TW: Rape/Non-Con
I feel like I just wrote a review talking about exactly the topic of Consent. What is it with publishers commissioning and putting out this trash? I walked into this 100% knowing this was flat out hentai. It's got adult warnings on it, it's published in the US by the Adult arm of Seven Seas... so yeah, no one should be shocked this is porn. However, I just have one question... is it too much to ask to get some consent with my porn?
Reading the synopsis on the back you'd think this would run, essentially, like a nice Shojo manga, but with the characters going all the way. Oh boy, that is NOT what we got. One of the things I rather appreciated about Seven Seas taking on publishing this content is because it wasn't necessarily going to be a sex scene per chapter and, here's what I'm after, character development!! Yes, you heard me, I want character development with my smut. From the back of this you would think this is a child hood friend turned lovers story... but it doesn't play out that way and it, honestly, feels like the writer was meeting a quota of including a sex scene PER chapter. So, it feels more like that generalized short story hentai that requires that kind of stuff. Rather than volumes of characters developing their relationship. Another boon I was hoping for in this manga was that it had actual adults in it! I was pretty pumped to leave the high school concepts behind for a while. Yeah, I know the high school story line is popular and they basically get around the "they're just kids" by basically drawing everyone to be 30, except the obligatory loli character (shudder). But here comes this story of adult professionals! I was definitely into the idea even though the "sexy fireman" narrative doesn't do anything in my world.
Ok, so what exactly goes down. The two characters are actually childhood friends and one day the fireman character saves his friend from a fire and brings her back to his place. This could have been a good setup... except for one problem. She turns him down for sex. In fact, it happens multiple times and he ignores her. At this point I have no idea who would find this erotic. What really needs to be crushed is this stupid narrative of "when a girl says no, she might really mean yes"... like stop it with that trash. It wasn't cool in the old days it's certainly not cool now. I feel like, what it does is create some bizarre narrative in a rapists head of "yeah, but she really wanted it." Yeah... no...
I was extremely uncomfortable reading this and I can only imagine it being way worse for a woman. Instead this manga reads like a terrifying warning list for women in general. You know that childhood friend you grew up with? Yeah, it doesn't matter how well you know each other, he'll still rape you if he wants. You know that professional rescuer that saved your life? Yeah, he might rape you too. That guy that brought you to the festival and bought you all kinds of fun things? Yup, he might rape you when he gets you alone.
This whole narrative about the woman's body responding to forced sexual interaction needs to stop and stop hard. When people talk about things perpetuating "rape culture" this volume is a totally solid warning. It's not even that hard to turn this narrative around either... when Souma saves Ryo's life and brings her back to his apartment have her see him in a totally different light and consent! You know what makes sex way more awesome... having BOTH parties mutually want it! They could create conflict in different ways, like her being unsure if she really can build a relationship beyond sex with the guy (but, yeesh, have her be into having the sex)... or just something else that puts them on the path of building a relationship TOGETHER.
The art in this is pretty solid and on that front it had a lot of great points. But the story content is just not good... hard pass on this and I'll not be following it to volume 2.