She-males have been done before, but usually in a fantasy setting,
comedy, or as a matter-of-fact thing. Chimera takes thing a bit differently
in that it approaches the subject more seriously by actually building a story
around it, and instead of she-males doing it with girls, our sexually ambiguous
lead Rei does it with men. But because the show isn't very explicit, it still
very much looks like an ordinary male-female coupling.
Set
in a world of crime where sex, drugs, betrayal and revenge is rampant, Rei is
introduced as the right hand (wo)man of crime lord John Roy. Little does he know
Rei was the boy whose family he killed, then raped and scarred. It's interesting
to see how close the two get together even after the skeletons fall out of the
closet. There's an odd sense of love at work here. Rei has a very ambiguous character,
but still retains the coldness and distance that a killer needs, though is that
a bit of sadness in her eyes I see? The premise is quite interesting, and the
ideas are good, but somehow the execution lacks the dynamics, style and dramatics
for it to truly work. And while made in 1997, the show feels like an 80s production.
It's really too bad the show isn't explicit, which
is a shame, because this is where I think explicitness would have added an extra
dimension of perversion, and create a nice and twisted mood of pleasure, disgust,
love & pain, without going to the extremes of bondage rape hentai.
In
short, Chimera is a good idea but a disappointing effort.
