Hi, I'm Saraswati!
Can Can Bunny Extra is one of the several religious themed hentais I walked into during ACEN. It's one of those hentais that are on one level cute and on another level weird as shit. The series at first glance seems kind of like a softcore hentai version of Ah! My Goddess but features for whatever reason Buddhist Goddesses and the Seven Lucky Gods. As the series pans out however it ends up being rather more than a simple hentai.
The series starts off with perpetual looser Kenta playing dating sims and becoming frustrated as he discovers the game he was playing doesn't have a sex scene at the end as he bemoans his perpetual inability to get laid. In the midst of his frustration he utters a prayer to Benzaiten expressing his desire to get laid. When suddenly in a flash, what to Kenta's wondering eyes should appear but Benzaiten and six chibi deities...
Left to Right: Daikokuten, Hotei, Marishiten(?), Benzaiten, Fukurokuju, Bishamonten, and Ebisu.
Benzaiten identifies herself as Saraswati and explains that the seven lucky gods are tired of always commuting between heaven and earth and want to get a quiet place on earth. So in exchange for allowing the seven lucky gods to become his roommates Benzaiten offers to grant him his wish as a boon. Using the power of the seven stars of Big Dipper, Benzaiten arranges things so that Kenta will have an opportunity to have sex with seven women (after helping them out). This forms the bulk of the story for the first arc of three episodes where Kenta ends up helping the various women do various things (such as become a published Manga artist, help a elderly uncle make peace with the past) or save them from difficult situations (Bullying, near rape by a street gang, attacked by a vengeful ghost) with an extreme amount of self-sacrifice and compassion for the women. To add to the complexity Benzaiten falls in love with Kenta due to his good heart and compassion (while being annoyed at his lust) but does not admit it to Kenta. Benzaiten also faces the punishment of Emperor Shibi, yes - The Emperor Shibi from Hindu & Buddhist tales who offered his own flesh to a hawk to save the life of a small bird, for using the stars of the Big Dipper without permission.
Benzaiten & Kisshoten
Also showing up to this divine mess is Benzaiten's 'cousin' Kisshoten aka Lakshmi who helps Benzaiten out and acts a foil to her. As an interesting side note Lakshmi does this to Saraswati in Hindu Mythology as well:
Sarasvatī is also said to have had her origin from the god Viṣṇu. In several places she is said to be his tongue or to be held in his mouth. Her association with Viṣṇu makes her the co-wife of Lakṣmī in many myths. In this relationship Sarasvatī for the most part represents spiritual, ascetic, or religious goals and values, whereas Lakṣmī represents worldly well-being as manifest in wealth, material power, and fertility. In some texts the two goddesses do not get along very well, suggesting, perhaps, a tension between bhukti (sensual enjoyment) or dharma and mukti (spiritual liberation or perfection) in Hinduism.
Kinsley, David R. Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition. Berkeley, California: University of California Press., 1986. p.58
Kisshoten also falls in love with Kenta. In the final episode she offers to return the power of the Big Dipper and to take the punishment of becoming a wife of Emperor Shibi so that, unbeknownst to Benzaiten, she can take a physical form and have sex with Kenta. Benzaiten finds out about this after the fact and gets mad at Kisshoten which ends the first arc as the Ebisu and the other lucky gods laugh at the situation.
VI - The Lovers
Summer Fun!
As the second and final arc begins Emperor Shibi discovers what Kisshoten and Benzaiten have been doing and as punishment temporarily has them turned into humans. Kenta takes a summer job at 2nd rate beachfront resort hotel and apart from a subplot about two rival sufer hotel owners the story focuses on Kenta slowly discovering the value of real love and moving away from Kisshoten (who reluctantly urges him onward to Benzaiten). Kenta during this time has randomly has sex with a couple of other girls during the course of the arc who he helps out but the sex scenes do not receive as much attention as they did in the first arc.
Kenta and the now powerless Kisshoten and Benzaiten are helped out a lot by the other gods, primarily Ebisu and Daikokuten, leading to various gags such as Daikokuten controlling the unconscious body of Kenta with a video game controller to beat up a gang terrorizing a women (the gang had beat up Kenta when he had intervened).
Now you're playing with divine power!
The dynamic between Kisshoten and Benzaiten seems to echo their mythology and to an extent also a version of the Lovers card from the Tarot of Marseilles where the protagonist much chose between virtue and worldly pleasure. Here Kenta is divided between real love and sheer sensual lust.
Tarot of Marseilles - The Lovers
Kisshoten represents sensual pleasures while the more conservative Benzaiten (who continues to criticize Kenta's lust throughout) represents real love. As the arc pans out Kenta starts to see the value in love and slowly turns towards Benzaiten. As the series draws to a close Kisshoten helps push Benzaiten and Kenta together and leaves in the middle of the night (well, after one final night with Kenta) and the show ends with Benzaiten and Kenta embracing on the beach with a kiss - no sex scene with Benzaiten.
Just a kiss - What? Did you think this is a Hen... er... wait...
The ending no doubt probably pissed off a number of people, who would also be pissed off by the presence of a plot and a moral that ended up sidelining the sex. But I actually kind of liked the ending as it did empathize the plot and played off the very beginning of the series where Kenta plays a dating game and gets pissed off that there was no sex scene at the end. Kenta has finally gone beyond the simple fleeting sensual pleasures of random meaningless sex to find the intangible joy of actual love and devotion in a relationship with Benzaiten. Taking this farther, since Benzaiten is a goddess, the story can also be seen as turning one's back on transient worldly pleasures for union with the divine.
So there you have it a cunning religious morality tale about love and lust featuring a self-sacrificing compassionate protagonist in the guise of a normal hentai. I actually kind of like it's novel approach and refreshing story.
"May Goddess Saraswati,
who is fair like the jasmine-colored moon,
and whose pure white garland is like frosty dew drops;
who is adorned in radiant white attire,
on whose beautiful arm rests the veena,
and whose throne is a white lotus;
who is surrounded and respected by the Gods, protect me.
May you fully remove my lethargy, sluggishness, and ignorance."
~Saraswati Vandana Mantra
7.5/10
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