Patience and understanding win the day/.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Reco
What They Say:
Slow and teasy wins the race. ♥
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Originally serialized in Comic Kairakuten from the October 2024 installment, Bitter & Honey is a thirty-two-page story from creator Reco, who has a little over two dozen other works on the service. I read a bunch of their stuff in 2020 but hadn’t followed up with anything else since then until this one came across my feed to check out. I liked their artwork a lot from what I remembered of it and having something that clocks in with as many pages as it does here meant that there should be more time to engage with it in a better way with the character material and the actual adult action of it all.
This story introduces us to Kubo, a young man who hasn’t dated before and doesn’t know how to talk to women well. We see him with a bunch of other college kids at a restaurant together for some post-class drinking and he’s encouraged by his friend to talk to Miyake. Kubo likes her to begin with but his friend suggests that since she’s got a reputation for fooling around easily, she’d be good for him to learn the ropes, so to speak. This leads to a couple of weeks of awkward encounters between the two as she has a small liking toward him and brings him to a love hotel the first time to try and have some sexy times because she wants sex. The problem is that during this and the next couple of attempts, he’s just unable to do so for a host of reasons. And for her, it’s reinforcing issues she reveals later about how a former partner called her a dead fish in bed that just lies there, hence her looking to prove that she’s anything but.
When the two finally do try one more time after some minor texting, we see how they finally come a bit clearer about their issues and problems and with Kubo talking about how he doesn’t want her to feel like she has as he feels responsible for it. This leads to a pretty familiar but very well-done first-time sequence for Kubo but also the kind of sequence where for Miyake, she’s engaging with someone who genuinely likes her and wants her to be pleasured and happy. It’s the kind of shift that can make a huge difference for a partner and while Kubo isn’t the best lover in the world for obvious reasons, the two click and connect well here that he’s just thoroughly enjoying every single thing about it while she’s experiencing things in a new way. There’s a lot to like in the extended final sequence that they’re going all the way in and with Miyake doing things she hadn’t done before, including taking the lead at times which she definitely finds empowering.
In Summary
Reco has put together a solid story here that feels like it could easily be a long-form storyline that shows how these two figure things out with each other. I do like that it takes the time to work through a couple of unsuccessful encounters and the reasons why they didn’t work before giving in to another encounter because both know there’s something more there. The ending is pretty cute and the kind of thing that doesn’t surprise, but I enjoyed the way it explored some bad encounters and the issues they face before finally just spending the time talking and exploring together to figure out how to make it work since the underlying attraction and interest is definitely there. A well-done story with some appealing artwork and some gorgeous panels.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 18+
Released By: FAKKU
Release Date: October 2024
MSRP: FAKKU Subscription
