Type of Site: Cartoon
Address: 
www.hentaimoviearchives.net 
Price:
$29.95/month  
Date of Review:
March, 2005
Pornreports Rating: 

    

Review:

(Note: Hentai Key is a better option.-Eds.)

We don't usually talk about our own biases when it comes to reviewing a site. Sometimes, however, an extra word should be added. This is the case with Hentai Movie Archive. Hentai, as we're sure you already know, is Japanese animated porn. And to be honest, we just don't get it.

What is is it about Japanese culture that led it to produce so much hardcore toonage? Was it because the Japanese animation industry was already so well developed they were able to produce it cheaper? Or do Japanese guys really get off on all these schoolgirls with dinner-plate eyes, pointy chins, and enormous tits being fucked by demons and alien tentacle monsters? Has anybody figured it out?

Whatever the cause, there is now a shitload of this stuff out there. And the Hentai Movie Archive has done quite a job ripping it so you can download all you want.

The layout is really simple (and since you can browse the whole site and do everything except download the movies on the tour, we strongly suggest you do so). The movies are arranged alphabetically by title. For each movie you get a box cover, a bunch of screen captures, and a brief description of what it's about. The files are very large, averaging around 250 megs each, because each file is a complete 30-minute (approximately) episode. So you will want a very fast connection (and even then it can be slow). We would plan on having a good book to read while you're downloading. 

Given that this site is letting you download full movies we did wonder a bit about copyright issues. Especially when it leads off with one of the most bizarre warnings we've ever seen:

WARNING: IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE ORIGINAL VHS OR DVD, YOU CAN'T DOWNLOAD ANYTHING FROM THIS WEBSITE OR YOU'LL MAKE AN ILLEGAL ACTION. WE HAVE ALL THE ORIGINALS VHS. ALL MOVIES/EPISODES IN THIS WEBSITE ARE FOR INFORMATION/DEMOSTRATION PURPOSE ONLY!

Uh-huh. So we're supposed to spend $30 to download movies we already own? Yeah, that makes sense. Just how legal is this shit? We have serious doubts. And it gets worse:

"For controversial reasons, if you are affiliated with any government, ANTI-Piracy group or any other related group, or were formally a worker of one you CANNOT enter this web site, cannot access any of its files and you cannot view any of the HTML files."

"For controversial reasons." Oh boy. And aren't anti-piracy groups supposed to be the good guys? 

Anyhow, in case you don't really care, here's the breakdown: over 100 full movies. Most of it is classic stuff (hey, even we've heard of some of them). Video quality is outstanding (near DVD quality, and plays great fullscreen), but you will need the DivX codec. There are no extras.

Here's what we missed:

(1) Subtitles! OK, maybe not all of these movies have subtitled versions. And some of the ones they have here do have subtitles. But none of the ones we looked at did. So if you don't know Japanese you are going to be lost. Of course, maybe you don't listen to porn with the sound turned on anyway. But these movies do have stories that they spend some time developing. Unfortunately, aside from what we could get out of the brief descriptions on the download pages we had no idea what was going on.

(2) Search function. As noted, the only way to browse through the content is the alphabetical index. But each movie is also categorized as Comedy, Fantasy, Drama, Horror, etc. Would it be too hard to let us browse by category?

(3) Smaller files. Sure it's nice to download full movies, but that may be way more than you want. Why not let members download shorter scenes?

As far as niche archives go, this one certainly offers you a lot of bang for your buck. It's pricey, but you'd expect that from such a bandwidth-intensive site. There are other video archives that are a lot more user friendly, but if you're just looking for Hentai you'll probably want to check it out. God knows how long it's going to be around for.

Other Reviews of This Site:

---Porn Inspector 
---Sir Rodney 
---Self Lover's World 

Similar Sites Under Review:

---Hentai Key