This story is all wet for the right reasons.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Hinasaki Yo
What They Say:
Marine vets need a lot of endurance!!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic Kairakuten BEAST from the January 2019 installment, Dolphin Crush is a twenty-page story from creator Hinasaki Yo, who has about three dozen other works on the service. I’ve been on a bit of a minor binge going through some of their older stuff but avoiding the school-based material as I really like their material that doesn’t involve that age bracket. I’ll admit wariness going into this installment because my initial concern was “don’t fuck the dolphin, don’t fuck the dolphin…” since you can’t always be sure where a story is going to go. But with some really nice designs and an interesting setting focusing on marine veterinarians at an aquarium, well, I was curious to see what Hinasaki Yo would bring to the table.
The story introduces us to the main vet at this aquarium with Kusakabe, a dedicated worker that takes care of all of those under her purview. We see how she’s concerned with a dolphin named Shinichi that may be catching a cold, which means they need to keep a close eye on him out of the main tanks. That has her staying late overnight in her office to watch him and she’s just plain exhausted. Her coworker, Seki, is checking in on her after getting splashed earlier by Shinichi as you can see he’s quite protective of Kusakabe and views Seki as a threat. Seki’s got a crush on Kusakabe, naturally, but he’s also just concerned about her because she is overworked. That gets him to actually get her out of the office for a few minutes for a walk in the building.
Which, if you’re in an aquarium overnight after hours, you’re going to go through the tank-tunnel if it has one. It’s here that he awkwardly makes his move in confessing to her after she’s self-deprecating and can’t believe him. But his earnestness shows, literally, and it doesn’t take too much for his minor hands-on time to become even more. With them making out in this hallway, Hinasaki Yo ensures to put in fish in the background whenever they can and that definitely heightens the quality of the story as the setting is a huge draw. It’s a lot of fun as they get more and more into it, even as she starts to draw back thinking of Shinichi, but the scene between her and Seki has a good urgency and need on both their parts and is pretty hot while still being what you’d label a fairly vanilla scene. The hotness comes from the expressiveness of Yo’s characters in the heat of the moment and the settings.
In Summary
While my initial fear never actually happened, thank goodness, Dolphin Crush delivers some really good fun in an aquarium that’s easy to imagine. The humidity, the enclosed areas, the voyeuristic aspect of all the fish… there’s a lot to like. Kusakabe and Seki are a cute couple that get along and take things to the next level here but you know their work partner is going to be trouble. I really liked the designs in general but it’s the setting that added that extra little touch to make it even hotter. I’m always glad when we get non-school based locations and adults to deal with and Hinasaki Yo delivers again here.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: January 2019
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription
