Suggestive Reading (Ch. 5 - 6)

Ch. 5: Secret Love Story with the Literary Girl

Ch. 6: Love-Steeped Evening with the Literary Girl

Review Details

Fun fact, there's very few publishers that bring hentai doujin/hentai manga to the rest of the world (at least for the States). Honestly, I think it's a bit disappointing since there's so much out there can be legitimately brought to a new audience but can't due to the limitations of a single organization. However, I also can't claim to understand how complex the intricacies are when dealing with Japanese publishers. What I do know is that those who are bringing these doujin over from Japan deserve recognition in respect to their efforts. Fakku, of course, has made a name for themself, and while it's nice having a lot of material in one place, there's also other places to find hentai. This is why I wanted to review a work that is available on Project Hentai; to help give awareness of other places to purchase hentai.

Now to be honest, I didn't actually know that Fakku also had this manga available when I bought it from Project Hentai's site, so I found myself buying it twice to confirm it was the same product. But now that I do know that the two copies are comparable, the end user actually has a choice of where to buy this volume.

As for what's being reviewed, I'm covering 2 chapters from the middle of the full book. I chose these two chapters because I thought they were particularly evocative and gave a good example of what to expect from this entire book. I'm covering the first two chapters of this particular story line that features Fumino, but in the book there's an additional 2 chapters you can find after the events I cover here as well as 2 chapters before, that focus on her friend as the main heroine.

Note: I’ll be using page numbers based on the file names in Project Hentai’s release in this review.
Note: I’ll be using she/her interchangeably with Jake since the meta chapter depicts themself as such. That meta chapter is actually quite funny and sexy so I do suggest reading it.

General Impressions

Judging from the few comments over on Fakku's site, it looks like I may have a more unique opinion on this book as I found myself disagreeing with their opinions. It seems that the art in this book can be a bit controversial with the art style being the main complaint from commenters; with descriptions like too "rough" or just "okay." Granted, some specify that it's only in some panels, but the overall feeling does come across for the book.

I believe that Jake has an art style that uses a lot of small techniques to build a really cool, unique piece of art. Most noticeably, there’s strong use of screen tones and exaggeration to make scenes come to life. She tactically uses different stroke thicknesses and perspective to accentuate the shapes of the characters and their parts. It reaches an extreme on page 96 where she uses a close-up of Inoue’s penis in combination with forced perspective between his penis and the characters standing in the background [Ex. 01]. It’s a unique trick that inserts a dynamic close-up into the main image showing the character’s actions and expressions when it could have been done easier in a separate, small panel. While panels this extreme aren’t super common, exaggerated expressions and perspectives still permeate the rest of the story.

The liberal use of tones means pages will often be mostly shaded, with whites mainly reserved for highlights. And with Fumino wearing a black outfit, there is certainly a lot of ink on the page which does lead to an overall darker, or grayer, feel to the art. However, this also brings shape to the characters with lighting and shading being used to define the characters’ depth. I think it works really well in making the scenes feel more visceral and dynamic. And to make characters pop from the page, Jake will often use rim lighting (visualized by an artistic decision to use a white highlight around a character's figure) to accentuate the characters’ outlines and separate them from the backgrounds [Ex. 02]; once again adding definition to their shape and ensuring that they don’t blend in to each other or the backgrounds with all the toning.

Jake also put a lot of work into the background art when present. The library setting tends to make a situation where you need to draw bookshelves full of books, and the artist does a good job establishing that environment with some decent detail. The background does disappear a bit when action gets pretty intense, but less often than I would have expected. A part of this is because Jake uses the environment as a story element. And while talking with a passing classmate through a bookshelf while trying to hide the truth is something I’ve certainly seen before, by no means does it take away the spiciness of this story as it’s presented here.

Characters

Jake did a great job with Fumino’s design making her fit the expectations of the story. She appears as a plain, bookish type with long braided hair and a quiet demeanor; just a pair of glasses away from the typical stereotype [Ch. 5 Title Page]. However, just 3 pages, 2 panty flashes, and 1 devious smile later, we have a transformed girl. Her body is surprisingly voluptuous with strong curves and a bust striking the perfect balance of size to body proportion.

Jake shows a strong skill with face design as well. I noticed her characters tend to have slightly wider or rounder faces around the cheek bones that follow a good curve to a usually small, rounded chin. The characters also have more lip definition than I've normally seen in doujin, with the lower lip usually getting an extra shade or stroke. Most importantly, these faces look quite good with any expression as proven throughout the story. I find that Jake particularly excels in a specific kind of lust-face that I’ve not really seen before. It crops up in almost every story in the book and takes the form of a greatly satisfied smile, but with a closed or only slightly open mouth while the eyes are lit up; everything expressing pure ecstasy [Ex. 03 (shows Fumino twice and another character from earlier in the book as an extra reference)].

One more character feature I want to talk about out is the hair. The artist tends to use a lot of lines to texture the hair which can sometimes give it a more sketched look, but also a lot of personality [Ex. 04]. Using a couple of thin lines to add stray strands of hair brings out a lot of extra sensuality in close ups and gives the reader a good impression that these characters are moving and experiencing the story with energy and passion. When all of this is combined with an abundance of shine, the hair really pops out as a well detailed enhancement for the characters [Ex. 04].

Not all characters are created equal though. Male characters throughout the book have a more bland design and only the first male character in the book actually stood out to me. Inoue’s design does have a little uniqueness in his hair, which almost covers one eye and is quite smooth compared to his counterpart. However, his initial impression makes him look a little creepy [Ex. 05]; thankfully his personality doesn’t really follow suit. For the most part, he’s more of an afterthought in the story with his face getting cut off the page or given the no eyes treatment.

Flow & Camera

The story opens from the perspective of Inoue and from the onset we have a slightly voyeuristic camera as he looks on at Fumino reading [Ex. 06]. This brings with it a series of closeups with a panel or two of distant shots as the reader is given an overview of our heroine. This sets some expectations on what we can expect going forward as close up panels are heavily used during the story.

For this story, the artist likes to use those close up panels to showcase foreplay, and a specific panty shot that struck me as interesting since it pops up multiple times in the book. Jake then pulls the camera back a bit during the sex scenes but with plenty of close up panels still there for accentuating the faces and insides (the first part here uses a lot of x-ray shots so if that’s not your thing, the zoom panels may be a little distracting).

The camera remains dynamic throughout the doujin and I appreciate the variety of angles presented when the characters are simply talking. The specific panty shot I mentioned earlier is a particular view that I wasn’t expected during their conversation as it seemed a little out of nowhere [Ex. 07], but it did bring a quick provocativeness to the story as the artist is quite good at rendering the clothed female crotch. Once copulation begins, the camera remains just as active by providing almost every view you could need. Whether you want breasts, butt, belly, back, or vagina there’s a good panel waiting for you somewhere in these two chapters, though the first chapter does has a slightly better variety.

The doujin flows from page to page in a rather clear fashion and I like the pacing and transitions. One thing I found interesting is how the artist has a habit of throwing in wide shot panels periodically throughout the story [Ex. 08]. It could be anywhere in the flow of the doujin, but randomly there will be a panel zoomed out and showing the two characters in the environment. Combined with the variety of zoomed panels used throughout story, and it actually reminds me of how the anime studio Shaft directs their conversation scenes; it’s just missing a few head turns.

Sexual Content

There’s a total of 32 pages of foreplay and sex between the two parts with part 1 having 17 pages and part 2, 15 pages. Fellatio is basically the only foreplay present in these two chapters with each part containing a little foreplay before insertion. There’s 6 pages of foreplay for the first chapter, while the second has only 3.

With numbers out of the way, lets look at what’s going on during the sex. I think Jake may have a fascination with standing doggy style sex as both chapters are a majority of just this position with the characters standing while the heroine leans against a surface while being penetrated. In the first part, this is the only position, with the dynamic camera giving enough variety that you probably won’t even notice. The position does change slightly at the end when Inoue lifts Fumino’s left leg for the climax, but it isn’t a major change from the norm.

The second part does have a little seated cowgirl at first, but then transitions to more standing sex from behind [Ex. 09]. The spice in the second part is provided by some exhibitionist elements added after the characters stand up. They proceed to continue their act near the window of a classroom with Fumino’s body pressed up against the glass. It really provides a provocative change from the first part by giving the artist an excuse to draw Fumino’s beautiful breasts with some squeezed distortion being pressed up against a surface.

Fumino’s vagina isn’t actually seen all that much in the doujin and there’s no clear rendering of it in full view. What is rendered is done well enough, but is almost only seen when being penetrated [Ex. 10]. This is a little interesting since other chapters in the book do show the full view of a vagina, but I get the impression that the artist is better at drawing just the clitoris area of the vagina and directs the camera and story in order to draw only what’s needed.

Fumino’s breasts are featured a lot more in the story and are quite beautifully rendered. There’s clear nipple definition and a small shaded areola around them which is always drawn well and adds to the sensual appeal of her character. The breasts, in general, are also impeccably rendered with a good weight and fullness present in each frame. As slightly mentioned earlier, Jake is able to handle breast distortions quite well and whether they are squeezed or pressed against a surface, they are drawn to a very beautiful specification.

I also want to quickly call out Jake’s masterful ability at drawing sexual underwear. Each shot of Fumino’s underwear is very detailed and also quite provocative. I applaud the artist’s great use of fluids to enhance these scenes and increase sexuality tenfold.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I think Jake is able to draw hentai with great quality. Her skills in depth and figure are exceptional and while this story isn't super complex, it's enough to provide a starting point for a very evocative journey. And even though this story doesn't necessarily present a lot of positions, the quality of the camera and poses speak for themselves; not to mention the other poses throughout the chapters in this book that have similar quality to this story. I may not be vary familiar with Jake's full body of work, but I can say that reading this book made me excited for any other material this author has produced and I look forward to reading more.