is an early hentai series. The first Cream Lemon OVA was released in August 1984, though Cream Lemon was not the first hentai OVA. The first was Lolita Anime, released earlier in February 1984. Patrick W. Galbraith writes that Cream Lemon "was by far the longest running and most influential" hentai series in the 1980s and "laid the foundation for pornographic animation in Japan".
Related to Cream Lemon is the Project A-ko franchise, which was meant to be the third installment of Cream Lemon but changed during production to be a mainstream film. The only remaining indication is the bath scene with B-ko. Adult entertainment company Excalibur Films dubbed, edited, and released in English five Cream Lemon OVAs as parts two and three of their three-volume Brothers Grime X-Rated Cartoons series in 1987 and 1989. In 1987, Brazilian distributor Everest Video licensed the series and released much of it on VHS, in uncensored form.
Plot
Cream Lemon is a collection of sometimes surreal stories having different settings and situations, with genres including fantasy, comedy, suspense, sci-fi, action, drama, mecha, magical girl, horror, and mystery. The overriding theme of the series is sex of almost any kind imaginable. Most chapters stand alone as separate titles, having no relation to any other stories within the Cream Lemon series. The main recurring character is Ami Nonomura, who has an incestuous relationship with her step-brother Hiroshi.
Cream Lemon often focuses on unrealistic and exaggerated sexual themes. One example is the story of a teenage girl who does not like having sex because of a series of rapes in her family. To cure this, the school counselor orders her to strip in front of the art class and masturbate herself to the point of orgasm. She then has public sex with a boy and likes it, causing the whole class to start having sex. Many others are similarly surreal.
Media Cream Lemon
Cream Lemon Omnibus
New Cream Lemon
Ami: From Then On The Ami: From Then On OVAs are an alternate ending to the Ami series, replacing the 1986 theatrical short film Going on a Journey: Ami Final Chapter.
Manga Artist Series Due to the moral panic after the arrest of Tsutomu Miyazaki, three episodes of this series besides "Magic City Astalot" had sex scenes removed and were released as "The VHS Series". Later, the uncensored works were released as "full versions".
Cream Lemon Special
Anniversary Specials
New Century Cream Lemon After eight years, the first in a brief new age of Cream Lemon OVAs made its appearance, with another following the year after. The episodes are connected to the "Escalation" and "Ami" series.
Non-pornographic animation A music video, Ami Image: White Shadow, as well as a feature film, Going on a Journey: Ami Final Chapter, were released in 1985 and 1986, respectively. Ami Final Chapter was screened as a double feature alongside Project A-ko. They were bundled onto a single LaserDisc set released by Pony Canyon on September 21, 1986.
An OVA series titled Cream Lemon: New Generation was released in 2006.
Ami Image/Journey
Cream Lemon: New Generation
Live-action In March 1997, a live-action video based on the Escalation series was released under the title Cream Lemon Escalation: Angel Wings.
A romantic live action film titled Cream Lemon, loosely based on the Ami series, was released in Japanese theaters on September 25, 2004. It was directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita, with Chiharu Muraishi as Ami and Kenji Mizuhashi as Hiroshi.
A nine-episode erotic V-Cinema (direct-to-video) series, Cream Lemon Label, focusing on forbidden brother-sister relationships, was released from September 16, 2005, to March 28, 2008, with the last episode also being released in theaters on February 23, 2008.
Video games Title Platform Publisher(s) Release datePC-8801 mkII SRJASTJanuary 26, 1986PC-9801 VMFM-7MSXFM-7Pony CanyonApril 1987PC-9801 VMFairy DustJuly 9, 1993Windows 3.1March 1995MacPC-9801 VMFairy DustJune 24, 1994PC-9801 VMFairy DustOctober 17, 1994PC-9801 VMFairy DustMarch 4, 1995PC-9801 VMFairy DustApril 7, 1995Windows 3.1Fairy DustAugust 1995MacWindows 95June 1996PC-9801 VMFairy DustSeptember 1, 1995Windows 95Fairy DustMarch 1996MacPC-9801 VMFairy DustMarch 29, 1996PC-9801 VMFairy DustSeptember 13, 1996Windows 95Windows 3.1Fairy DustOctober 1996MacWindows 95Fairy DustJune 1997Windows 95/98Fairy DustJune 1999Windows 95/98Fairy DustJune 2002DMM.comFairy DustJuly 1, 2014
Re-releases Green Bunny distributed the Cream Lemon OVAs across eighteen DVD sets from October 25, 1999, to August 25, 2000. AMG Entertainment released a single DVD box set on April 20, 2007.
Voice actors Ami series Hitomi Oikawa as Ami Nonomura Nobuo Tobita as Hiroshi Nonomura Natsumi Sasaki as Satomi Kudō Arisa Andō as Kyōko Terasawa Narumi Tsunoda as Yasuko Nonomura & Kyōko Hori Kōichi Hashimoto as Ryūji Kōno
Escalation series Narumi Tsunoda as Naomi Hayakawa Arisa Andō as Rie Komatsuzaki Natsumi Sasaki as Midori Ōmori Hitomi Oikawa as Teacher Miki Itō as Mari Ikuya Sawaki as Naomi's father Naoko Matsui as Arisa Kuriki
Rall series Sanae Miyuki as Caron Daisuke Gōri as Ramorue Seiko Nakano as Peruru Arisa Andō as Yulia Nobuo Tobita as Raike Kae Araki as Sara
Pop Chaser Yoshiko Sakakibara as Rio Makoto Kōsaka (Yoshie Takaishi) as Mai Keaton Yamada as Bartender Norio Wakamoto as Zack
Mako series Mayumi Shō & Miki Itō as Mako Kiryū Shigeru Nakahara as Yū Masako Miura as Free & Repress Hitomi Oikawa as Friend C Narumi Tsunoda as Friend
Super Virgin Arisa Andō as Mako Aya Mizoguchi as Iiya Ōane Hiroyuki Shibamoto as Tamaki
Happening Summer Hirotaka Suzuoki as Akira Maria Kawamura as Keiko Naoko Matsui as Yuki Minako Arakawa as Etsuko Aoki
Star Trap Chieko Honda as Ran Sanae Miyuki as Kanata Kōichi Hashimoto as Joke Tōgō
Black Cat Manor series Arisa Andō as Marisa Ayukawa Yuuichi Meguro as Masaki Murakami Yoshino Ohtori as Saeko Ayukawa Aya Mizoguchi as Aya Ōmuro
Nalice Scramble Chieko Honda as Narisu Madogiwa Kenichi Ogata as Principal Madogiwa Emi Shinohara as Rami Ichimonji Aya Mizoguchi as An Koshi & Kyan Hitomi Yumi Takada as Seiko Madogiwa
Reception AVN reviewed volumes two and three of the Brothers Grime X-Rated Cartoons series.
Notes
References
McCarthy, Helen and Jonathan Clements. The Erotic Anime Movie Guide. London: Titan Books, 1998. . (Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, 1999. .) Chapter 5 covers Cream Lemon in detail.
External links Cream Lemon official site Official episode list