Blue Eyes, vol. 3

By Tohru Nishimaki
Published in the US by Icarus Publishing


Slugline: An actual boyfriend! Admittedly a cheating, manipulative one, but still!

Tatsuya has seduced both his girlfriend Maria and her best friend Lisa to be his lovers, but he does not want to sneak between them as he has to with his liaisons with Maria's mother. So her sets up Maria and Lisa to accept sharing him openly in a menage atrois. Tatsuya then discovers that there are other women in Maria's family he has yet to seduce when visiting England and begins taking steps to correct this terrible oversight.

Tatsuya comes close to being a paragon of virtue for porn manga, for he is merely manipulative and arrogant when the standard is cruel, distant and abusive. Sure, he has to seduce every large breasted woman that wanders by, especially if they are related to his girlfriend, but the ogling and horndog behaviors are almost typical for teen boys. The art is rigid and the dialogue is stilted, but few porn titles had any worthwhile dialogue to begin with and women who merely violate the laws of biology/physics in breast size seem refreshingly normal. If this review seems overly forgiving perhaps it is because the last few adult titles that were in the review queue for Prospero's Manga were not finished once started because they were creepy and/or disturbing. This is a tolerable porn manga in which the characters' kinks and fetishes are not the stuff of crime dramas.

Blue Eyes, vol. 1 has been previously reviewed on Prospero's Manga - Mature.



Blue Eyes, vol. 3 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in manga and anime.

-Ferdinand

Extract

Presented by Kazu Shimao
Published in the US by Icarus Publishiing


Slugline: Meh. Can porn be boring?

An anthology of unrelated stories that span the many genres of the manga pornography, with the only major exception being there is no hermaphrodites lurking about. None of the stories are too offensive but neither are they particularly memorable. I suspect that in this case the shortness of the stores worked against the creator, for in most stories the characters are fixed in the mind with very little space given to create them. If there had been more pages devoted to some of the stories the characters could have emerged as more than just placeholders. The art was okay, a little busy, but no one appeared to be triple-jointed or had geysers of gallons of bodily fluids. It is a very workmanlike volume, not so bad I got offended for the characters but neither anything to look for or forward to.



Extract is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

After School Sex Slave Club

Presented by Tuna Empire
Published in the US by Icarus Publishing


Slugline: Sigh. pure PWP. As in Plot, What Plot?

You know, I realize that it seems that every student in a Japanese school seems to be part of a club, I don't know, for socialization reasons if nothing else, but I think there has to be limits. And this club is it. Confident, strong women who enjoy being humiliated, made into toys and used (in the literal sense of the word) by dozens of male students at the same time? That is not interesting or attractive to me at all, and this is one of the volumes that the squick factor overcame any sexiness factor the stories may have had. Basically they are all about women in high school and since they are members of this club, get to be sexual slaves for groups of male students, losing all sense of self and individual worth. I really, really didn't like this, but this I didn't give it a single star because while I find the characters being treated horribly and a complete lack of story, well, this probably appeals to someone out there.

After School Sex Slave Club is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

A Wish of my Sister

Presented by Masahiro Itosugi
Released in the US by Icarus Publishing


Slugline: A porn that acknowledges emotions and relationship problems? I could cry.

I was feeling pretty annoyed at myself earlier this week, feeling like that I was asking too much from a porn title and feeling a touch guilty for unloading my ennui onto Icarus Publishing. So when I got my review copies yesterday, I saw that Icarus had sent me another one and I felt that the fates were mocking me. But after Monday's review, I thought I would at least flip through it and see if there was anything positive in it. And lo, the skies opened up, the light came down and my faith in porn was restored.

Skip past the cross-dressing fetishes and the art style that makes everyone look prepubescent, to the emotional consequences of the character's actions that actually mattered! As I read it (and I actually read it) I stopped seeing those annoying fetishes and watched the characters deal with the fallout of their actions. Including the fact that incest is an inherently emotionally dangerous rather than seductive! Bad decisions are not ignored but explored! Doomed relationships are acknowledge as doomed! The climax (of the story arc!) of the title story of the volume is emotional rather than sexual. A character realizes that pressuring another into sex is wrong! Exclamation points were finally on sale!

I almost, almost gave this a four star rating, but one of the one-shot stories that filled out the volume were weak enough to drag it down.

This has turned into a really porn heavy week, I'll try to review something rated All Ages on Friday.

A Wish of my Sister is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Innocence, 2nd ed.

By Kamogawa Tanuki
Released in the US by Icarus Publishing


Slugline: The standard assortment of porn fetishes, only now with women drawn as prepubescent girls.

Porn has a different goal in mind that most manga, which is why I rated this as high as I did despite disliking most of the fetishes than are on display here. Humiliation, servitude, the diminution of the female self in the pursuit of sex, perceived infantilization of the characters, especially the women, all do very little for me.

Of course, for some readers, these are positives. Does Innocence execute these fetishes in an interesting way? Reasonably well, and the art is well done. For the 2nd edition, there is a new short bonus section with more detailed art. The only story that captured my attention was My Girlfriend's Feelings, My Sister's Feelings, because it actually tried to be funny, as the girlfriend has to listen her boyfriend's sister disparage him despite knowing (through flashbacks) that he is anything but how she describes. Not brilliant, but a welcome different kind of story.

Innocence, 2nd ed. is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Please Miss Yuri

By Syowmaru
Released in the US by Icarus Comics


Slugline: What is it about nurse's offices?

Once again the school nurse's office is a den of iniquity. What is it about them that invites depravity? Probably because there are the only places in a school that has a bed and privacy, but really, can't people meet at their homes? I mean, it seems that everyone's parents are working a continent away, I think it would be more convenient to take care of these urges at home.

It's porn. It's teacher-student porn, with the punishment kink (oh, I am such a bad teacher, punish me) sort of stuff, but at least everyone seems to know that people are faking it in order to feed their kinks. The art is relatively nice and straightforward, without triple joints or violations of the laws of fluid dynamics. There are a couple backup pieces that spin off it in the back, but honestly, I was sort of blah about the whole thing. It's porn, it's competent but there wasn't anything there that really grabbed my attention.

-Ferdinand

Blue Eyes, vol. 1

By Tohru Nishimaki
Released in the US by Icarus Publishing


Slugline: Never have I been impressed by so little.

Note that Blue Eyes is a PORN title and makes no apologies for that.

Blue Eyes is a strange porn title. In that there are actually characters, which most porn stories usually don' bother with, but they are curiously flat. And there is the fetish for big breasted women in the volume, but if you look at the cover art (as seen below), the fact that the women featured are in dire need for breast reduction surgery is minimized. But most shockingly all of the women in the volume are engaging in the porn of their own free will and volition. What has the world (or more specifically Japan) come to? It is the face that there is a continuing story, the setup of a romantic triangle, these are all things that I suspect would not be out of place for most of the risque romance novels, but here, in manga, it is different and new. Which is why I gave it the slugline I did. If you want some plot and rationale for your sex, this has it, and so despite the characterization being a little flat, and the characters themselves not triple-jointed like they are in many other titles, this a solid, uninspired read.



Blue Eyes, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in manga and anime.

-Ferdinand

Midara, 2nd ed.

By Yumisuke Kotoyoshi
Released in the US by Icarus Publishing


Slugline: All of these poor women are going to have back problems, or will need industrial bras once the sagging starts...

First off, this is PORN. For the people who got to this review via keyword search, there is no actual porn in this review, so you may leave. There are links below to buy the title, but please respect the 18+ barriers. This also means I am reviewing it as porn title which has different standards.

There are two multi-part stories in this volume whose protagonists are featured on the cover. Megumi is a Lara Croft wannabe who travels the world exploring ruins. However, the creatures and the other nasties in said ruins just can't leave her alone. In the other, Saeko is a cop who often ends up the prisoner of the exploitative criminals that she is trying to capture and has to be rescued by her partner, the smart yet cute one of their two women team. The rest of the volume is filled up with one-off stories.

The women here are not completely helpless, which is a step up from most hentai. The women manage to be exploited and the exploiter at the same time for the two main story arcs, which I am sure says something very ironic in feminist theory. The story that I enjoyed the most was one of the one shots that finished out the volume, Sleep Talking, in which two old friends end up being a couple, or do they? The women here are used for their bodies but they ultimately turn the tables on the men by use of their brains, and the women substitutes who literally lack their own mind (such as robots) are unable to turn the tables. So I guess that is an interesting subtext, so on its own terms it mostly succeeds. But I still had to deduct points for the tentacle scene...



Midara, 2nd ed. is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Swing Out Sisters

Presented by Taro Shinonome
Published in the US by Icarus Publishing


Slugline: I have never been so happy to have been an only child.

This, like all of Icarus’s other works, is PORN. I will not be giving details here, but the links below to buy said work have 18+ blockers on them, so respect that. Click here for a list of our other Icarus reviews.

Yuuta has a problem. He lives with his sisters, Chiyoko the oldest sister takes care of him and his other sister, Chinatsu. Chiyoko is older and is more, umm mature, whereas Chinatsu is younger and more bossy. Yuuta, on the other hand, is a complete mush, and falls into a sexual relationship. Chinatsu upon learning this demands her own relationship with Yuuta, and when Chiyoko find out, well, this is a porn book, what do you think happens? There is also a backup story of a pirate brother and sister who are brought together by a water spirit through an interesting use of futanari (if you don't know what that is, and want to know, well, click here, but don't say we didn't warn you.)

Oh, incest. What would hentai be without it? I am lucky that I am only child, because this immediately pushes this out to fantasy land for me without any effort. My major thing with porn is that there at least be an illusion of consent, and it is here. My problem was that it took me a while to tell the sisters apart (the difference between them being brown and black hair? Not very helpful in a black and white book.) in the scenes where one sister’s, umm, superior assets where not visible. The first story seems out of sequence from the others, so it was more difficult to piece together the plotline, what little there was, than it had to be. The pages seemed a little bit too busy with sound FX, but other than that, this was a fairly good read for a porn manga.

Swing Out Sisters is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Flashbang!

By Yoshitatsu Kiichigono
Released in the U.S. by Icarus Publishing



Slugline: Remember that dream you had about going to school naked? It just got worse!

Like all Icarus titles, this is PORN.

PORN!

So for the remainder of the people who are still reading this, or who haven't figured out how to set up the parental controls, I try to review porn books on their own merits. That is: how well they deliver the porn, not in how well the story flows, or the art, or, well, the usual criteria (though if it does manage it, I am more likely to give it a better rating). I do have a problem with non-consensual stories, and I realize that yes, it is fiction, but I am just not wired to find that sort of stuff appealing.

This came close, because this entire volume was about humiliation and exhibitionism, with many of the forms of humiliation being because of exhibitionism. Fortunately, force wasn't really used here (other than one or two stories) so I wasn't working against an ick factor here. There isn't a central story either, just vignettes where people are forced to publicly strip, have sex, and the other aspects of humiliation/exhibitionism sex. Most of the other usual tropes of hentai are there, but muted to focus on the exhibitionist fetish which seems to the point of this volume (for instance, there is just ONE cross dressing guy.)

The art sometimes verges on the cute side, so sometimes it is hard to take the stuff going on very seriously. Since the characters don't seem to be taking themselves all that seriously, it gives you the emotional distance necessary for these characters to remain just pictures on a page, so that even the humiliation has a distance to it. But the volume is all about the exhibitionism fetish, so if that is not your cup of tea -- since quite frankly I can't think of anything that couldn't be interpreted as a clever double entendre -- your appreciation of the volume will be probably be directly proportional to your appreciation of exhibitionism.

Flash Bang! is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Council of Carnality Unlimited

By Yanagi Yuki
Published in the U.S. by Icarus Comics



Slugline: Look, it's a porn manga where the characters like each other! How bizarre!

Council of Carnality Unlimited is an odd bird among porn manga. The people who have the sex for the most part actually like each other. Heck, one couple even uses the l-o-v-e word and admits the sex afterwards is they best they ever had. Obviously this was created some sick deviant. There is an attempt at a plot, more like a series of relationships between the characters in the book, so that the whole book shares the same cast. Even the bits of non-consensual/bondage acts are light in comparison to other titles, and characters involved are emotionally distraught at the time and apologize afterwards. Like I said, in comparison to other titles, this is a font of neo-Puritan morals.

Now, so you don't think I have gone all mushy, this is still a porn title, so believable plots, well-drawn characters and women who are not contortionists are notably absent. But aside from that, this is a title that doesn't make me want to scrub my brain afterwards. You have to take your victories (and three star ratings) where you can, in porn.

Council of Carnality Unlimited is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

- Ferdinand

Anyway I Want It…

By Kei Matsuzawa
Published in the U.S. by Icarus Publishing



Slugline: For boys and girls who like to boss each other around

Like everything else Icarus releases, this is porn. Not romance, not fluffy hearts and flowers and shamrocks, but porn. So don’t come back complaining to me if after reading this you realize that the characters' emotional arcs don’t ring true.

This is a collection of non-connected shorts that range the gamut from incest to student/teacher relationships, and even a few about school couples who are in their relationships willingly. There is an aspect in the stories of pushing the other into the sex act, but cases of blackmail and true unwillingness are thankfully few in this volume. (That is one of my pet peeves about erotic/porn manga: very little of it seems to fall into the consensual realm, and while this is just fiction, I ask for at least a vague semblance of reality.) "Flower Girl", "Awkward Feelings" and "Six Years" were the best stories in it, especially in the first two which had some attempt at characters, women who went after what they wanted, and a sense of humor about the situation.

The art is exaggerated in all the standard ways that one will find in this sort of manga: all the women are contortionists and double jointed, apparently, but the art is competent and there is a nice touch that the men’s faces are detailed and shown, rather than in shadow or made ambiguous, so it actually feels like a story rather than leaving the guys blank slates for the readers to project themselves into.

Any Way I Want It is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand

Patchwork

by Rego Yokoi
Published in the U.S. by Icarus Publishing



Slugline: Anthology of short porn stories that are slightly off the vanilla. Caution: explicit sexual content.

When you reach into a big box of Japanese porn, you really never know what you're going to come up with. Bear in mind that my first run-in with manga porn was Bondage Fairies, and you'll understand when I say that an anthology with a bunny girl, an elf girl with transferrable genitals, two gang bangs and some teacher/student fooling around is only just off the vanilla.

The writing is competent -- which for porn is pretty great. The introductory pages setting up the sex contain better dialog and characterization than many porn stories. The art is also competent and fairly standard, not overly focused on any one aspect of the action but not doing anything too unusual either.

The bunny girl and the elf girl stories verged on amusing, which is a rare thing. Some of the stories were completely consensual, a few of them involved some arm-twisting (the old "no means yes" myth that's so troublesome IRL) but nothing excessive enough to make me angry.

Amazon has no listing for this book, so if you want to check it out visit Icarus directly.

Later added

Patchwork is available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga (along with being more than just a retailer, but beside the point for now.)

- Miranda