It’s been forever since I reviewed a hentai, but the wait is worth it.  SO worth it.

I will be reviewing both Class Reunion and Class Reunion Again, the two-episode “sequel.”  I easily could have reviewed both at once, but… well, there’s a pretty good reason for keeping them separate.

Basically, the series is about a middle school tennis club meeting up after high school.

The main character is Tatsuya, an unremarkable but good-looking, good-natured guy.

Living next door to him is another tennis club member, Tatsuya’s childhood friend Ayu.

It’s part of Ayu’s routine to wake Tatsuya up, but today she’s also reminding him about the reunion.  Turns out, Tatsuya already had plans to have their friend Yosuke drive him, and this kinda pisses Ayu off.

Meanwhile, the big guy of the club and apparently the only one of them still playing tennis, Ryusuke, rides a train to the meeting place and has a stalker-Kohai, Kanako, follow him.

The abrasive nerd of the group, Susumu, goes alone in what is sure to be representative of his fate in this series.

Mizuho and Midori round out team “won’t get laid.”

It should be noted here that Midori and Yosuke used to date, but broke up for unknown reasons.  Midori’s the one who broke up with Yosuke, BTW, and she won’t stop being a bitch around him.

Meanwhile, we learn that Tatsuya is in love with a certain girl.  He doesn’t know WHO she is, just that she’s in the tennis club and she left him some daisies and a love letter way back when.

The class reunion is at some bed & breakfast mansion or whatever, and hey, they’ve got tennis courts too!

Tatsuya and Yosuke show up late because Yosuke’s crappy car tends to break down, but they make it.  And they’re not nearly as late as Fujio and Makoto.

Makoto, the librarian / club manager, changed the most out of anyone, becoming a supermodel.

The series wastes no time establishing some hints that Makoto likes Tatsuya and is jealous of any other girl who gets close to him.  Ayu’s like that too, but we all expected that of her.

While everyone goes ga-ga over Makoto, they’re distracted by Mizuho, who drops a teacup due to a bout of generic weak body disease.

So Tatsuya helps Mizuho get to bed and… nothing happens really.  Yosuke takes the opportunity to try and hit on her, but that doesn’t go smoothly either.

In case it wasn’t obvious from the glances she stole, Mizuho has been harboring a major crush over Tatsuya.  She also seems really self-conscious about her illness, and she does something stupid like walk away from the reunion so she doesn’t become a burden to her friends again.  Fortunately, the uber-late last member of the club, Shizuka, sees Mizuho on the road and brings her back on her motorcycle.

So now, the whole gang is finally back together in full, but Makoto doesn’t appreciate everyone fawning over Mizuho and chews her out a bit, spoiling the mood.

Later on, the gang talks about what their plans are for the future.  Yosuke says he’s in a band, Fujio plans to follow his father’s footsteps, Susumu wants to be a government official, and Tatsuya… hasn’t really put any thought into it.  Makoto takes the opportunity to make her affections clear.

Later on, Makoto manages to get Tatsuya alone and put the moves on him.

When that doesn’t work, she pretends to be sick, forcing Tatsuya to take her to his room.  There, she reveals she was faking it, calling it an “impression of Mizuho.”  Yeah, it’s kinda obvious how she feels about her.  This pisses Tatsuya a bit off.  That is, until Makoto talks about how she’s had a crush on him since middle school.

So I guess, naturally, Tatsuya thinks Makoto is the Daisy Girl.  Plus, he’s a bit tipsy and she’s hot, so yeah.  Sounds like a win.

So, while the new lovers bask in their… let’s say catharsis… one of the two best scenes in the series happens.

The next morning, Makoto is gone for another shoot, while Ayu is still… I dunno, traumatized or something over last night.  Meanwhile, Momoko talks about the episode’s theme.

Pretty much everyone around Ayu knows something’s off with her, but they’re not sure what.  Yosuke tries to cheer her up… by hitting on her.  And then he gets hit.  He sports a black eye for the rest of the episode.

They gang is also looking forward to the fireworks show.  Especially Kanako, who finally decides to confess to Ryusuke.

Ryusuke tries to cope, and Tatsuya is also trying to process his new situation.  Luckily, Yosuke… actually has some solid advice.

It rains that night, so the planned fireworks show is off.  Ryusuke figures Kanako is still waiting for him (and she is).  He decides to return Kanako’s feelings right then and there.

And I’m not lying.  Ryusuke and Kanako actually have a sex scene at the hot springs they go to to warm up.  That’s totally not sanitary.

The next night has better weather, and most of the gang attends the fireworks festival.

For some reason, Yosuke repeats the urban legend about a couple being together during a fireworks display, but he downgrades it to “embracing” rather than “kissing.”

Naturally…

Mizuho snaps her slipper (those things are so flimsy, I swear) and falls into Tatsuya’s arms.  Also, it seems she can’t walk home by herself because… that’s how slippers work.  So Tatsuya has to carry her.

By the way, Ayu didn’t come, but she’s been holed up in her room thinking of a way to talk to Tatsuya and end the awkwardness between them.

Well guess what?

Now I know what you’re thinking.  This is just like the last episode’s ending.  Well, prepare to see the ante upped.

BEST HENTAI EVER!

The following morning…

Tatsuya sees one of Makoto’s posters and concludes that she 100% is the Daisy Girl, because… y’know, daisies.

So yeah… Makoto wasn’t the Daisy Girl.  Things are about to get awkward.

Like, right now.

IT’S NOT EVEN THE END OF THE EPISODE YET!

Well, sucks to be you, Fujio.

Still, Fujio says he won’t give up on Makoto, which is… I dunno, admirable, I guess.

Whatevs, it’s not Tatsuya’s problem anymore.

Oh, and apparently, after Makoto came to get Tatsuya and completely ignored Ayu and Mizuho being there, it seems Ayu helped Mizuho get home.  So, Mizuho came to bring Ayu a present to show her gratitude.

That’s right!  Turns out Mizuho is Daisy Girl.

Of course, Tatsuya doesn’t know this, and he’s busy wondering what he should do about his relationship with Makoto as well.  But he doesn’t get too much time to mope, as the gang is invited to Yosuke’s gig.

Turns out, his band kinda sucks.

The audience tears them apart, until Shizuka decides to save the day with her awesome guitar playing.

Well, either that or her tits.

Surprisingly, Yosuke and Shizuka make a detour to the beach after his concert and kinda randomly decide to fuck.

Thought Susumu and Shizuka were going to be a thing?  Thought Yosuke and Midori were going to patch things up and get back together?  NOOOOOPE.

Meanwhile, Tatsuya has to bring Ayu back home from the concert.

Just as Tatsuya turns to leave Ayu’s room (and, admirably NOT taking advantage of the situation, AND not even considering it… pretty rare for a hentai protagonist even in that era), he sees Mizuho’s gift.

So, in the next episode, Tatsuya starts treating Ayu differently now that he’s pretty sure Ayu is Daisy Girl.

This episode seems to be random date night though.  Tatsuya offers to take Ayu to some local amusement park since Yosuke gave him two tickets, and he’s bringing Midori.  Why Midori?  Because he called Shizuka, but Shizuka’s line was busy while this was happening:

Y’know, if Susumu HAS to go after Yosuke’s sloppy seconds, at least make it Midori so we can get another sex scene out of it.

Speaking of Yosuke and Midori…

So the double date-ish thing goes well, and Tatsuya finally tells Ayu about how in middle school, he was depressed because of a losing streak he had.  Ayu recalls the time and tells him that she noticed he secretly stayed at school after hours to train.

Since Tatsuya didn’t know Ayu knew about that, this only reinforces his belief that she’s Daisy Girl.  But then Tatsuya talks about how Daisy Girl left those daisies and that note in his locker, and it really cheered him up.  Ayu is confused, but she doesn’t seem to think it’s important that she say it wasn’t her.  To be fair, as far as she’s concerned, Tatsuya is just sharing something that happened and didn’t actually claim Ayu was her.

But while Ayu is being cheerful in her room, she happens to glance over and notice Mizuho’s gift and figures it out.

Ayu has a chat with Yosuke about Tatsuya, and interestingly enough, Yosuke thinks Tatsuya is still with Makoto… which is probably accurate.  As far as anyone can tell, Tatsuya never actually broke up with Makoto.  But then Yosuke brings up Daisy Girl and confirms Ayu’s suspicions.

You can practically picture the gears turning in Ayu’s head.

Later, Ayu and Tatsuya have a moment in Ayu’s room, and he finally asks if Ayu was Daisy Girl.

Ayu finally has Tatsuya and seems content, but the daisies serve as a reminder of her betrayal.

And guess what: That’s the end!  That’s right, that’s where we end our story.  Obviously it would make sense to have ONE more episode where can, say, see Susumu and Shizuka paired up, Yosuke and Midori put back together, and Tatsuya finding out it’s really Mizuho who was Daisy Girl, but… nope.  The series decides to end on this magnificent scene right here.

Wankability: 3
Class Reunion is a softcore hentai, which means a lot of under-the-sheets stuff, bare breasts and buttocks, but no pubic hair or visible genitalia.  It’s still plenty arousing, but admittedly tame.

Pleasure Rating: Proudly Displayed in a Glass Case
Quite possibly my favorite softcore hentai of all time, and I spent a long time trying to get my hands on End of Summer.  The characters and the drama were all top-notch, and it was plenty wankable.  It’s just a shame that some of the characters never got a H-scene.

Rewatchability: 3
It’s a legit good story, even if it’s a bit done.  It seems to have a lot of cookie-cutter elements, but still manages to do some completely unique things with the genre.

Music: Forgettable

Marketability: 2
All of the characters are unashamedly stock, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  At least some effort was put into fleshing them out with what little time they had.  I wouldn’t mind having maybe a poster of it, but that’s about all you can really take the property, if that.  Shizuka has probably the best design out of the entire cast, and that’s probably because she’s a tweak of Priss from Bubblegum Crisis.  It’s still a major shock that Midori of all girls is on the DVD cover.

Speaking of the DVD, I should note that it’s ONLY in Japanese.  I don’t understand why they felt the need to even include a language settings menu.

So, overall Class Reunion is in my opinion a top tier hentai.  We don’t get much of the softcore stuff nowadays, and stuff like this is why I’m always on the lookout for old hentai.  A vast majority of the new stuff is overdone fetish bait, and there’s barely anything that lands in the softcore category.  Everything is either ecchi teasing or hardcore.  I’d say the closest we have right now is Koe de Oshigoto!, which REALLY needs more episodes since it has such a stellar premise and the manga is already completed.

Now, I know the ending is kinda open-ended, but there IS the sequel, Class Reunion Again.  And by sequel, I mean it was made after Class Reunion.  I initially considered tacking it on to the end of this review, but I decided I’m going to post a separate review of it because it is really, REALLY fucking terrible, and a complete insult to the original.