Interspecies Reviewers (Limited Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing [NSFW]

Interspecies Reviewers (異種族レビュアーズ, Ishuzoku Rebyuāzu) is a 2020 television anime series based on Amahara’s manga series of the same name. It was produced by studio Passione with director Yuki Ogawa, writer Kazuyuki Fudeyasu, and music composed by Kotone Uchihigashi. The series first broadcast in Japan in the month of January as part of the Winter season.

Background:

“In a world bursting at the seams with moe monsters and humanoids of the horned sort, which brave heroes will take it upon themselves to review the beastly babes of the red-light district? Behold the most tantalizing of trials.”

Plot Synopsis via Rightstuf & Critical Mass Video, December 2021.

Well this is going to be a fun one to talk about. In the years that I have watched anime, I have never seen a fiasco as mad as what had happened with Interspecies Reviewers. So let’s rewind back and go over the context as to what exactly occurred. Interspecies Reviewers is a manga series that has a simple concept – reviewing brothels from various species – and the manga does this in a way that basically does not cover the explicit scenes themselves. The characters do review their experiences but it’s drawn in a way that doesn’t limit its target audience or distribution. In other words, it’s safe enough for a publisher like Yen Press to release it in English.

When Kadokawa announced it would be adapted into an anime, studio Passione decided to elevate the source material but not only adapting the scenes faithfully (covering the first three manga volumes I believe) – they also adapted the actual explicit scenes themselves which wasn’t particularly made known to the public it seems. There was also a specific scene in the opening that exposed the characters’ genitals which was censored for Japanese broadcast but not for Taiwanese broadcast. I have no idea how this had happened, but my only guess was that someone in Passione probably decided to draw them for the hell of it. I do think this was an animation error though as it was probably supposed to have been covered up to begin with, due to Japanese law requirements.

Funimation licensed Interspecies Reviewers for their platform like any other show, and even began to simuldub it but because of what Passione had done for their adaptation, it was basically too much for the distributor to handle so they decided to stop streaming the series. The issue here however, is that the distributor didn’t really let go of the license and blocked it from streaming across all of the platforms that were under their banner, with the exception of Anime Lab in Australia, which was then later removed when the site was taken over by Funimation Australia. The handling from the distributor was extremely poor, and while it’s possible that Funimation wasn’t able to let the license go entirely, they should have at least provided the streaming rights to Crunchyroll or allow someone like HIDIVE to take over in the meantime.

Either way, there was good news in the end. Rightstuf announced during a convention that they had acquired the home video rights for Interspecies Reviewers and would release it under their adult label Critical Mass Video in its uncensored and uncut form using the Japanese Blu-ray masters. Considering the fanservice and scenes in particular it does make sense to promote the show under that label, but at the same time it’s a solid marketing move as it would also provide more exposure to that label in a way. The downside is that they only acquired the rights for United States and Canada territories.

I did watch Interspecies Reviewers in its uncensored form just to see how extreme the scenes were, and while it does contain a lot of references to the various foreplay etc, there are specific elements that can be of concern. The Halfling race in particular is probably the one that broke Australia’s Classification board as the series did receive a Refused Classification rating for home video. No UK distributor has attempted to release Interspecies Reviewers and have it rated, but I speculate that 95% of the content would pass without issues while the 5% (the Halfling scenes) would likely be cut. Either way, it is a shame that Rightstuf didn’t go as far as acquiring the Region B rights to make their release more accessible, but I suppose the blame for that is down to Kadokawa and their licensing requirements.

In the end, the show does have a happy ending in terms of being released on Blu-ray but the streaming side definitely could have been treated better.

Limited Edition Contents:

When Rightstuf releases a hentai on Blu-ray, it generally receives a regular set as per normal. And while the distributor placed Interspecies Reviewers under their hentai label, in the end it is still a regular anime show that doesn’t actually display any of the parts that would classify itself as a hentai. The sex scenes are there, but in age rating terms it wouldn’t really jump from a BBFC 18 (for ages 18 and over) to BBFC R18 (exclusively used for pornography) for comparison. Also, the series is quite popular so the distributor decided to offer a special package to celebrate its official release.

Interspecies Reviewers is presented as a steelbook, which I believe is the first time Rightstuf have done that for their titles or at the very least in a very long while. The steelbook has no nudity and is simplistic but the artbook that comes with the package makes up for it. The set also includes the show’s original soundtrack on CD, but does not include the opening and closing theme songs.

The artbook is 170 pages long and comes with storyboards, illustrations and a manga section with three short stories. The book itself is the same size as the steelbook so you can slot it next to the set or place it alongside the manga for instance.

The artwork is free of any information or specification. The limited edition Blu-ray steelbook has an unspecified amount of units available but I wouldn’t be surprised if it sells out sooner than later. The SRP for the set is $99.98.

I didn’t pre-order the series, but stock was readily available on United Publications so I decided to order it from them since it was easier to receive it.

Physical Contents:

• Steelbook packaging with clean artwork
• 172-page Artbook

Soundtrack List:

1. The Beginning
2. Red-light district
3. Stunk
4. Pinkish illusion
5. Bustling Bar
6. Review on the wall
7. Crisis
8. Eyecatch
9. Rescue from crisis
10. In the Town
11. Crimvael’s Relief
12. I am male certainly
13. Walking in a forest
14. Baroque
15. Fanfare
16. Playing tag
17. Declaration
18. Light
19. Inside skin
20. Go to heaven
21. Mitsue’s room
22. Running around
23. Here we go
24. Psyched
25. Smoky review
26. Marionettes
27. Darkness
28. Castle
29. The Night
30. Blue lake
31. Flying in starry sky
32. Calmful time
33. Magical city II
34. Tragedy
35. Sorrowful fist
36. Up tempo
37. Western
38. Nobility
39. Parade
40. Popularity contest
41. Magical city I
42. Marching

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Rightstuf & Critical Mass Video
Released: 18th January 2022

The limited edition Blu-ray steelbook release for Interspecies Reviewers contains all 12 episodes across two Blu-ray discs, with the encode and authoring produced by Rightstuf’s Critical Mass Video label. While Funimation did produce an English dub for the first few episodes, this release is Japanese audio with English subtitles only.

As mentioned before, this is the Japanese Blu-ray version which is uncensored and uncut. The opening sequence does have censors during the brief genital moments in contrast to its Taiwanese broadcast.

The yellow subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the regions are locked to Blu-ray players set to A.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	Japanese
Audio	Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	A
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	2 BD-50s

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 1:

• Next Episode Previews 1 to 4
• Episode 6 Alternate B Part
• Clean Opening “Ikōze☆Paradise”

Disc 2:

• Next Episode Previews 5 to 8
• Next Episode Previews 9 to 12
• Clean Ending “Hanabira Ondo”
• Announcement Trailer
• US Trailer
• Commercials

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

Interspecies Reviewers was distributed via Rightstuf’s Adult label Critical Mass Video so there will be limited availability to access the series on Blu-ray. You can however order the release over on Rightstuf which offers international shipping and pre-paid VAT, or if you live in the UK you can also order through United Publications.