Words Worth

Words Worth (ワーズ･ワース) is a five-part erotic direct-to-video anime series and hentai RPG computer game. It also has a side story series, Words Worth Gaiden (in Western parts also known as Words Worth Outer Stories). The game's story is linear, with only one story decision near the end, leading to one of five different endings. The anime has the same general story, but the anime cuts out several characters and changes the plot mostly to create more sex scenes.

The original Japanese hentai fantasy computer game was made by ELF Corporation in 1993. The game was remade for Windows 95 in 1999, with some changed character designs, full-voice added to the supporting characters, 3D polygon graphics, and an opening animation sequence. That same year, the anime adaptation was also released. The series was originally released in English by NuTech Digital in 1999. However, the license was lost due to NuTech being sued for failure to pay royalties. According to AnimeNation, that license was awarded in 2007 to Media Blasters, which will release the series under Kitty Media. However, imports of this series can not be legally brought into Canada due to its exploitation of sex.

The English dub is notable for featuring real life porn actresses Jenna Jameson and Nikki Dial. The rest of the English cast remained uncredited.

Story
The skill of sword-fighting is known to two tribes, the Tribes of Light (which consists of humans living on the world's surface) and Shadow (largely part-human-part-animal creatures and monsters living in an underground city, who enjoy a lifespan five times as long as the Tribe of Light and age one-fifth as quickly). The two tribes lived in peace and harmony, their domains separated by the "Words Worth" tablet — a huge monolith slab erected by an almighty creator. Although the tablet has writing on it, neither Tribe can read the text. One day, Words Worth was mysteriously destroyed by an unknown entity; its fragments scattered among the domain of the Tribes of Shadow.

The two Tribes blamed each other for the tablet's destruction, and started a war that has continued for 150 years (100 in the anime).

Astral, prince of the Tribe of Shadow, desires to become a Swordsman of Shadow. However, his father, King Wortoshika, forbids him to do so. He is engaged to Sharon, a beautiful swordswoman and Astral's childhood friend, who has feelings for Astral but wishes he were stronger.

The story begins here...

Tribe of Shadow

 * Astral: Prince of the Shadow realm, and heir to King Wortoshika. His name is based on Castor and is changed to 'Esterla' in the Media Blasters translation. A generic good-natured-but-oblivious video game protagonist who gains more experience over the course of the game.  In the second half of the story, he is given the alias Pollux.  In the anime, his character is more developed, being a natural swordsman who is also undisciplined and self-conscious (especially where his fiancee Sharon is concerned). During the course of the story, he discovers his lecherous side as well as his own lax morality towards sexual assault (showing little or no remorse for molesting or raping female members of the Tribe of Light). In both versions, he is eventually revealed to be the lost son of the legendary Pollux, after whom he was previously nicknamed.


 * Sharon ('Shalom' in the Media Blasters translation): One of the two most formidable officers (along with Kaiser) of the Shadow Realm army and a lifelong friend of Astral's. Very beautiful, but stern and commanding.  Engaged to Astral, but is only attracted to men who are stronger than her in combat (which Astral slowly becomes throughout the course of the game).  The DOS version of the game included a sex scene with Sharon, but this was cut out in the Win95 edition.  In the both versions of events, she has feelings for Astral, but wishes that he was more manly.  She gradually falls in love with him as he proves his competence in combat.  One of the game endings has Astral together with Sharon.


 * Nina: A cat-girl who issues swordman's licenses in the Shadow realm. She has a secret crush on Astral. For many fans the most-liked character in the series, likely due to her actions during the second half of the game.  The DOS version of Nina was a clear parody of Lum, but her character was completely redesigned for the Win95 version.  One of the game endings has Astral together with Nina.


 * Kaiser: His name is the German word for 'emperor'. One of the two most formidable Shadow swordsman, his pride and desire to win Sharon's heart often place him at odds with Astral. In the game, he attempts to seduce Sharon while she is under the influence of an aphrodisiac-poisoned wound caused by Fabris; in the anime, she more openly rejects his advances. In the game, he begins living with Sharon during Miyu, Nina, and Delta's endings. Kaiser is renamed 'Caesar' in both official translations of the anime.


 * Stallion: A lecherous half-horse, half-human officer of the Shadow tribe army. He believes that "women from the Tribe of Light are more attractive."  He often takes female prisoners to a torture chamber and rapes them.  He is most famous in an Internet fad for the quote, "Your resistance only makes my penis harder!" In the series' subsequent omake he is seen marrying Eoria; this detail is briefly mentioned in all five of the game's endings.  In the game, he has grown an incongruous white mustache in the second-half.


 * Hyde: A young elf of the Shadow tribe, he is Astral's best friend. Despite being a licensed swordsman, he is very timid and cowardly, and thus is ashamed of himself.  In the game, he dies after succumbing to one of Club's machines; in the anime, he is slain by Sir Fabris after interfering with his attempt to rape of Sharon.  In both cases, his death affects Astral greatly.


 * Katra: A living, willful Skeleton Warrior and officer in the Shadow tribe army, he serves as a soldier and at times a messenger.


 * Delta: A woman with gray, painted skin and bat wings, possibly a succubus. In the game, she only appears in the second half, and seems to often get stuck in erotic situations.  In the anime, her curiosity gets the better of her when she follows Tessio and Menza, and is subsequently raped and hypnotized to serve the two in a plot against Astral.  One of the game endings has Astral together with Delta (this was added in the Win95 edition); she marries Rigel if the player chooses Sharon's, Nina's, or Miyu's endings.


 * Carrot: A small fairy. Second half of the game only.  Controls monsters much larger than her.  Later in the game she is captured and molested by William, and marries Rigel during Delta's ending.  Does not appear in the anime.


 * Wortoshika: A large, muscular blue-skinned man, he is King of the Shadow tribe. His name could be a corruption of the term 'Wordseeker' due to the Japanese pronunciation. Fiercely overprotective of his son.  While ruthless and practical, he has also an honorable side.


 * Tessio: Chief advisor to Wortoshika. Along with his Light counterpart, Menza, he is part of an evil entity which actually has caused the war between the two tribes (in the anime, they are aware of this, whereas in the game, they are unwitting aspects of the dark entity).  His name is based on Salvatore Tessio and his look is based on Peter Clemenza -- the opposite is true for Menza.


 * Wise: An friendly old person who dispenses advice to Astral. Is male in the DOS version, female in the Win95 version, and does not appear in the anime.


 * Ariadne: Nina's and Astral's daughter. Only appears in the second half.

Tribe of Light

 * Pollux: At the end of the first half, Maria blasts Astral 20 years forward into the future, where he grows a beard and loses all memory of who he was. Eventually he adopts the identity Pollux (named after a legendary swordsman whom he resembles) and fights for the Tribe of Light.  In the game, he doesn't regain his memories until very near the end of the story, whereas in the anime he regains them much earlier.


 * Pollux (Sr.): A famous swordsman of the Tribe of Light, said to have died of illness but was in fact murdered, leading to his wife committing suicide. He had two children, a boy and a girl, who vanished after the attack. In the anime, it is revealed that Astral is his lost son, while the game also implies that Maria was the baby girl. The anime hints that he was killed by Wortoshika, while in the game, the combined form of Tessio and Menza was the culprit.


 * Maria: A sorceress, daughter of King Fabris. In the second half, she is the mother of Miyu.  In the game, she prefers to teleport enemies away rather than fight them.  In the anime, she is raped by Astral after he falls into her prison cell. In the game, she only an adopted child of Fabris, her biological parents being hinted to be the original Pollux and Maria, making her Astral's sister.


 * Maria (Sr.): Wife of the original Pollux, who threw herself into a lake along with her baby girl after her husband's death and her son's disappearance. Biological mother of Astral and, in the game, Maria. Her magic ring was passed down to Maria and later on to Miyu.


 * Dark: A fearless and brave swordswoman. In the second half, she is the mother of Vega.  Does not appear in the anime.  Curiously renamed 'Arkia' in the fan-translation.


 * Silvanna ('Silverna' in the NuTech translation): A tomboyish fencer, possibly a cousin of Maria. In the game, she is captured and raped by Stallion.  In the second half, she is the mother of Eoria.  In the anime, she was captured along with Maria during the initial encounter with the Tribe of Shadow and is molested by two pig guards; Maria comes to her rescue before they can go through with their plans to gang-rape her.


 * Sabrina: A dark-skinned, taciturn female knight. Is tortured, interrogated, and molested; and (perhaps because of this), uses similar techniques herself later. In the second half of the game, she becomes the mother of Rita. She also appears in the Gaiden anime.


 * Persia: Servant and student of Sabrina who does not appear to enjoy sword-fighting. Is an adolescent in the game, but an adult in the Gaiden anime, where she has sexual encounters with both Astral and Sabrina.


 * Bellabella ('Belladonna' in the fan-translation): A nymphomaniac sorceress who uses magic mushrooms for both magical and sexual purposes, and because of this appears to age very slowly (having exactly the same appearance in the second half of the story 20 years later). Is one of the two characters who actually has sexual intercourse with Astral in the game (the other being Nina).  Does not appear in the anime.


 * Club ('Kaleb' in the fan-translation): A master trap-maker. In the game, he is one of the initial party to get captured by the Shadow Tribe (along with Fabris, Dark, Silvanna, Sabrina, and Maria), and later kills Hyde.  In the anime, he has a very small unnamed appearance, piloting one of his war machines.


 * Norman: A somewhat pretentious swordsman. Has a power move that parodies the kamehameha from Dragon Ball.  Boyfriend of Epo, but is later killed by Astral.  Appears in the Gaiden anime.


 * Epo ('April' in the fan-translation and Media Blasters translation): A blue-haired swordwoman. In the game, she is forced to strip by Astral and starts bawling (which scares Astral away); 20 years later, in the second half of the game, she becomes a shopkeeper in town.  The DOS version of Epo is a parody of Nadia from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, but her character was completely redesigned for the Win95 version.  Has a small cameo appearance in the anime as a stall owner and a larger role in the Gaiden anime.


 * Miyu ('Mew' in the NuTech translation and 'Mu' in the game's fan-translation): A novice sorceress, and daughter of Maria. Only appears in the second half.  Has the same physical features (aside from hair color) and mannerisms as her mother.  Engaged to William.  Has her life saved by Pollux and slowly develops feelings for him.  One of the game endings has Astral together with Miyu.  In the anime, she has a sexual encounter with Astral.  There are some speculations that she actually might be Astral's daughter (from his raping of Maria; see above), and that her and Astral's sexual encounter is therefore of an incestuous nature.  This seems unlikely as there is no such encounter in the game.  She eventually marries William in Sharon's, Nina's and Delta's endings.


 * Vega: Daughter of Dark. Appears only in the second half of the game. Often contemplates finding a boyfriend and starting a family. In the DOS version, she is a swordswoman who has a sexual encounter with Pollux; in the Win95 version, she is an archer and has no such encounter. Does not appear in the anime.


 * Eoria: Daughter of Silvanna, who she strongly resembles in both appearance and personality. Appears only in the second half of the game. Stallion attempts to rape her in the second half by giving her an aphrodisiac, but Pollux stops Stallion and as a result, Eoria comes on to Pollux instead - snapping out of the drug-induced trance in mid-kiss. In an omake of the anime series, she is shown marrying Stallion - a detail mentioned in all five of the game's endings.


 * Rita: A dark-skinned Light tribe swordswoman. Daughter of Sabrina.  Second half only.  In the game, she is timid and reluctant to fight.  At some point she gets her posterior trapped in a hole in the ground; Pollux notices it in the ceiling and attempts to attack it.  Later on he jokingly calls her "butt-girl".  In the anime, she is much more outgoing, but Wortoshika rapes her several times in order to produce an heir following Astral's disappearance.


 * Algol: A cowardly swordsman who is very greedy and attracted to gold. Has a habit of calling people by absurd names.  Second half only.  In all of the game's endings, he marries one of the four unnamed female shopkeeps (though which one is never specified). Not in the anime.


 * Rigel: A dark-skinned lecherous swordsman. Second half only.  He believes that "women from the Tribe of Shadow are more attractive," making him somewhat of a counterpart to Stallion.  (In fact, he and Stallion fight over Delta at one point.)  Has a very brief cameo appearance in the anime.  Marries Carrot in the Delta and harem endings and Delta herself in all others.


 * Fabris ('Fabrees' in the Media Blasters translation): An older and more experienced knight, stronger than both Kaiser and Sharon. He is revealed at the end of the first half to be the (adoptive) father of Maria and king of the Tribe of Light, shortly after Astral severs his right arm.  In both versions of events, he lusts over Sharon after seeing her fight, actively attempting to rape her the anime and coating one of his daggers with an aphrodisiac - which successfully injures Sharon - in the game.


 * William: Son of Fabris, and fiance of Miyu. Appears as a very young child standing up to Astral in the first-half; 20 years later, he has "matured" into a cowardly swordsman who seizes credit for Pollux's achievements.  Occasionally displays pedophilic tendencies (as evidenced by his treatment of Carrot).


 * Menza: Chief advisor to Fabris. Along with his Shadow counterpart, Tessio, he is part of an evil entity which actually has caused the war between the two tribes (in the anime, they are aware of this, whereas in the game, they are unwitting aspects of the dark entity).  His name is based on Peter Clemenza and his look is based on Salvatore Tessio -- the opposite is true for Tessio.

Plot of the Anime
With the help of Nina, Astral obtains a Swordsman's license illegally. Before he can join the battle against the Light Tribe forces and their king Fabris, he has his first of many sexual experiences: first with Maria, who has been taken prisoner and whom he naively rapes, and then with Nina, who had always harbored a secret crush on him.

Eventually arriving on the battlefield, Astral sees Hyde die at Sir Fabris' hands, which ignites a powerful rage, and he races to rescue Sharon as she is about to be raped by Fabris. Astral surprises Fabris and manages to slice off one of his arms. But then Maria, who has managed to free herself, casts a powerful spell at Astral in a fit of vengeful furor, inadvertently blasting him onto the surface and 20 years into the future as well as obliterating his memory.

After many wanderings, Astral finally reaches civilization (i.e. the tribe of Light) and is immediately mistaken for Pollux, a famous Light swordsman who had mysteriously disappeared many years ago to whom Astral bears a striking resemblance. Finally, he is taken in by King Fabris, who recognizes both his attacker and his value in his schemes against the Shadow people, and successfully tricks Astral into opening the sealed gateway between the Light and Shadow realms.

Meanwhile, Wortoshika has nearly completed the tablet, much to the chagrin of his advisor, Tessio. As it turns out, both Tessio and his Light counterpart, Menza, are two parts of a monstrous entity which is responsible for destroying the Words Worth tablet in the first place. Determined to prevent the completion of the task, they attack Wortoshika in the cavern where he stores the tablet.

In the meanwhile, Astral confronts Sharon in combat and gradually recovers his memory. Together with her and a few other allies, including Nina and her daughter Ariadne, he reaches the secret cave where the incomplete tablet is stored. Fabris and his men also arrive for battle, but instead end up allying with the Shadow forces against the entity of Darkness, and a dying Wortoshika reveals Astral's true lineage: he was kidnapped from the Light tribe as a baby - though the fate of his real father, implied to be the late Pollux, is never shown - in order to fulfill the prophecy with the expected child from Astral's and Sharon's union. However, it is Ariadne — who, as Astral's and Nina's daughter, fulfills the terms — that manages to complete the tablet and read its message, which reveals both God's desire for both tribes to be progenitors of a "complete" race of mixed Light-and-Shadow blood. This revelation results in the end the century-long conflict and union of both worlds.

Words Worth no Hitobito
This game is a cross-over between "Words Worth" and "Mystery of Nonomura Hospital". In the first half of the game, Umihara, the main protagonist of "Mystery of Nonomura Hospital", enters the world of "Words Worth" as summoned by Wortoshika. The game takes place in the intervening 20 years between Astral's disappearance and reappearance. In the second half, Sharon from Words Worth comes into the world of Nonomura Hospital and has a sexual affair with Umihara.