Creative Staff
Story and Art: Hidetaka Kakei
Translation/Adaptation: Jocelyne Allen
What They Say:
With his handsome face, incredible body, and gentlemanly ways, 18-year-old university freshman Tsukasa Suo is the hottest guy around! Although by all appearances he lives a charmed life as the local babe-magnet, due to certain circumstances, he has had absolutely zero experience with women! Wanting desperately to stop being such an innocent as soon as possible, he teams up with the equally inexperienced new professor, Mikoto Himenomiya, so they can “study” how to overcome their nervousness in the presence of the opposite sex. The main goal of these study sessions is for Suo to finally be able to woo the woman of his dreams, his classmate Megumu Kisaki…so why does he find himself getting close to his young professor instead?!
Hidetaka Kakei’s first volume of Sexless Friend is a quirky love-comedy that balances cute and sexy with charmingly hilarious results!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Ah, the joys of escapist fantasies. Such is the tale of Sexless Friends, a play on sex friends. Suo and Ms. Hime are both terrible with the opposite sex due to their own circumstances and they’ve agreed to be “sexless friends,” or friends who will act like a couple without doing any of the nasty stuff, in order to train themselves to be better.
Arguably the best part of the book was when Suo and Ms. Hime were explaining their respective situations to each other. It was the only moment that I chuckled at in a book that’s clearly trying to be funnier than it is. But there was an interested contrast between the two in that Ms. Hime, who told her story first, was being helped by Suo. Once Suo started telling his own story, he was being helped by Ms. Hime with basically the exact same words since their stories are so similar. I loved the idea that these two that have basically no experience with the opposite sex giving advice to each other.
I say the book is escapist fantasy because Ms. Hime is actually Suo’s teacher. I don’t recall it ever being stated, but it looks like Suo should be in high school. But judging from their clothes, and the fact that all the students went to a bar after class, I’m guessing they’re in college. I find that a little strange since they say Ms. Hime is 22 years old.
The interaction between Suo and Ms. Hime are extremely hit and miss. The scene mentioned prior was really good, because the repetition worked well in the story. But everything else was just like two awkward teens being together for the first time. It worked in, say, Kimi ni Todoke because the quality of writing was better. But it’s grating here. The payoff, though, of Ms. Hime finally holding Suo’s hand was kind of cute. They are both clearly novices at these acts of love, no matter how small, and giving them this little victory was nice.
Kisaki, Suo’s “ideal Japanese girl,” is the shining part of the volume. Her interplay with Suo was pretty great because she’s an older sister unlike the two that have tormented Suo. The dichotomy of their relation to Suo’s stated relation with his own sisters is a nice change of pace from the relation to Ms. Hime. I’m most interested to see where Suo and Kisaki’s relationship goes, since their relation was arguably the strongest out of any in the volume.
The artwork kind of looks like typical anime artwork, like it’s following the trend rather than breaking its own ground. The art itself is good, it’s just that the character designs can sometimes look like they’re taken out of a mold and edited slightly to be somewhat unique. Sexless Friends is short on erotic scenes, but the ones that exist are relatively tame. They’re just a boob here and there and some other suggestive scenery, all of which is drawn really well. Especially a humorous scene at the beginning when Suo’s friend tricks Ms. Hime into describing her panties, which are displayed behind her on the panel.
In Summary:
Despite my complaints with the manga, I did ultimately enjoy it. The characters are rather bland shells of what they could be, but I’ll give that a pass for now. The seeds have been sewn for Suo, Kisaki, and Ms. Hime and only time will tell what they’ll grow into.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 18+
Released By: Project-H Books
Release Date: August 14th, 2013
MSRP: $17.95
