Next we have a very adult set of films in this collection pickup. Half a decade ago, Third Window Films released three Pink Films collections that introduced me to the world of the Pink genre, which is basically adult films but not treated as pornographic. In other words, sex that just so happens to have a plot, like visual novels in a way.
Despite the concept, some of the films in those collections were pretty interesting and I could see why it appealed to a lot of people. So it was a surprise to learn that 88 Films, in their quest to branch out more into Japanese films for their distribution, have decided to introduce a new line-up of films called the Nikkatsu Roman Porno collection, which are films that were released in Japan by Nikkatsu.
I initially passed on this idea but I later discovered that the films being released were better than expected and what they revealed for their next batch caught my interest more. But then I discovered these titles sold out on 88 Films' store and it turned out that 88 didn't know how demanding these films were so when they sold out they repressed them with the limited edition contents in-tact, so I was able to order the first four films in this line-up altogether from their online store. Their store also had a discount available for ordering all four films together so I only paid for 3 releases and got one for free in a sense.
We have Shōgorō Nishimura's 1971 film
Apartment Wife: Affair in the Afternoon (団地妻 昼下りの情事), Masanao Sako's 1972 film
Sweden Porno: Blonde Animal (スェーデン・ポルノ 金髪アニマル), Noboru Tanaka's 1976 film
Watcher in the Attic (江戸川乱歩猟奇館 屋根裏の散歩者), and Tatsumi Kumashiro's 1973 film
Woods Are Wet (女地獄 森は濡れた).
Out of these four films, the one that actually interests me the most is
Blonde Animal, because it's a film starring western actors but voiced in Japanese and it's such a fascinating concept that I had no idea was a thing in Japan. Sweden Porno is also a sub-series of its own so I am curious to know if 88 Films has any more from this or they will focus on other Nikkatsu films instead.
Similarly to the Japanarchy line-up, these limited edition Blu-ray releases are presented in a Scanavo packaging with a obi-strip to cover the BBFC logos and details like Radiance Films does with theirs. In each release there's also a booklet featuring essays that go in more detail for each film which is cool to have. The covers are not reversible but given how niche these films are I can understand if there's issues with assets in this instance.