The innocence of first loves.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: syou
What They Say:
Are encounters… dictated by fate? I want my feelings to reach you… ♥
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic Bavel from the December 2017 installment,The Things That She Taught Me is a twenty-six page story from creator syou, who has three other works on the service. This marked my first experience with this particular creator and it’s one that I’m not sure I’ll end up looking up more of. Syou’s artwork isn’t bad per se but it feels a bit weak with some of the character modeling aspects, particularly with some of the lead character’s clothing, that made it just feel a bit wonky. It’s something that in general feels more like pencil roughs with a little more polish put to them than a final version. It also doesn’t help that it’s a touch light on story, though it plays to certain high school elements that are all too familiar.
The story focuses on Mikami, a student teacher that is spending a month doing her practice run at a high school. She’s dealing in math there and learns fairly quickly that she has to figure out a good way of reaching the kids that are struggling, including one she unknowingly put on the spot on her first day. That has her doing after school lessons to help and they’re pretty well received, which makes her a somewhat popular teacher when she finishes her month and the students are sad to see her go. The one that’s really sad is Arisa, the awkward girl from the first day that has spent the after school lessons helping Mikami clean up afterward and just getting closer with. Arisa even gives her some cookies toward the end but holds back from giving her a love letter that she attempts to hide.
Mikami is oblivious to all of this but she has grown feelings toward Arisa as well, so when the two come across each other in the street after Mikami has left, in the rain no less, it doesn’t take much for them to embrace and end up in a hotel drying off. There’s some cute awkwardness, keeping in mind that they’re probably a year or two apart in age, and the usual nods about it being a forbidden love. Arisa goes to the love well far too quickly yet it has the right note of those of that age and how they bond so fast. The sexual aspect is fairly minimal overall – they’re actually more fun to watch just in the tentative undressing and awkwardness of it all, so it’s not like your usual hentai that’s slam, bam, thank you ma’am style stuff. It doesn’t feel like there’s a huge amount of payoff here but there’s a nice kind of innocent sensuality to it.
In Summary
The hentai stories that I like are the ones that deal with things in a bit more realistic way rather than the usual “porn-y” ones. Those are hard to find in general and even more so with yuri stories as there tends to be fewer yuri stories in general – there’s only four pages of tagged yuri material on Fakku, after all. This one plays sweet and tender for the most part but it also engages in the usual student/teacher thing, even if the teacher is just a student teacher. My quest to find good adult relationship based material, or at least college based, continues. This is a simply and decently done little piece that’s sweet and innocent in a lot of ways and is almost a bit of a dreamlike piece, but like most dreams simply won’t stick with you.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: December 2017
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription
