Ryuta Amazume

***HAS NOT BEEN TRANSLATED IN ENGLISH***

Demographic: SEINEN
Content: ECCI
Genre: COMEDY, ROMANCE
Theme: HAREM, SCHOOL LIFE

Interesting. I was looking for a mangaka with what I thought had the name 'Nana' in it. In my search I came across this manga. As a teenager I really loved reading the scanlations of this!

Scanlations are under fire nowadays and for good reason. But back in the day the only way for me to read manga (or discover new manga) was through scanlations. But the groups that did them, had a moral code, when a manga got published, they would stop translating and pull their scans. Which was a shame but you accepted that and bought the real thing. Sometimes you got really disappointed because the 'official' translation was so bad compared to translations done by fans.

I have many fond memories of this manga*. It was, I think, one of the first times I saw kink being explored in healthy ways. Which (if you read a lot of ecci/seinen manga you know) was unusual for the time. Most of the time manga aimed at boys/men are super sexist and do not have much respect for women. Even if it's meant to be 'funny', some of them made me hella uncomfortable.

But Nana to Kaoru was... unusual in the fact that Kaoru was always thinking about Nana. He thought about what would please her. I even got frustrated with Nana at times because she would keep quiet when I would ask her what she wanted. Both characters weren't perfect. The way their relationship starts was even to me a bit iffy at the time. But the respect. Oef the respect was always there. It still has those humour tropes that are typical of Ecci manga. But that doesn't detract from the depth this manga has showed me.

I stopped reading because there was a hiatus? But I just saw that the series was complete! So I got a bit excited. Helaas. It's not translated in English. Only in French and German. And I'm not proficient in both languages to pick up on nuances I think this manga has.

Hopefully someday it will get translated in English. I'm curious to see if it would hold up.

I recommend this for everyone who like exploring kinks in manga. And if you're not familiar with Japanese culture some things will seem strange (?) but I do think it gives some insight in how people in a culture different from my own, handle BDSM.

*I began reading manga when I was a teenager. I do feel that a lot of people wouldn't recommend this to teenagers. I would actually. I learned a lot about consent, different ways of having sex or how arousal could work. But then again I wasn't the kind of idiot who thought everything that happens in a manga is applicable to real life. It's soft-porn but still porn. DO NOT APPLY THIS SHIT IN YOUR LIFE. At least not without having conversations with your partner(s) about it.… (més)

少年誌に掲載するためにギリギリ局部を描画しない作品は多々あるが、そのギリギリ発想をSMというフィールドへ昇華させた名作。甘詰先生の描くヒロインの肉感が世界観によく合っている。ヒロインの局部が見えない隠蔽によって、ヒロインの魅力が究極に凝縮されている。
SMの専門家にいわせれば、おそらくおかしな点はあるはずなのだが、わたしにはその違和感はないので、ただただSMの世界に対して畏敬。
主人公とヒロインの葛藤の様子を読むのが気持ちよく、そしてヒロインが失っていくリテラシーが愉しい。… (més)