Sometimes you gotta go a little wild.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kohri
Translation/Adaptation: N/A
What They Say:
Searching endlessly for your warmth…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic Bavel from the December 2023 installment, Stripper is a twenty-four-page story from creator Kohri, who just over a dozen other works on the service. Obviously, this marked my latest experience with this particular creator as I enjoyed the first couple of chapters I tried and am now checking out their latest offerings, which is always great to get more of. This one also drew some attention with the tags that it has some fun ones there and their small back catalog of things to read makes it easy so that I can have more to check out. The preview image had something that was appealing as well since it’s not a thing that we see used often in this kind of material.
The premise for this is a bit awkward in its execution and it’s the kind of situation where the characters as people aren’t ones you can really root for in a way. The main thrust is that Tecchan and Natsuki were dating ten years ago, quite seriously, and we see how he made her a cup as a present one time as he was then an aspiring potter. Being as poor as he was, it was all he could do but she loved it. And in order to help out with things financially, she took on a job stripping and really wanted him to see her perform and to know what she was doing. But he never went and broke up with her on the spot because he could only see it in the most immoral of ways and couldn’t believe she’d do that. And while he’s dated since in the years after, ten years later he’s still viewing her as his one true love. Which is why her showing up at his door to get the cup repaired has him wondering if fate is working.
The problem is that she’s still stripping and is married to someone who doesn’t have a problem with it. But it’s not that say because he cheated on her and she’s here to get something she’s wanted for a long time in having sex with Tecchan again. He’s still not happy that she’s still stripping and there’s a kind of weird vibe between the two even though the sex is intense. Part of it, as it unfolds, is that we see how Tecchan just never saw who she is and what she was. They connect perfectly when it comes to sex, but he had a vision of what he wanted life to be as opposed to what it could be. It’s a lot of fun as they engage intimately, but Kohri gives us several pages after the depart, never to see each other again like that, and he goes to see her performance as a kind of closure. When he discovers that it’s absolutely nothing like the vulgarity his mind came up with, he’s practically weeping from it because he realizes what he’s lost – especially since he never took even the most basic of interest or curiosity to see what it was she did.
In Summary
There’s an awkward vibe to the book and I don’t think Kohri quite nailed the pacing of it since it segues into hook-up material a lot quicker than it should have. But that was done to provide some pages at the end for the performance so it works out for the best that way. I like the concept and that you don’t get a main character that’s “winning” here by any stretch. If anything, it’s just filled with a lot of guilt and someone who hopefully makes better choices going forward from there. The artwork is the main draw and just some of the character choices feel like something welcome that we don’t normally get. It works well enough but it felt like it needed another pass to smooth some areas and tighten up others.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: December 2023
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription
