Forced to pay back an unimaginable sum of debt, young salaryman Nitta is forced to become sex friends with a beautiful young heiress. Wait… is this supposed to be a bad thing?
Creative Staff
Story: Chihiro Harumi
Art: Chihiro Harumi
Translation/Adaptation: Ben Sabin / Jay Davidson
What They Say
What does it mean to become “her friend”…? Nitta, unable to pay back his huge debt, receives a phone call from his loan advisor and tells him they would work something out if he becomes “friends” with this woman at his work. Mysterious, pretty, and unaware of what’s going on, Nitta approaches her. They eventually end up having a relationship… but everything comes with a price, and it’s not what it all seems to be!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After somewhat of a slow start last year, and last year’s excellent Shocking Pink!, Project-H has been ramping up to drown us all in a flood of wonderful, smutty manga. One of their headline titles was Velvet Kiss, which had obtained some internet notoriety due to the cute/sexy artwork by Chihiro Harumi. It is now available for purchase, and the big question is, was this worth the hype?
The answer is an enthusiastic yes. Project-H still isn’t at the level of nasty explicitness I prefer, but Velvet Kiss isn’t obnoxiously censored. It just has the old-school “invisible genitalia” gimmick going, but Harumi mostly doesn’t focus on anything below the waist. She’s far too concerned with curvy bodies, simple but cute bishoujo faces, and in the color insert pages, soft pink lips. Furthermore, much of the eroticism of the title comes from the somewhat exotic inclusion of an actual “narrative”. The high-minded might get away with referring to it as “erotica”, but for the rest of us, it’s the kind of thing you can proudly put on top of your hidden smut pile.
So the story is somewhat of an anime cliche, similar to Oldboy or Area 88. Napless salaryman Nitta, our self insert character, as an unusually lucky day: He wins the lottery and lands a deal with a big client. As a reward, he spends the night boozing and getting serviced at a hostess club. But the next day, he receives a notice from a collection agency. It seems that while he was drunk, he signed a contract without reading it, and now he’s on the hook for millions of yen, way more than he could ever hope to pay back.
The collection agency gives him one way out: He just has to befriend a woman who will show up at his work one day, and spend time with her. It sounds like a good deal, but it ends up being a great one. The girl is young, shockingly beautiful and rich. It seems all Nitta has to do is carry around her shopping bags while she goes shopping and dines at fancy restaurants. But when he drops her off at the hotel where she lives, she invites him to have sex with her before she goes to sleep.
Nitta is in kind of a financial limbo, and he’s under the power of this mysterious girl, Kano, but it’s hard to feel too sorry for him. Still, we have none of his stresses but get to live vicariously through him, as he’s kept as a companion to service the young mistress. Being at her beck and call causes him to get in trouble at work, and with his friends, which makes Nitta understandably frustrated. But Kano is often available to take care of his frustrations as well. Sex is fairly vanilla in this first volume, with no kinks or bizarre fetishes, but it works due to the lovely art and seductive atmosphere. I was able to enjoy it even with my failure of an imagination.
As mentioned previously, the story has a plot, and as Nitta learns more about the girl, it seems she’s just the lonely, abandoned daughter of a wealthy family who’s finding consolation in living a life of debauchery. But the final chapter reveals something larger and more manipulative might be going on, with Kano’s parents apparently using Nitta for their own ends. Whether this implies any kind of incest or S&M subtext is hard to say at this point, but readers should be aware of that possibility. Velvet Kiss is four volumes long, so fans will have plenty more to come.
In Summary
Fairly tame and un-explicit by hentai standards, Velvet Kiss is nonethess effective due to its sexy designs and effective setting that suggests forbidden desires are being fulfilled. If you’re looking for smut that actually has a story, or you’re looking for something with more atmosphere than explosive bodily fluids, Velvet Kiss should do the trick.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: N/A
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 18+ Adult
Released By: Project-H Books
Release Date: July 4, 2012
MSRP: $17.95
