Anime Information
Contact Me
Series Info
A Main
History Of Anime
What Is Anime
What Is Manga
General Info
Anime 101
Ai no Kusabi
Ai no Kusabi originally was a novel/novels and radio drama, and by the time the anime came out (released by June video as two 1 hour OAVs), it was assumed that you knew all about the story, which makes AnK a bit confusing at times. But I did my research before seeing it, so I didn't really get lost when I finally got my hands on a copy. This is the arguably most graphic yaoi anime ever made, so if this sort of thing offends you, you won't enjoy it, but it's a surprisingly well-made anime, tastefully done despite the subject and extremely well written with wit and ironic humor.
(The following info is a brief intro to the world of AnK. This information was summarized from summary notes placed at the beginning of the fansub tapes. Without this info, things would be even more confusing!)
Tanagara is the capital city of the planet Amoi. The planet is run by a supercomputer called Jupiter, which is sentient. Jupiter was originally created as a tool but it ended up overthrowing what human government there was and ruling in its stead. The population is almost all male, and one's social status is determined by hair color. Blondes, or "Blondies" as they are called, are at the top of the social ladder with silver, blue, green, red and black following down the ladder, in that order. The Blondies are genetically engineered to be superior to normal humans, but are sterile. These select few, like Iason Mink and Raoul, lead the rest of the elites and are held in high esteem. The elites keep "Pets" - young bishonen who copulate with one another for the Blondies' voyueristic entertainment and are specially bred and trained for the task, tagged with rings around their penises - and "Furniture" - castrated males from the slums who serve as bodyguards for Blondies and their pets. Favored pets are kept in condos in Apatia in the Midas suburb of Eos. On the opposite end of the spectrum from the elites are "mongrels" from the slum city of Ceres, who reproduce naturally and are not even "citizens" - citizens get to live in suburbs/satellite towns like Midas. The people in Ceres are descendants of a group who had risen and rebelled against Jupiter but failed and were cast out of Tanagara. And so... when Iason decides to take Riki, a mongrel, as his favorite pet, rumors fly and the social infrastructure is shaken. Riki is too old to be a pet (he's 17 to 20 during the time covered in the story), wasn't trained or raised to be a pet and is in fact a mongrel (pets are usually citizens, I believe). Plus, Iason has no intention of letting him go (most pets are only kept for a year) and even has sex with him (which is taboo). Confusing? Sorry, but that's how it is... if you would like more clarification and information, please read the my summaries and/or e-mail me with questions.
I understand that the anime and novels differ in several aspects in regards to the plot, but since I have only seen the animes, I can only make my deductions and summaries from there. So I have summaries for OAVs I and II, which I wrote up while watching the anime, and a few pages describing the main characters. There were so few images out on the web that I ended up doing a lot of screen caps too. I'd appreciate a link back if you chose to use the summaries or any of my screen caps from this site.
Special Thanks to: Bishonen no Miko from Katze no Miko's Ai no Kusabi Hall for the information.
© Copyright 1995 - 2002 TAP Productions. It is forbidden to copy any text, images, content, or other form of media without the expressed written consent of the webmasters. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. All material found used without permission will result in legal action per The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.