1 Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

Is it Futari Ecchi? Buttobi CPU?

Those are the only two I can think of that fit that description, if you mean a series that would be pornographic if they showed just a little bit more...

2 I'm going with either Ikki Tousen or Girls Bravo.

3 By the way, "Close to hentai but isn't" is also a pretty damned good description of the uncensored version of "Sakura Diaries".

4 Oh yeah! I forgot about Sakura Diaries! I actually kinda liked what I saw of that show, Steven... I know you were turned off by the subject matter, as was I... but oh, those redheads get me every time!

That's the problem with being a redheaded duck...

5 I actually just had a conversation with my wife about using redheads as a ruberic for whether a series is going to be any good or not about two hours ago, when a red haired sorceress shows up in the beginning of Shingetsutan Tsukihime.

An off the top-of-my-head tabulation suggests that most shows prominently featuring a red head are worth watching.

6 Maybe I would have liked Sakura Diaries better if I had bought the uncensored version of it. But I'm pretty sure that the one disk of it I did get was the censored version. (I know that both of them are around, but I don't know how to tell them apart.)

7 So I just went and found my "Sakura Diaries" disk. It's from ADV, and it was released in 2000. It has 3 episodes on it.

I did some googling. Here was one comment I found: "Make damned sure that it's the Collector's Edition version, otherwise you're dealing with the TV-broadcast censored version, rife with terrible, overmassaged translation."

That was from a netnews post from 2005. It was from Dave Watson, the guy behind "Being UpFront". Maybe I should write to him and find out what he was talking about.

I only scanned through the three episodes on my disk once, and I'm not sure I want to go back. But what I do remember was quite a lot of fan service but no full-blown ecchi. Maybe that was just because it was the first three episodes, or maybe it's because I got shafted.

8 http://www.animecritic.com/sakuradiaries/anr-sakuradiaries.html

Steven, from the review above, I'm going to guess you don't have the Collector's Edition. Short version: no english dub, maybe an "Essential Anime"-style packaging, blah blah blah.

Shorter version: topless redheads.

9 I think the Sakura Diaries Collector's Edition is OOP, alas.

10 mmmm, redheads.

11 Ha ha! I haven't heard from David Watson for -years-. We used to get into huge arguments on rec.arts.anime.misc, back before I went pro... yeah, he was the world's biggest Sakura Diaries fan too.

I don't seem to have a copy on hand either (not really surprising - don't think I did anything more than proof subtitles on that one.)

12 The Collector's Edition is probably out of print (though not hard to find), but ADV actually put out a third release of the show not long ago, with a new dub made for the uncut home video version. Me, I made it through all twelve episodes, but soon thereafter sold my copy of the CE on eBay due to shame at owning such a trashy show.

It wasn't a total loss; the protagonist does eventually get his act together and own up to his failures as a human being. But there's precious little to appreciate before that... except for the ecchi overload, if you go for that sort of stuff.

Ironically enough, the original manga can be counted among the creator's tamest work; several other U-Jin manga have been adapted into actual h-anime.

13 I've seen the manga - it's pretty much a soap opera. With extra boobies, yes, but a soap opera.