giving up on beating God of War on Hard, I went and had a double feature of two random titles I picked up awhile ago, one of which was: "Sprite: Between Two Worlds."

Sprite: Between Two Worlds is a three episode OVA series. It was classified when I bought it as Hentai, but after watching it, the series is more Ecchi than anything else. The story centers around a young man (Who's name escapes me at the moment and we'll just call him Jim) who moves in with his relatives after his mother becomes ill. Here he meets the family's only child, his cousin Manami.

While on the surface, Manami is an innocent carefree girl, within her subconscious is another personality named, Nanami, who is desperately trying to escape and take complete control. While Nanami has only been a bad dream to Manami in the past, when she meets "Jim", the Nanami personality is set free whenever "Jim" mispronounces her name. By now, I'm sure you're thinking, "Split personalities in a hentai, clearly one is a slut and the other is innocent." Well, you not right, but not completely wrong either. While Nanami is more flirtatious and outgoing about her sexual nature, she's not a nymphomaniac. Nanami is more outgoing in general, not just when it comes to sex. She stands up for herself, she picks fights, she'll call people out on their bullshit and other things of that nature. The original personality, Manami is more submissive and quiet than her counterpart.

The thing I liked the most about this series is how it plays with the idea of split personalities. Nanami is more than just another person living inside Manami. She's a personification of her growing curiosity about adult matters. Not just sex, but learning how to take care of your own problems and how handle interacting with people you do and do not like. She's what Manami thinks an adult should be, not necessarily an adult version of her character. Manami is in a complete child like state of mind, while Nanami is a complete opposite. Manami's problem is she has no idea how to balance these two states of mind and doesn't know how to control going between them. The series uses Manami to capture that odd time period in a young person's life where they don't exactly know how to act their age, and for the most part the series does its job to convey this idea, but doesn't exactly knock it out of the park either.

There's not much actual sex going on in this series, mostly just different variations of oral sex. Virginity plays a major part in this series and the series treats it like its the one moral fiber standing between being a slut and being curious about one's sexual development. While I personally think that's a load of bull, in this series it works cause the series uses it in the plot. At one point, Namami is going to throw her virginity away to a complete stranger (or at least a character we've never meet up until this point, this section of the series is covered way too fast), but when the deed is about to be performed, Manami stamps back into control and the action allows the two personalities to finally talk to each other. So again, I think its an outdated ideal, but the way they use it in the plot is nice.

Outside of the voice acting, the biggest weakness of this series is the animation. There's one fun fight in the first episode where Namani beats the crap out of some girls after they concern her behind the school, which ends with Namani removing the defeated women's underwear and forces them to wear it on their head, but all of the other moments are completely forgettable visually. There are some trippy moments where the two personalities are talking to each other, but everything else is just generic slap stick, static scenery, talking heads and worst of all, under the sheets, above the stomach, and motionless sex scenes. Its easy to take your eyes off the screen and just listen to what's going on. Almost to the point where it should be an audio drama.

So to wrap up my thoughts on this one, I don't regret buying it. The story, while not the best and its strongly debatable if it succeeds or not, is interesting and the dub is always good for a laugh ("He is my relative's child"). While I can't recommend hunting this one down, if you come across it on a streaming site, go for it.

Although, one last thing. On the back of the box there's an image of Manami wearing a really sexy S&M outfit and none of that is found in the show itself. LAME!!!