けっこう仮面 / Delicious Mask/Splendid Mask, Kekko Kamen

She may have lost her costume. but she's never lost a fight!

Background

Kekko Kamen (けっこう仮面) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. It was serialized in Monthly Shōnen Jump from September 1974 to February 1978, with the chapters collected into five tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. It follows the misadventures of a student named Mayumi Takahashi who attends a boarding school called "Sparta Satan Academy" that is run by sadistic psychopaths. The teachers are constantly looking for ways to torture or humiliate the students, and from this the teachers derive sexual satisfaction. Takahashi's only protection is from a mysterious nude female superhero—the titular Kekko Kamen. The manga has spawned an original video animation series and numerous live-action films. In North America, the OVAs were released by ADV Films, while several of the films were published by different distributors. 

A four-episode original video animation adaptation of Kekko Kamen was created by Studio Signal and released by Nippon Columbia on two VHS tapes in 1991 and 1992. A DVD collection was released on April 21, 2001. The first two episodes were directed by Nobuhiro Kondo and the second two by Kinji Yoshimoto. The opening theme song is "Kekko Kamen no Uta" (けっこう仮面の歌 Kekkō Kkamen no Uta, "The Song of Kekko Kamen") which Go Nagai wrote for the manga, with composition and arrangement by Keiju Ishikawa, and sung by Emi Shinohara. The ending theme is "Morodashi Heroine Kekko Kamen" (モロダシ・ヒロインけっこう仮面 Morodashi Hiroin Kekkō Kamen, "Naked Heroine Kekko Kamen") written by Hiroshi Koenji, composed and arranged by Keiju Ishikawa, and sung by Emi Shinohara.

The special attack.

Defeated by pussy force!

Official release & LAM series

The OVA series was released in the United States subtitled in English on two VHS tapes by ADV Films on February 7 and April 4, 1995. A single DVD version was produced on February 15, 2005, which beside the subtitles, also included dubbed English audio. ADV Films has also re-released Kekko Kamen in bundled DVD packages with other anime; Cutey Honey/Kekko Kamen on April 1, 2008, and Puni Puni Poemy/Kekko Kamen on April 21, 2009. The OVA was also released in a dubbed version in Italy on VHS by Dynamic Italia in 2000 under the name Kekko Kamen: La maschera libidinosa.

On the other hand, there have been eleven live-action films based on Kekko Kamen. Go Nagai has been intricately involved in the production of the films. The first three movies and the three from 2006 were released in direct-to-video format, while films four through seven and eleven were theatrically released in Japan. The 2012 film was released theatrically in limited locations before being released on DVD after more than a month. The first four theatrical films were released on DVD in North American by Media Blasters' Tokyo Shock label beginning in 2005.

• First series, produced by Japan Home Video

• Kekko Kamen (けっこう仮面)(1991)
• Kekko Kamen 2 (けっこう仮面2)(1992)
• Kekko Kamen 3 (けっこう仮面3)(1993)

• Second series, produced by Art Port

• Kekko Kamen: Mask of Kekkou (けっこう仮面 MASK OF KEKKOU)(2003) also known in English as Kekko Kamen New
• Kekko Kamen: Mangriffon no Gyakushu (けっこう仮面 マングリフォンの逆襲)(2003) known in English as Kekko Kamen: The MGF Strikes Back
• Kekko Kamen Returns (けっこう仮面 RETURNS)(2004)
• Kekko Kamen Surprise (けっこう仮面 SURPRISE)(2004)

• Third series, produced by Art Port, starring Maria Ozawa

• Kekko Kamen Royale (けっこう仮面 ロワイヤル)(2006)
• Kekko Kamen Premium (けっこう仮面 プレミアム)(2006)
• Kekko Kamen Forever (けっこう仮面 フォーエバー)(2006)

• Fourth series, produced by AMG Entertainment, starring Aino Kishi

• Kekko Kamen Reborn (けっこう仮面 新生)(2012) also known as Mask The Kekkou Reborn

a perverted principal.

a Nazi teacher who digs S & M?

The Review

"Nobody knows my face, but everybody knows my body. I am the messenger of justice, sent by God to this school of perversion! My name is Kekko... Kekko Kamen! I hide my face but expose all else."

From Go Nagai, the creators of Cutie Honey (the franchise) comes a new type of superhero for a world that has succumbed to perversion and torture. 1991 surely was one of the hottest summers Japan ever had, thanks to this four episode OVA that is not afraid to show it all! Where others only tease, Kekko Kamen feasts wild! 

Private school Spartan Satan (who'd send their kids to school with that name!?) has been the epicenter of abuse & torture. Their "educational" approach says that for every student that fails, an expert teacher will provide the proper punishment that will eliminate any trace of laziness left in their students. Obviously, something's fishy!. Toenail of Satan (yes, that's his actual name),  The school principal wears a demonic mask and a black tunic (as if Satanic rituals were performed in school time). The remaining staff are three teachers:  One Ilsa She-Wolf of the SS wannabe, Ben Kyoshi a masked teacher that looks like a mad doctor, Keiko Natsuwata, the muscular gym teacher and a Samurai teacher. All of them specialized in their kind of torture. Mayumi Takahashi, a mediocre student, is the constant target of these "teachers" who are looking for new ways to teach her through torture the importance of getting good grades in school.  One random day, where there's torture lessons for below the standard students, a mysterious, and completely naked masked woman appears out of nowhere to stop the abusive behavior these bunch of educators gone psycho, keep going for weeks and weeks. This masked lady calls herself Kekko Kamen (delicious mask AKA splendid mask. The name remains the same as the original Japanese due to the lameness of the translated version).

At first Mayumi thinks second year student, Yuka Chigusa is the secret identity of Kekko Kamen since the principal found a note left by the unusual heroine written in one of Chigusa's panties. Obviously, the mystery of who's hiding behind the mask will remain unsolved throughout the four episode run.

The Gym Teacher.

The masked teacher.

Kekko Kamen is obviously one of those Animé you know you  can't take seriously in order to enjoy them. While I know there's a lot of straight Hentai Animé out there that try to deliver that feeling of being an "erotic movie" made for Netflix & Chill purposes, Kekko Kamen is the exact opposite. A kick in the nuts for those producers who are obsessed with excessive "fan service" and no story telling at all. Most of my readers here are seasoned Animé fans, so this may seem like an unnecessary explanation, but here goes nothing: 

Kekko Kamen is the most honest look at female superheroes ever made in the history of history. and I'll tell you why: Most female superhero suits protect little to nothing when compared to their male counterparts, so why bother with a hundred panty shots when you can give your audience what they're really looking for? And this is where, Kekko Kamen outsmarts most of her predecessors and successors with ease. The private school context is full of perverted adults who use torture & punishment just to see their students naked. Kamen knows this, so her actual weapon is her body, which is good enough for dealing with both men & women. She's no hypocrite, she knows what sleazy fucks are looking for, and she's clever enough to have a set of special attacks that master the idea of destroying your enemy with what they want the most.

Symbols of evil.

Violence.

While each episode presents a different challenge, there's no time for the viewer to say "I already know what she's going to do". Each enemy teacher has a different skill that Kamen has to deal with in a different way. In the two last episodes she's even helped by Yuka & Mayumi.

On the other hand while the story seems to focus only on female characters, Spartan Satan Academy also has male students, and not just a few but a lot. However, we don't see too much development there since, only bad students are punished, and by the time you're on episode 3, we realize there's only one bad student: Mayumi Takahashi who claims at a certain point "nobody's gonna ever wanna marry me, because They've seen it all already", perhaps a crude hidden critic on the current state of things in some countries in the world where virginity and hiding your privates are the treasure you'd save to your future loving husband/wife only.

No more please!

Is the nude body sinful just because it is nude?

Plot wise, things are pretty clear from episode one: Kekko Kamen is the only one who can stop  these abusive teachers from getting away with murder. Ecchi wise, I'd say the story is clean enough to pass as a comedy that relies on nudity to create more humorous moments rather than arousing situations. In the story people are naked because they're "ashamed" of being forced into being naked in front of people, so I'd say that feeling is part of the torture, and Kekko Kamen doesn't give a flying fuck about being nude, sorta assuming the human body should no longer be an object of "sin" but one of nature. 

Go Nagai originally worked on the Cutey Honey series that lasted 25 episodes on air in 1975. By the same time the Kekko Kamen manga was already published but only after  17 years we'd see the first and only animated version of it.  Although by the end of the last episode we hear a promising "The crisis at the school is over for now. However, if the sales of this video are really good, she will return! For now, goodbye, Kekko Kamen. Thank you Kekko Kamen!" Nothing really happened afterwards.

Fighting for love!

Defeated Nazi!

Music wise, the soundtrack is only O.K.. However the only two songs in the series, do stand out mostly due to their hilarious lyrics. Some lines from "Kekko Kamen No Uta" (the song of Kekko Kamen) are: "No one has ever solved the mystery of her unknown face, on the other hand, everyone's seen her completely nude!"... "And she won't leave until  we've all seen her flash"..."But everybody knows about her physical attitude"..."She attacks with a yell, spreading out her legs. Then she cold cocks evildoers by socking them in the eggs"... "But everyone knows the sight of her nipples". 

Sound FX wise, you'll find a lot of familar sounds that are not only popular in Animé but also in videogames and TV shows from the same decade. These effects are put to good use in battle scenes as well as comedic moments. Jokes are delivered well and in the case of certain characters, every sound made is side splitting. The dub actors change around a few too many lines, but overall they created a solid track as well.

Her body is the ultimate weapon.

But she fights for love and justice just like anybody else.

Art wise, If you've ever seen a Go Nagai show, you know what to expect in this department. Characters are attractively designed and backgrounds are sufficiently detailed. Great attention is paid to the abundance of naked bodies and nothing ever seems out of proportion. The animation quality may be a little below par, but it's nothing that makes you take notice of it as being particularly poor. 

The production values for Kekko Kamen are minimal. While the (all-cel) animation isn't awful, shortcuts are taken wherever possible and movements at times look amateurish and cheaply-done. Backgrounds, though of mediocre artistic merit, are blended seamlessly with character animation, while the quality of the character designs varies markedly depending on how important the character is and how much of the character's screen time involves nudity. Fresh-faced Mayumi in particular looks appealing (if a bit cartoonish), while Yuka just looks weird; it could be that the proportions in her face are a bit off, or it could be the shape of her eyes, I'm not sure. Special attention is paid to depicting attractive-looking breasts, which are never small but also are never outlandishly proportioned. (Kekko has quite a rack, for instance, but she's also solidly-built and broad-shouldered so it seems natural.) Those looking for shots of genitalia are going to be disappointed, as the artists took the “Barbie doll” approach to avoiding pubic region detail in most cases and use gimmicks to avoid showing anything in others.

Our heroine defeated by muscles.

Sometimes, she realizes she's naked and shy.

Overall, while filled with comical action scenes, naughty scheming, and at least some attempt at establishing character relationships, Kekko Kamen is, in the end, really all about the nudity. Virtually all punishments devised by the school's principal & his teachers involve clothing being torn off female students, and Kekko Kamen herself never covers up anything more than her feet and head. Only one female character with any significant dialogue keeps her clothing intact throughout, and the heavily-victimized Mayumi spends nearly as much time partly or completely naked as she does fully clothed. I don't think there's more than five continuous minutes at any point in the series without at least some nudity. Add to that the occasional S&M elements, some extremely ribald humor (one of the female characters is an android with an off switch in an interesting place), and Kekko's signature Open Thighs Jump attack and you have a voyeur's dream. 

Obviously, Kekko Kamen will never be mistaken for one of the elite anime titles, but it is an amusing view and should be well-appreciated by fans of ecchi content.


The English dub trailer:





a Kekko Kamen tribute from Fanime 2002:





Kekko Kamen No Uta, the main theme song from the OVA:





The brief opening & ending: