Nothing like a hairstylist fetish.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: utu
What They Say:
Limited service only for cherry boys
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic Shitsurakuten from the July 2016 installment, Poolside Secret is an eighteen page story from creator utu, who has a lot of material on the service. What we get from utu is definitely pretty interesting with the artwork, though a bit light on story, as it’s very busy with a lot of detail to give it such an intense feeling. I like how he presents things as our leading lady, Isuzu, isn’t just a buxom beauty of a girl or anything. With the focus on the swimming here, she comes across as someone with a bit of a swimmers body for the most part, breasts excluded, as she’s got some muscle on her and a sense of presence that a lot of other characters don’t have. It’s in nice contrast to the shorter Kyou that gives us our leading male.
The focus here is on how Kyou and his friend Keigo are talking while wrapping up the class pool time and Keigo gives him grief for never going after their childhood friend Isuzu. Kyou can’t think of her as anything as his younger sister but that’s not how she feels and it feels like Kyou is in a bit of denial himself, particularly after Keigo makes it clear he’s going to try and date her. While that doesn’t advance here (and is a cute callback at the end of the chapter), the post-class period is where things shake out as Kyou goes to shower in the girls room since the boys is being repaired. Unfortunately for him, he thought all the girls had left but Isuzu is still there and partially undressed. It’d normally start there but Risa starts to show up, which will make it quite the scene, so Isuzu throws Kyou in a stall along with herself in order to wait out Risa’s shower.
What sets things truly in motion is her questioning him about what he said earlier as she overheard and that making things awkward until their proximity just gets it all rolling as she’s unable to control her desire for him. It’s cute in how he’s uncertain himself because he doesn’t want to make a mistake, but the two get into some serious shower room shenanigans. What we get is fairly traditional in terms of the actions and motions of it all but utu delivers it very well with some up close expressiveness from the characters, a whole lot of intensity from the coupling and the build up that was created over the years, and just the non-standard design that we get for Isuzu. I love that she comes across as more muscular and firm here and engages in everything with a lot of passion and intensity. Yeah, there’s goofiness with some aspects of the fumbling of poor Kyou, but the end result is a strong coupling that really makes you like the characters.
In Summary
Dipping into a chapter that came out a couple of years ago with a random grab, Poolside Secret was a surprisingly fun little gem to find. I like utu’s designs and there’s just enough character trappings to make it work well while combined with the setting. I really like the artwork but there’s a softness to the presentation here that made it feel just a little too fuzzy for me instead of the clarity of other chapters I’ve read recently. The main draw was just in how Isuzu is presented as there was a lot to like there and it left me wanting more.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: July 2016
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription
