Okane ga Nai

Webmaster's note: This review covers only the first episode of the anime.

One of the most expected animes of this year has been released at last, but has raised a wide range of opinions among the viewers that go from love to blatant hate; nevertheless, they all agree in one fact: the art left plenty to hope for. Low budget or simply bad taste? Perhaps we will never know.

The plot, thank God, is something else, despite being simple. Everything starts when the college student Yukiya Ayase is sold on an auction to Somuku Kanou, who is the president of a profitable company.

At first Ayase is grateful with this man for saving him, but when Kanou reveals to him that his cousin (the only family Ayase has) sold him in order to pay his debts, Ayase is reluctant to believe him. If you add that later on Kanou rapes him, Ayase has motives enough to distrust this man and fear him, which brings him to ask for his freedom. Kanou replies that he will set him free as soon as he pays the total amount of money he paid for him, plus a small extra. Since we are talking of millions here and there is no way Ayase can gather that much money, Kanou settles for a paying system, in which he will deduct a generous amount of money from Ayase's debt everytime he surrenders his body to him. Ayase is forced then to agree.

Now let's not think wrongly about Kanou; he is not a mean man. There is a flashback in the anime that shows a previous meeting between the main characters, with the difference that in said occasion, it was Ayase who helped Kanou. From that moment, Kanou fell in love with the boy and the only thing he truly wants is to be loved in return, too bad for him he is so inexperienced in showing/receiving affection he is unsure of what to do to make Ayase love him.

That is as far as the first episode goes, but because of what happens in the manga, we can anticipate a sweet romance out of this.

As I said in the beginning, the art isn't good; it is sketchy, rough and there are times when it looks slightly better than a Flash animation. Some aspects of the character's design are also off, like Ayase's eyes, which look like big blue blurs. The sex scene is also disappointing (especially for hardcore fans) and it rescues the infamous technique of Level C for showing a man's genitalia.

With all these, was it worth watching? I enjoyed it very much, but I'm waiting for the next episode to state my final decision.