If you have a Japanese schoolgirl fetish, then run, don’t walk, to the nearest comic shop carrying Icarus titles! Or like most of us, you’ll have to order it online.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Fujikatsupiko
Translation/Adaptation: Sebastien Azar
What They Say
Eleven short stories with gravure models and schoolgirls as central themes. A Little Compensation – a naive girl with an indecent past is blackmailed into performing sexual favors. Battle for Great Shape – tantric group sex is the newest exercise fad.
Packaging:
The front cover depicts a half-dressed, fluid-covered schoolgirl, while the back cover shows the same girl wrapped up in some S&M paraphernalia. Both covers are the same as the original Japanese release with the exception of the background on the back cover being different and the title layout. The copy I saw didn’t have color pages, so Icarus isn’t missing anything on this title as far as that goes. As expected from Icarus, the book has solid print tones with clean printing throughout. Extras consist of an after word by the author discussing the thought process behind a few of the chapters of this book, and the Icarus Pronunciation Guide.
Artwork:
Fujikatsupiko has an interesting style for designing the characters. The girls are all cute schoolgirls (yeah, I know its in the title) that could be living next door (at least if you lived in Japan). Some of the girls have more rounded faces, giving them a cute innocent look, while others appear with chiseled jaw lines. Their bodies are also nicely varied from skinny with small boobs to larger breasted women with a little more meat on their bones. Overall, each girl is very believably proportioned and they have a broad range of facial expressions. The author also uses more cross-hatching mixed with screen tones than many ero-manga artists. Panel layout is mostly rectangular with the only full-page pictures appearing at the beginning of chapters. These pages actually remind me a lot of [I]Boys be[/I] with schoolgirls in various cute poses that show their panties.
Text/Translation:
The translation reads well and honorifics are prevalent. The Japanese SFX remains but lacks an English translation. This is one of Icarus’ better titles, reading more smoothly and lacking misspellings and grammar mistakes.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The first story takes an interesting angle with a girl that posed as a gravure idol when she was younger. She never told her friends, but now that she is in college, a couple of guys recognize her. This unfolds into the usual give me sex or I’ll tell everyone about your past scenario. Despite that, I enjoyed the former idol angle and the girl has an impressively realistic body with rounded cheeks, a little pooch and normal looking breasts. The story spans two chapters and kicks the book off on the right foot.
The title definitely describes how all the girls look, but not every story is about schoolgirls. There is a story about a teacher that keeps her rowdy students under control with sexual favors, an office lady that sits through meetings with a vibrator being manipulated with a remote control by the office manager, and another about a woman that attends a special training session at her gym. The gym story is hot, as the special training is basically a huge orgy where the participants use positions that burn the most calories. That is definitely my kind of work out routine.
There are still plenty of schoolgirl stories. One story about a girl that performs well as a sex slave for her Sensei. Another story has a cute pig-tailed girl that learns the dirty truth of casting calls for wanna be idols. Finally, there is a great story about a girl on the co-ed tennis team looking for some loving. It is always nice when the tables turn and the aggressive male finds himself unable to satiate his woman.
In Summary
This book is very focused on perky Japanese schoolgirl looking characters, even to the point that the older women still look like they should be in school. Fans of the explosive breast characters will be disappointed, but I enjoyed seeing all the realistically proportioned girls in [I]Schoolgirl Mania[/I]. Something unique about some of the stories in this book is the presentation by a narrator. These stories don’t have any dialogue as they are told from a male’s point of view. These chapters successfully pull the reader into the story in the style that POV live porn movies do. It is a cool storytelling method and worth a checkout by ero-manga fans.
Overall Hotness (1 to 5): 3:Pitched Tent
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 18+
Released By: Icarus Publishing
Release Date: December 1st, 2008
MSRP:$19.95
