Aoi House V. 1

Have you ever heard it said that if you tried to appease everyone you run the chance of appeasing nobody?
That is the thought we hold in mind as we approach Aoi House, a title that is supposed to appeal to BOTH male and female readers alike with male and female fan service… which will become painfully obvious as you start looking into this one to realize that fan service IS the order of the day with this one.
Now sit down my Yaoi pet… and yes, that is as awkward as it sounds… as I tell you of two losers (Alex the good looking but not all there guy, and Sandy the eternally doomed to being hit and tortured geek) who seem to have a disconnect with the thing called “reality” as they are thrown out of their latest college dorming after so many incidents which ended in the forced “mating” of Sandy’s pet ham-ham “Echiboo” (which is supposed to be Ebichu because Echiboo is… something nasty, which fits this not so pure ham-ham) with one of the “authority” of the college’s hairpieces… ew.
Forced to look for new housing they decide to crash at a local anime group’s pad only to find that it’s filled with women who have the hots for hot guy on guy action (Yaoi)… Yaoi? You don’t know… maybe you do, but just in case… There are two main trains of “thoughts” when it comes to gay/lesbian connections. Yaoi/Yuri. This is basically just a simplified explanation just so we get the meaning across, though I am sure there are more complex explanations out there.
Yuri, of course, is woman on woman (a popular urban myth is that Yuri as a term came about is a reference to the dark haired Yuri from the Dirty Pair series, who was often written in fan writings as a couple with Kei -- btw, Yuri‘s English voice actress from the Carl Macek days of Streamline dubs is, yup, popular English voice actress Wendee Lee).
Yaoi, then as reason has it, is the opposite. The train of thought of man on man couplings.
This is the lifeblood of Aoi House, originally called “Yaoi House” before the “Y” mysteriously fell off the house -- maybe it was crazed woman Morgan’s fault… anyway for whatever reason two straight guys (their hamster and a new female member who happened to show up the same day the guys showed up) have become accepted into a house of questionable women whose motives for having them there vary (from the need to keep them in order to keep their club going, to the need to make one of them her personal Yaoi pet).
The house is a who’s who of stereotypes.
The hyperactively violently high strung Elle (good at synchronized swimming, from a rich family, and favorite “victim” of Echiboo’s panty thieving) starts us off a the President of Yaoi House (Aoi House). Then we have Nobue wannabe Nina, who drinks and smokes her way into our hearts… right. Nobue is better than that. After that the total tease Jessica who trains as a nurse, dresses in nurses’ gear or little bitty panties/top (and seems to victimize Sandy a lot and takes advantage of his insecurity with women without ever being … yeah, I didn’t think he’d ever get any either).
New member Maria (the glasses wearing reserved personality, as if there was any other kind), and finally the insanity that is Morgan (and yet it’s somehow a cute insanity).
Oh, and then there’s the mysterious “Carlos” he or she (or both) who founded the organization originally. All of these form the essential “meat” of the series, and perhaps it’s fatal flaw.
The title is pure fan service fun, and maybe that might be a turnoff because you will find that there is lots of fan service, right… but very little that you haven’t seen before. The title is nice, but is a living breathing walking sign of humor that (if it worked once) works over and over again, like the gift that keeps giving that isn’t Ebola or the Bird Flu pandemic.
However if you were hoping for a fresh breeze of original from Aoi House you will mostly be disappointed. I am sure, very sure, that quite abit of this is “been there done that” territory that doesn’t feel all that fresh. It’s nice, and the read is raunchy bit of naughty (since no punches are pulled except the most obvious bits of “censorship” which doesn’t hurt this title in the slightest in this Older Teen 16+ fare) but it is not a fresh original breeze of naughty guilty pleasure. A pleasure, but abit dated or at least not showing anything you probably have seen before in humor genres that do the fan service thing.
Aoi House Breakdown the 1st
What’s Hot?
The title reads like a little humor guilty pleasure filled with fan service and biting humor. Nice, and a nice change of pace from titles that play it all too safe, so I do have a soft spot for Aoi House.
What’s Not?
Now I didn’t say it was an original slice of guilty pleasure, just a guilty pleasure worth reading.
Don’t expect the title to remake the fan service wheel or anything when you read it, just expect a nice read.
Moments to Remember?
Way way lots… definitely lots. You betcha.
What to Ignore?
Uh… maybe you saw it before but you might as well ignore it since it’s still somewhat good in these days where people are just too darn sensitive about every little thing. A little guilty pleasure read now and then is a good thing, even if it is abit familiar in territory.
Overall?
I can’t think of much else to say that I haven’t said already so I’ll just finish it off.
I couldn’t give this a 3 because it wasn’t horrible. I couldn’t give it a 5 because it’s not perfect.
So I split the difference and give it a 4... Out of 5. Nuff said.