La Blue Girl

La Blue Girl (淫獣学園) is a erotic anime and manga series.

Based on the manga by Toshio Maeda, the La Blue Girl anime, like his other hentai series (e.g., Urotsukidōji), features a large amount of tentacle rape. It departs somewhat from its predecessors, however, by lightening the atmosphere with humor, lightly parodying the "Tentacle Hentai" genre.

An immensely successful series, La Blue Girl has inspired, over the years, several OVA series for a total of 14 episodes, a comic book adaptation, three live-action movies, some PC games and some art-books.

Basic premise
The story involves various ninja clans who continually fight each other. The female protagonist is Miko Mido, a young ninja-in-training and the next leader of the Miroku ninja clan. This clan has control over the Shikima, a perverted race of demons. However, when thieves steal the magic compact giving the clan this power, Miko has to fight the Shikima, utilizing her "sexcraft" ninjitsu in order to save the world.

The Shikima live in a parallel dimension called the Shikima world, and one must perform specific sexual rituals in order to travel there. The Shikima are all sex-hungry monsters, led by the Shikima Lord, who also happens to be Miko Mido's father.

Injuu Gakuen La Blue Girl
Injuu Gakuen La Blue Girl (4 episodes, 1992-93) is an adaptation of the original manga. Miko Mido is a teenage girl who is to be the next leader of the ancestral Miroku ninja clan. But the Suzuka clan steals the treasured compact that symbolizes the truce between the Miroku and the Shikimas, a race of otherworldly perverted demons, and soon Miko has to use the sexual techniques of the Miroku to survive the assaults of the demons and protect her sister. After learning the truth behind her heritage and the identity of her true parents, she embarks on a journey to become a real Miroku ninja and will have to fight an ex-mistress-turned-traitor of the Miroku clan.
 * 1) Injuu Gakuen - La Blue Girl
 * 2) Injuu Gakuen - La Blue Girl 2
 * 3) Injuu Gakuen - La Blue Girl 3 - Shikima sakkai no shou
 * 4) Injuu Gakuen - La Blue Girl 4 - Youtou inkai no shou

Shin Injuu Gakuen
Shin Injuu Gakuen (2 episodes, 1993) adapts the end of the manga, and as such is a follow-up and the conclusion to Miko's adventures in the first series. This time the enemies are Fubuki Kai, a rogue ninja who wants to defeat Miko and claim the title of best ninja, and the cybernetized survivors of the Suzuka clan.
 * 1) Shin Injuu Gakuen
 * 2) Shin Injuu Gakuen 2 (initially released in two, 30 minute long semi-episodes)

Lady Blue
Injuu Gakuen EX (淫獣学園EX) aka Lady Blue (4 episodes, 1994). Features an original story about two ghosts, Kyoshiro and Shanahime, labouring an old grudge against the Shikimas and attacking several of Miko's friends, including her first love.
 * 1) The First Love of the Shikima (淫獣学園EX 1 初恋裏色魔篇 Injuu gakuen EX 1: Hatsukoi uchi shikima hen)
 * 2) The Curse of the Mysterious Love (淫獣学園EX 2 妖恋呪縛篇 Injuu gakuen EX 2: Youren jubaku hen)
 * 3) The Hell of the Cursed Love (淫獣学園 EX 3 邪恋地獄篇 Injuu gakuen EX 3: Yaren jigoku hen)
 * 4) The Reincarnation of Sad Love (淫獣学園EX 4 哀恋輪廻篇 Injuu gakuen EX 4: Airen rinne hen)

Lady Blue is about Miko's first love. Miko meets a young man named Hidemasa outside her apartment building, and falls in love at first sight. Just when Miko thinks she can finally live like a normal girl and enjoy being in love, a mysterious female phantom appears in her school, sucking the life out of Miko's pretty young schoolmates. Fubuki reports that something is very wrong in the Shikima realm. Miko's parents are being tortured by the sound of flutes playing, and nobody knows why.

Miko and Fubuki investigate and find out that there's actually a love story behind it, for the flutes belonged to a bethrothed couple (Kyoshiro and Shanahime) 400 years ago but treachery got in the way, so their love was never realized. The flutes are now cursed, and Miko's dream guy Hidemasa is kidnapped by the vengeful phantom of Shanahime in order to resurrect her Kyoshiro.

La Blue Girl Returns
Injuu Gakuen Fukkatsu-hen (淫獣学園 復活篇) aka La Blue Girl Returns (4 episodes, 2001) is an anime series that continues the adventures of Miko Mido. Another original story, this time about the legendary Shikima brain, a place rumoured to bring total power over the universe. It is coveted by the insectoid ninja clan of the Mahoroba and protected by a mysterious clan, who may have a relation with Miko's previous life.

The plot begins when a race of butterfly-demons named the Mahoroba want to enslave Miko Mido and her sister to steal the seal case that control the Shikima. Their ultimate goal is to conquer the Shikima Brain, a legendary place of the Shikima realm which is said to confer the power to rule the universe.

Censorship issues
Censorship is practiced differently in Japan and in the USA, due to their different laws: Japanese law technically discourages showing of genitals in hentai, while the United States is more concerned about forbidding the display of sex acts involving people under 18. Hence, there are censoring mosaics in Japan and scene removals and different ages of characters in America.

While not featuring the censoring mosaics of the original Japanese version, the US release of La Blue Girl was edited during the initial VHS release and all scenes featuring Miko's companion Nin-Nin engaged in a sexual act were removed, probably to avoid the charge of pedophilia, in spite of the fact that the character is not a minor but a dwarf ninja.

For similar reasons the age of the heroine was also altered: initially stated to be a 16 year old high-schooler in the original Japanese version, she is an 18 year old college student in the US version. The DVD release contains this edited version.

In the UK, the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) famously refused to give it the certificate allowing the movie to be sold on video.

Live movies

 * Injū Gakuen: Shikima-kai no gyakushū (1994)
 * Injū Gakuen 2: Mashō no hime tanjō jissha-hen (1996)
 * Injū Gakuen 3: Kunoichi-gari (1996)

Printed material

 * La Blue Girl Toshio Maeda's manga. 6 volumes.
 * La Blue Girl US comic-book by Matt Lunsford and José Calderon. Collected in 2 volumes. Ironically, the comic-book looks more like a manga than the original manga itself (Toshio Maeda, being greatly influenced by the Golden Age of comic-books, has a very realist style). It also has the distinction of retelling the two distinctly separate story arcs of the first four episodes of the first anime series by merging them together and somewhat massively rewriting episode 3 and 4(the second arc), and also shows Nin-Nin's actual face near then end without his mask showing him to be deformed due to his half Shikima origin as the product of his human mother's rape by a Shikima. (It also mentioned that his mother did not survive giving birth to him for the same reason.)
 * The Graffiti mook, a compilation of screenshots from episodes 1 to 4.
 * The In no Shou and You no Shou art-books, screenshots and illustrations from La Blue Girl and Lady Blue.
 * The art-book of Injuu Gakuen / Youjuu Kyoushitu contains CG illustrations from the PC98 game.
 * Rin Shin's art-book contains illustrations used for the promotion of the series.
 * several anime comics.

Video games

 * La Blue Girl for NEC PC-9801 and FM-Towns, featuring a different character design from the manga and the anime. The story is an adaptation of both the first volume of the manga and the first anime OAV: Miko's friends at school are assaulted by demons and her professor is kidnapped and sent to their infernal dimension; Miko travels there and saves her; everybody goes back to Earth where a final showdown is awaiting Miko at school. Gameplay-wise it's a digital comics adventure game with some shooting phases (in a Snatcher fashion, and with shakens instead of a pistol).
 * La Blue Girl for Windows 95. The art is more faithful to the anime character design, while the story is an adaptation of the La Blue Girl EX OVA.

Characters

 * Miko Mido (美童巫女): Miko is the heroine of all La Blue Girl OVAs and a kunoichi. She is the last descendant of the female Miroku ninja clan, which has been feuding with the Suzuka clan for many generations. She is often very annoyed at being a sex ninja and having to use her body as a weapon against opponents. Miko can use many unusual sexual techniques, such as hardening her pubic hair into needles and firing them at an opponent, or the 'Nyoninboh' technique which allows her to swell her clitoris to the size of a man's penis and drive female rivals crazy with it. If strands of her hair are torn out, she can use them as acupuncture needles to stimulate her opponent's erotic pleasure points. Her most powerful attack is the 'Aoi Tatsumaki' (Blue Whirlwind), in which her hair turns into a giant blue tornado that invariably rips away all of her clothing (but generally at this point most of her clothing has already been ripped away anyway). Miko is the daughter of Seikima, the King of the Shikima, and of Maria, the Queen, who is human and a former Miroku woman. As such, Miko is a demon-half-breed and has the blue coloured blood of the Shikima, hence the title 'La Blue Girl'.


 * Nin-Nin (ニン忍): Nin-Nin is a midget ninja who is always hooded. He is Miko's loyal, yet sexually perverted, companion and sidekick. He likes to peep when Miko is bathing or masturbating and beams with joy whenever he can see her naked, or barely dressed, or in any troublesome sexual encounter with demons or other ninjas. On the other hand, he is very much in love with her and always helps her out when she's in trouble.


 * Fubuki Kai (楷吹雪): A self-made ninja, she goes after Miko Mido to prove that she is more talented than her, and more worthy of the title of headmaster of the Miroku ninja clan. Defeated in a sexual duel, she is adopted by the Shikima and becomes a friend of Miko. When adopted by the Shikima, she is turned into a Shikima, since she desired enough power to equal Miko Mido. She is fond of her new form, but also irritates Miko by being better than her.


 * Yaku (夜久): Yaku is another ninja of the Miroku clan, whom Miko meets when she decides to travel to the secret Miroku village. She is the only survivor (with Miko) of the Miroku massacre caused by Kamiri and Kugutsumen. Yaku is a powerful—and potentially very threatening—girl, for she transforms into a werewolf during a full moon unless she reaches an orgasm in time. Her most notable other attributes are her large breasts, of which Miko is envious.


 * Kamiri: Kamiri was at one time the Miroku clan's sexcraft instructor, but she was banished by the clan for treachery because she became the lover of the renegade ninja Kugutsumen. Before being driven away, she was also punished by being raped with a thorny phallus that mangled her vagina. As a result, she swore to take vengeance on the Miroku clan. When Kamiri returns and steals the Miroku treasure, the magical sword Jipang, its evil spirit possesses her and makes her want to conquer the Shikima Realm, kill King Seikima, and rule over it. For that she needs Miko, who is the only one who knows how to get there. After several fights between Kamiri and Miko & Yaku, Kamiri is destroyed by the evil spirit of Jipang.


 * Kugutsumen: Kugutsumen is a renegade ninja of the Suzuka clan who became the lover of Kamiri, the Miroku sexcraft instructor, after he was able to take control of her when a drop of his semen entered her body during a fight. It was he who killed all the Miroku ninjas by mangling their vaginas and causing fatal hemorrhages, mimicking their punishment of his lover. Because of her wounds and her possession by Jipang's evil spirit, Kamiri refuses to have sex with him and so he rapes several young girls. He is a tough opponent for Miko and Yaku, for he often tricks them by disguising himself and so lures them into his traps.


 * Various Shikimas and tentacled monsters: The monsters, who generally have irregular and grotesque shapes, try to make the women reach orgasm, or to kill the women, or both, depending on the monsters' various agendas and natures. (One "poltergeist" is depicted in the manga as merging with a kappa in order to heal himself after being defeated by Miko and Nin-Nin and thus commit revenge against Miko; the Shikima King is said to be Miko's father, but a Shikima curse leads to her being violated anyhow, as two examples.)


 * Miyu Mido (美童美夕): An older sister of Miko and an Drama Actress, she was later got kidnapped by the demons from the Shikima World and was rescued by her sister. Because Miyu and Miko were not blood related, It's revealed that Miyu was the joining of Suzuka clan which disqualified Maria of holding the title of chief family for the Miroku clan and was thus driven away, while Miko was gave to her grandmother for a proper raising and training for she wasn't born of a Shikima but of a human.


 * Kanako (香菜子): Introduced in the 3rd episode of La Blue Girl Returns, Kanako is a student at a nursing college. Before her grandmother died, she had trained Kanako in the carnal arts in order to offer her services to Miko Mido and the Miroku clan.  It then became her dream to be summoned by Miko, and she developed a crush on her.  She got in touch with the other main characters through a website posted by Fubuki in their search for more members of the Miroku clan.


 * Kocho: The leader of the Mahoroba clan.


 * Rokuga: Another Mahoroba. Posing as Miyu's new boyfriend, he succeeds in stealing the Shikima seal case.


 * Ruri: Miko's classmate.


 * Maho: Ruri's brother, introduced in the 3rd episode. It's love at first sight between him and Miko, but she continually dreams of him wearing a strange outfit, a clue that they were lovers in the past.