A complicated tale of first interactions.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Aoi Miharu
Translation/Adaptation: N/A
What They Say:
You can try touching my likely delicate heart.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic X-Eros from the June 2017 installment with #55, Virgin Property is a twenty-eight-page story from creator Aoi Miharu, who has about twenty other works on the service. This was my second story I’ve checked out from them as I really enjoyed the random sampling that introduced me to the Virgin Property story. With this being a shota story, something I missed in the tags when first pulling it up, that’s going to be a nix for a lot of people and I get that. And honestly, I wouldn’t have kept reading if I had known that. I’m so used to some artists that draw a bit young at times that it blurs after a while. But with two teenagers in the mix, we get a story that’s less focused on him to begin with and more on the her of the story.
The chapter does have a decent bit of story wrapped around it that makes it compelling enough as well. We’re introduced to Shizuka who is throwing out a lot of her stuff at an underpass by the river because her parents are trying to get rid of things and she doesn’t know what to do. While there, she ends up meeting a foreigner named Emilio that tries to be friendly and they end up back at his place where she brings the movies because he loves movies. He’s only been in Japan and going to school for six months so he’s not great with the language, doesn’t have much in the way of friends, and is just lonely. A second meeting has her bringing a slew of tapes and an 8mm camcorder, which has him in his boyish ways taking a short film of her and falling hard as she is, well, beautifully illustrated here.
While the two spend time together and quietly bond like this, the frustration of how they’re treated brings them closer and they obviously find a way to feel more adult together. Not that sex makes you an adult, far from it, but there’s a lot of tender aspects to what happens here and it’s not something that plays overly long either. It’s still very much hentai but Aoi Miharu has a pretty good visual design eye here and with its focus on Shizuka there’s a lot to like in watching it unfold. Obviously, shota fans will be a lot happier than your “standard” hentai fan. For me, these are stories that I actually grew up with to some degree in books and film, just not as explicit, so it kind of connects there. But I also love that we get a really proper multi-page epilogue that takes us down the line a few years where you want to see more.
In Summary
A Taste of Honey reminds me that I really need to check the tags more closely before delving into it just because I like the creative behind it. Aoi Miharu in the technical sense has a great looking chapter here. Shizuka is beautifully presented, there’s a great eye for panel layout and character placement, and just the bit with the 8mm camera is fantastic in how it really adds to the whole curiosity and interest that Emilio naturally has. There are a good number of pages devoted to actual character/story material that gives it room to breathe and it doesn’t feel like it’s crammed with a fast pace to just get to the dirty stuff but rather something that eases into something that one would almost dismiss as a dream you had years later instead of something that really happened.
Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: July 2019
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription
