Now that they’re dating, Koyori and Hijiri decide to inject some actual dating into their sex lives. While they have trouble finding their bearings, a little communication turns out to go a long way. Then a high school reunion happens and it turns out to be very high school indeed.
Ooh, well, okay, lets see here. Plus side, this is one of the better takes on sex between adults I’ve seen lately, rivalling a less kinky version of Sweat & Soap in terms of the amount of time these two spend getting down and dirty. You will have no questions about their health by the end of this one.
Also, I really like how they both fumble a bit making the transition from friends to lovers. You may know everything about a person, but once you’re even more concerned about what they’re thinking and are in new situations, there are bound to be missteps and this puts that across nicely.
In fact, a lot of the initial friction (the metaphysical kind, not the sex) comes from Hijiri, whose hyper and energetic ‘damn the torpedoes’ style of vacation planning takes absolutely nothing going on with Koyori at the time they depart into account. I like him being on the wrong foot for a bit.
It’s also kind of nice to see them take their foundation as friends and then figure out how to build upon it, which does boil down to a lot of sex in the end, but definitely feels about right for opening stages of a new relationship.
Now that’s well and good and I like that they avoid some missteps with not being honest… then that high school reunion happens.
There’s a great story brewing over Hijiri’s joy at dating Koyori, versus the latter’s embarrassment at the way this plays out, but instead we start a weird descent towards some serious Melrose Gossip Riverdale, 90210 territory.
Turns out that Hijiri’s ex isn’t exactly over him, and when she makes a play and gets ruthlessly shut down because Hijiri’s a class act and deeply in love, well, a woman scorned and all that.
Which is certainly one thing, but this is followed by the revelation that she’s the woman that Koyori’s ex was shagging when he cheated on our heroine. That’s a little preposterous - I don’t especially love these sorts of ‘the world is full of 50 people who all know one another if necessary’ stories.
Of course, this leads to a complicated scheme that feels straight out of an old Archie comic, where the ex lures Koyori to what is 100% a pretence for a date and just as the trap is sprung to close the volume, it goes even dumber.
None of this is necessary. Two people building a relationship is a fine story, actually, and while they’ve been working through some issues, they have already promised to listen to one another, so how bad can this really get?
I mean, don’t worry, I’ll be back - I bet that makeup sex is going to be stellar and I like these two as a couple. It’s just such a weird pivot to introduce a rival and then, after dealing with it, bring it back with total gusto.
Hijiri’s ex is straight out of the ‘nyehehehe’ school of villainy too and I also don’t like the way that Koyori’s totally taken in by her ex. It makes her look incredibly dim, although I do allow that he’s abusing the awkwardness of a workplace breakup, but he’s clearly disrespecting her the entire way, so she shouldn’t listen to anything from him without backing it up.
3 stars - I kind of wanted to give this 3.5 and all because I do love a positive portrayal of sex, but holy cats did the story’s turn drive me a little crazy. It just seems wholly out of place for the strong character work that was going on beforehand.