Series Review - Mary Tachibana Cinematic Universe - Part 1

Hey guys, Oppaira here. Today I’m here with part 1 of 2 of a review of a series I’ve enjoyed watching from Das by director Jo Asagiri. It’s a multi-part video with all episodes featuring Mary Tachibana. In part one I’m going to go over all the entries and do a round of reviews for them. With that said let’s jump into it.

In this series they premise it as being their version of the multiverse, and they quite literally call it multiverse X Mary Tachibana. Or, as I’ve heard it called, their version of the MCU (the Mary Cinematic Universe). Each episode is generally a standalone episode though they are all part of an overarching narrative.

Each episode essentially explores her in a different job going about her life. It ranges each time, from something like a school nurse to a novelist and even to a pornstar! The idea is just as the title suggests: what if Mary was ___. Unlike other studios who have done the what if, this one is all drama focused. So instead of just having her wear a school nurse outfit in a scene and just tease you, they do the whole narrative and let it run its course.

All of the narratives seem to run their course as well, getting to a pretty satisfying conclusion. While maybe some of the conclusions might not be your cup of tea, they often position themselves to take on the next challenge as though it’s the only logical thing to do.

In the first episode we start off with Mary being a novelist who has a fling with her neighbour. His partner takes off on a trip to cheat on him (which he notices but says nothing about) and then he finds himself cheating on her with Mary at home. The first episode starts off pretty tame. It’s basically your typical cheating video where the actor and actress are alone together for some reason and have a fleeting romance. It’s very akin to things other studios have done, like the series S1 does.

In the second episode Mary is now an influencer who lives with her boyfriend. While they seem happily in love, enough to film themselves having sexy times together, she doesn’t know that he’s secretly using them for other things. As the video goes on, Mary goes through this mix of feeling betrayed, betraying him back, and then ultimately realizing their relationship can never be the same.

In episode three Mary plays the mistress to a bar owner. She’ll pour one for you at the club but you aren’t taking her home, she’s got her boss to go home with. However, that life lacks any emotional value, and she starts eying this cute konbini worker who is clearly into her. Mary winds up starting something with him, if only because she desperately craves real affection. Of course, no good thing can last, and when her boss finds out…

In episode four Mary becomes a school nurse. She runs into a student in desperate need of some help so she takes him under her wing. However, she realizes while caring for him that she develops some feeling for that lost soul, and when she’s spending so much alone time with him… The two of them find themselves going the distance, consequences be damned.

In episode five Mary is a whore and is intentionally dispassionate to prevent catching feelings. One day she meets a middle-aged real estate agent when she’s trying to find a new place. Awkwardly he ends up as her client, and Mary does her usual thing. However, she realizes that this man is actually what her life has been missing, and she realizes she’s with the wrong person.

In episode five a and a half (I’ll explain) Mary is a secret agent. As is typical fashion for these, her boss double-crosses her and her body is on the line now. As is typical in MCU entries, it goes down the path of her being captured, used, and having a very satisfying ending. I called this one five and a half because it’s technically not listed in the same series but it references other MCU entries as though it was.

In episode six Mary works for an AV company and one day is helping out during shoot for none other than Hibiki Otsuki. Hibiki senses a little spark in Mary and decides to see what’s there, first fooling around herself, then bringing in a guy. In the end, Hibiki convinces Mary that she’s better off not as the AD but as the star herself, and is there for her pornstar debut.

In episode seven, the finale of the Maryverse, we find out what has been going on all this time. Mary has been a pornstar and these have all been various shoots she’s been on. The jig is up, it’s just another porn series, don’t think too deeply about it. Or wait, is it? Because Mary has been hearing voices from herself in alternate universes. Have you enjoyed your life? Is it a happy ending? Have you felt like there’s something missing? Come with me.

The second episode was really tame. Influencer isn’t really much of a theme to go on if I’m being perfectly honest. It feels like maybe they got caught up a bit in trying to be hip than pick something with substance. Part of what makes this kind of content good is the fact that things feel different and varied. I want to see Mary be a role with good visuals and settings, not her having sex in her apartment in a bikini with a phone camera filming it. Even if you attach a narrative where she cheats on him after being betrayed, that doesn’t really make for an enjoyable film. I mean I guess some people who are into that might enjoy it but to me it’s not really conducive of good content.

I think videos can be good for a lot of reasons but they can just as easily be bad for a lot of reasons. The narrative in this one really wasn’t that strong. I mean sure, I can get behind a video with a clear direction in the narrative and the performance. And to some degree I can appreciate Mary going a complete 180 throughout the film, from shying away from kissing her client all the way to making out quite heavily. At the same time her job just really wasn’t it, even if I think it might hit home a bit for a society where things like soaplands are quite common. I mean it makes sense to me as a narrative but making sense alone does not a good video make.

Secret agent videos like this are usually solid but rarely the thing you write home about. There were definitely some good parts to it, like her facefucking (even despite cocks not being fully hard) or some good performing. It’s perhaps not the best ahegao I’ve ever seen but to be able to mix that against other styles is impressive. I can definitely appreciate sex scenes where they’re trying to make it a bit more intimate despite the theme not typically lending itself that way. It certainly had all the negatives that these videos tend to have, like I really don’t want to see her tied up and toyed a bunch. It’s honestly good for what it is but not an instant classic.

I think from a narrative perspective the video was a little bit timid but the final product was still good. I think a lot of that came from Mary just knowing how to make a video like this work. Sometimes you want a porno that feels like one and other times you’re okay with something a little bit more down to earth like this. There was just so many bits and bobs here like Mary in glasses, the messy room, the casual sweater, just little things like that which made the video feel more realistic. Heck, watching her eat some cup noodles and he’s trying to get her to blow him at the same time, it feels like it shouldn’t work but it does. The way it feels super casual, the way Mary chuckles at it, it’s just a great little addition to keep it feeling lighthearted.

Finally an actually interesting episode. I actually really enjoyed the narrative for a change that had her playing a mistress who cheated on the guy. But more than that I liked how different all of the scenes felt. You had her and the boss that was completely devoid of feeling, her and the konbini worker filled with nothing but passion, and then the finale with the boss filled with indignation and regret. Mary has a wide range of styles she can play and is one of the few I would trust to make something like this work. You just don’t find actresses who can be passionate and cuddle with a guy one scene only to be roughed up the next. What I really enjoyed was a full circle ending. Directors tend to prefer just fading to black at something but this showed not only her and the konbini dude being in a relationship, but a strained marriage two years later. The fade to black in this one was her contemplating her life choices as she was now a konbini worker and it was just a wonderful ending to a heavy drama.

If you’ve ever felt like porn isn’t deep then I present this video. I will quote ZENRA himself when I was getting a little bit of help on this one: “this is way too deep for a Das movie, what the hell.”. It really is but at the same time it’s really what a conclusion to the series needed. I was a bit bummed finding out it was just a sham and surprise, here’s all the behind the scenes porn stuff, only to find them actually connecting it all. I wasn’t really expecting some grandiose finale like this where she literally jumps through a portal with secret agent Mary to go save the world. Even as you went through the video it was fun watching it sort of be filmed alongside it. They premised this by showing behind the scenes content from other films and then scenes were her private life all along. You saw her come home from work (as a pornstar) where she played a nurse, excited to talk about her day with her man or try out her new onahole with him. It was deeper than even the MCU stuff because you got to see the awkwardness of her trying to have a relationship when she’s a pornstar. That’s a relationship side I’ve discussed a fair bit with people in the past and seeing a film at least partially premised around it was fantastic.

Like the first entry I found this one had a very lighthearted feeling to it. She had this way of just being this kind, sweet nurse that really shone through. It can be hard to balance this kind of video because it’s too easy to be too submissive, but Mary really teetered that line quite nicely. Let’s not forget we had half a video with a strong nurse theme that of course was quite nice. Even as the video clearly transitioned away from the school, it was the narrative of them getting caught (and her presumably fired) making it rather acceptable. If you’re going to toss aside the theme for any reason, at least give me a very strong and justifiable plot reason like this one did. It’s actually a great video that I would recommend in general.

Director Jo Asagiri outdid himself with this one. Mary becoming a pornstar seemed right up the alley of this series and unlike episode five has a much better career. I've seen the trope before and it's good, but what makes it special is the way they embedded Hibiki Otsuki into it. It wasn't just Mary becoming a pornstar, it was Hibiki easing her into it. You could see the tension after Mary was the AD on Hibiki's film and that spark for something more. You got a scene of them as lesbians, then in a threesome with a dude, and finally Mary's debut (that Hibiki joined in on). It's literally everything you could have wanted, lesbian sex, strap on sex, playing with each other while being fucked, Mary being deepthroated. It’s the kind of thing that really works for this series when they can kind of do anything they want. Like give me an actually interesting job choice I can get behind, and then you give me lesbian action with another major star? Jo was really cooking with this one.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed part one as I’ve reviewed and ranked them all. If you haven’t checked it out there’s a lot of good content in here and it’s worth the watch. If you want to know what I really think about the concept, how director Jo Asagiri did, and what changes I would have made, you’ll have to come back for part two. Until next time!