Netsuzou Trap -NTR- - Eps. 1-3

If Scum’s Wish gave you a taste for just how messed up relationships can get in anime, then boy are you in for a treat with Netsuzou Trap -NTR-. Even the blatancy of the title seems to be beckoning you with promises of sordid deeds, and a no-holds-barred approach to the seedier side of romance (or rather, the lack of it).

The series starts innocently enough, introducing us to cute childhood friends Yuma and Hotaru. Yuma has just nabbed herself a hunky new boyfriend, but she’s nervous about going the extra mile with him, so asks Hotaru for advice. Cue the classic line about ‘practice’ and before you know it, Hotaru and Yuma have been there, done that - et voilà Netsuzou Trap -NTR- has kicked off its weirdly irresistible train wreck of a story. Going heavy on the fanservice and offering up a hefty quota of girl-on-girl action in each episode, it’s easy to dismiss Netsuzou Trap -NTR- as this season’s go-to option for aficionados of all things lewd [Where’s our Catgirl Correspondent when you need him? - Ed.]; but is there anything more to it than skin-deep thrills?

Unfortunately, this is where the show falls down. Where Scum’s Wish had deep, relatable, characters, and made efforts to portray itself seriously, Netsuzou Trap -NTR- feels like it belongs far more to the School Days lineage. It’s one of those shows which actively feel mean spirited about its cast. This is a sexy, luxuriant series - no two bones about it - but it's also irredeemable filth. You either give in to it completely, or douse it in lighter fuel and strike a match.

The two girls go through the motions of their behind-closed-doors tryst, and we get glimpses of their relationship with the two boys in the series: Yuma’s bland boyfriend material Takeda, and the more mysterious Fujiwara. Fujiwara is ostensibly Hotaru’s boyfriend, but it quickly emerges that there is more to their relationship than meets the eye, and that Fujiwara is physically abusing Hotaru. When Yuma confronts him about this, the scoundrel laughs it off and suggests a threesome between the two gal-pals and himself.

These are the depths that Netsuzou Trap -NTR- sinks to in its constant one-upmanship to present the very limits of high-school depravity. It’s exploitative, it’s tacky, it’s cliched… and yet we can’t stop watching. With each episode only clocking in at 9 minutes, it never outstays its welcome, and becomes an almost junk-food like experience; quickly experienced, quickly forgotten, often regretted, and absolutely bad for you - but weirdly enjoyable at the time.

You can currently watch Netsuzou Trap -NTR- in streaming form on Crunchyroll.