Sweet but naughty tale of first love and hostile takeovers
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Ponkotsu Works
Translation/Adaptation: Steven LeCroy
What They Say
Sweet and utterly spoiled Shizuka loves nothing more than leaving home to prove a point to her powerful father! But what if her latest spree involves something a little closer to the heart? Can an adventurous rich girl find true love on the run?
Escape From Grace combines romance and recklessness in a laugh-out-loud saga filled with passionate confessions and torrid trysts! With an empire at stake, will a young girl pair up with her devoted friend…or fall prey to the schemes of a vain rival?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Shizuka Nishizono runs away for fun, but she always runs to the same hotel owned by her family. But this time, it is different. At least, that’s her story. Shizuka’s father introduced her to a CEO with whom he wants her to be romantically involved. The CEO only wants to control a patent owned by the Nishizono’s business. Shizuka orders her servant, Toru, to pack their things and find a place for them to stay.
By reading the summary, one might assume that Shizuka fills the stereotype of the spoiled, rich brat. In fact, she mostly acts demure and submissive to all characters except Toru. With him, she confides her true feelings while imposing her dominance over the servant. He ignores or tolerates her when she puts on her airs. Toru’s job has been to take care of Shizuka, and this role has a complicated history where emotions and desires have been hidden away as social positions would make any other relationship impossible.
Enter Koichi, the handsome up-and-comer and CEO of a company he founded in college. His interest in Shizuka comes from her role in controlling the Nishizono businesses. Koichi has many female companions, but his secretary, Kanako, gets the majority of the action. Kanako offers a counter to Shizuka in physical, emotional, and intellectual ways. In other words, she acts as a natural rival.
This volume has two developing stories. First, we watch Shizuka and Toru enter a budding relationship while they live like commoners. Toru rents a small apartment with one open space and a small bathroom. He hangs a curtain to give Shizuka her own private area. Ponkotsu Works devoted much of these chapters to showing Shizuka becoming acclimated to living without her luxuries, and this gives the reader time to grow fond of the character as she develops. Most of their story remains rooted in everyday concerns like surviving the heat without air conditioning or shopping for sale priced items.
After a short time living together, Toru and Shizuka confront their feelings for each other. Her family’s power weighs heavily on them as they try to balance their appreciation of each other and the present with the possibly dire consequences of their forbidden love.
The other story involves Kanako trying to uncover what kind of relationship Shizuka and Toru share. She does this by using sex to gain information from somebody who knows the pair from the Nishizono household, and she moves into the apartment next door to spy on them. When she learns their relationship has taken off, she vows to seduce Toru to clear the way for Koichi to conquer Shizuka.
Erotic elements, while spicy, stay on the milder side with invisible genitalia and fetish moments that never fully develop. When not in the presence of a man, Koichi usually is having sex with two or three women while he talks business. While positions change, usually it includes penetration from behind with the female body and face as the focus. There tends to be a heavy focus on ahegao and wet mouths. Shizuka and Toru have a vanilla relationship focused on Shizuka’s first time and becoming more experienced lovers. Shizuka seems to be demure and embarrassed, but she also spends a considerable amount of time on top. Prior to the sexual relationship, she has to use the bathroom while Toru soaks in the tub. This scene probably offers the most fetish-oriented moment, but Toru, a gentleman, has dunked his head underwater so as not to embarrass Shizuka.
Kanako offers the most versatility as her scenes progress from wanting to join in with her boss, to dominating a partner while questioning him. Her scenes have more detail than most others. She wears glasses and either a ponytail or bun. In contrast to Shizuka, her body has full, rounded curves. Scenes include self-pleasuring, top, bottom, from behind, and oral. The interrogation scene even includes her feet in a messy conclusion.
Art styles vary within the work. While the cover turned me off, the black and white images in the book had a much more dynamic style. For some reason, the low contrast of the color images on the cover and the five interior pages leave the character somewhat flat. The standard interior images have more emotion and physical depth. Many images had very low details filled in with screentone and shading. In many panels, the characters have no eyes or have simple eyes comprised of circles or lines. In other panels, the artwork looked very refined with excellent detail. Genitals were invisible, so most scenes are drawn in ways that would avoid any direct censoring. Breast are mostly perky and natural, and female characters are drawn to be more engaging than the sum of their parts.
In Summary
This volume offers a sweet love story and enough spicy content to appeal to a general hentai readership. All sex is consensual, and what could be demeaning has a context of humor that keeps the experience pleasant.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: B-
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: Adults Only
Released By: PROJECT-H
Release Date: August 27th, 2014
MSRP: $17.95
