Sometimes you just gotta go where the road takes you.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kohri
Translation/Adaptation: N/A
What They Say:
A secret relationship with an undetermined destination…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic Bavel from the August 2022 installment, Passer-by Woman is a twenty-two-page story from creator Kohri, who has nine other works on the service. This marked my third experience with this particular creator, obviously, as I enjoyed the first couple of chapters I tried and am now checking out things that I missed in their catalog. This one also drew some attention with the tags that it has and their small back catalog of things to read makes it easy so that I can have more to check out but not be overwhelmed by their catalog. The preview image had something that played to the wholesome side as well and that’s always fun to watch unfold.
The premise for this one plays to some fun themes as we’re introduced to Tomoki, a young man who has essentially run away from home after having some difficult dealings with his father. He’s hitchhiking north to find his own path now and hoping to get a ride. So he’s pretty excited when a car pulls over and it reveals a beautiful woman named Yui. She’s fine taking him a good bit of distance north because she’s left the city herself after finding out that her fiance had cheated on her and then questioned whether they should be together when she called him out on it. There’s certainly a bit of an age gap here but also a kind of playfulness about it from Yui’s part, especially when she jokes about how she needs to cheat like her fiance did so they can be on “equal footing” in any future discussions.
Of course, it’s Tomoki joking that he’d make a good fling that sets things in motion as Yui is completely down for it, which shocks him as you’d expect. The first half of their encounter is some fun in the car as Tomoki can’t believe that’s happening and Yui really is quite fun as she teases him in a couple of different ways. But in a welcome change, it shifts to them outside on the car – which is parked a little bit off the road – and they continue from there because there’s only so much Yui wants to do in a car. Kohri’s artwork is what delivers things here as the situation and setting are alright at best but with how they present Yui and some of the angles, it’s able to ratchet things up quite well. There’s a good intensity to it and some of the dialogue hits a sweet spot as well as Yui finds herself enjoying things far more than she thought she would.
In Summary
Though there’s a kind of weakness to the story that I expected here, it manages to overcome it because of the artwork and general pacing for it. While a lot of stories end with me wanting more chapters, this one feels nicely complete overall, though you can certainly imagine ways that it’ll go. It’s a cute and fun little piece that you can wipe away any problems with just for some rare fun in and on the car material. There’s just not a lot of that in general. Kohri’s artwork is definitely the appeal here as the lead with Yui is just fantastic but we also get some decent setting material and background that helps to give it all a bit more of a boost.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: October 2022
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription
