Sweet Dreams: Ch. 01 - Adoration

Review Details

While I was browsing some books I came across this title which, honestly, had some captivating cover art. I thought it would be interesting to dive into this book and see what stories it had to tell. I noticed that the contents of this book mostly spanned an early 2000’s time period and I became increasingly interested in how these stories would unfold.

After reading through, I decided that it would be fun to review the first chapter in the book (not counting the pinup library at the front), which incidentally is the most recent story of the bunch. This chapter, in my opinion, is one of the better stories of the book and also gives an example of this artist’s ability to introduce a somewhat more complex story quickly.

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 ‘He’ interchangeably with Kenji for the artist’s name.

General Impressions

When I first saw the art of this story, I immediately felt that there was something a little different from the works I’ve reviewed before. The way Kenji draws gives his characters and settings a slightly more realistic feel to them. I think this can be attributed to some of the extra details he chooses to include.

The clothing is quite detailed with many lines and shades used to show numerous folds. The faces also often include slightly more lines and details with the lips or noses getting extra definition compared to the usually more simplistic manga design. Looking at the eyes, you’ll see some extra detail in the eye definition and in particular Chie’s eyelashes. All this combined gives the characters a certain realistic weight to them that I find pretty cool. [Ex. 01]

This attention to detail is also extended to the backgrounds and scenery. The buildings and interiors that are shown are well drawn with good use of perspective and a very fine line work allowing for great detail that looks clean and impressive. [Ex. 02]

Moving away from the art, another interesting quality of this story is just how much story we get. This chapter isn’t just an excuse to throw sex at the page, though that certainly does happen eventually. Instead, we get 7 pages establishing who these two characters are as well as a healthy dose of internal thoughts throughout the story.

I find it interesting just how much of Director Shirai’s internal monologue we do get. As hentai protagonists, men tend to get to the point, then don’t offer must of interest once the sex begins; usually just the standard phrases you’ve come to expect. In this story, Shirai is more of an actual character, with an actual life. He contemplates his situation and how he got there, and when he does get to commenting on the sexual parts of the story, he does so in a much more robust way. It’s not just the same recycled phrases, but rather something more novel-like. I guess I want to say that it feels like this was written for a more mature audience, as weird as that sounds since it is hentai.

As much as I compliment the more mature story telling here, I will say that I think this story would have worked a little better if it had more space. This could easily have been a multi-chapter story, and the development of these characters would have benefited from a slower paced presentation. As it stands, Kenji crams quite a bit of information into 24 pages. And given how much of Shirai’s perspective we’re given, I think getting more of Chie’s perspective would have been nice.

Characters

I’ve already touched on how the art style gives these characters a slightly more realistic feel to me, so let’s look at the character design from a less detailed perspective.

To be blunt, I think Chie’s design is fairly simple and a little standard, but damn if Kenji doesn’t know how to draw a sublime body. To be more specific, Chie is a long, black-haired, busty office worker. There isn’t too much that stands out from a superficial perspective, but what is drawn is definitely drawn competently [Ex. 03]. What did stand out to me, is just how Kenji draws her nude form.

In full disclosure, I personally like proportions to make some sense. When an artist goes too far in any one area I find I start disliking the design. Making the breasts overly large, the butt super big, or the waist superhumanly small detracts from the form in my opinion. Naturally, there are exceptions when artists can draw these features in specific ways to counteract their disproportions, but in general these are my feelings. In this story, Chie is drawn to impeccable proportions.

Yes, I’m probably biased, but in my opinion the artist was able to design a very well proportioned character. I may have found her general design simplistic and generic, but the way Kenji is able to draw her makes those complaints completely irrelevant. The weight, shape, and figure of the breasts, waist, butt, and thighs are impeccable. Given my particular preferences, I’ll note that I love the way Kenji is able to draw the breasts in various poses. Their shape and weight are well conveyed in almost every panel, and while there is a little inconsistently in their size on various pages, it’s never too much. [Ex. 04]

I’ll touch more on how the character’s other areas are drawn more in the Sexual Content section, but for now I’d say that making a character that’s unique or pops out of the page isn’t necessarily as important as having an accomplished grasp on human anatomy.

As for Director Shirai’s design, I find he is also a little generic, but makes for a good male protagonist. Middle aged men aren’t super new to hentai, but it’s nice that he’s not the generic, young, new office worker, or a big “ugly bastard.” His normalcy and general good looks is a welcome addition for this story and, once again, lends a realistic weight to everything. [Ex. 03]

The detail in his face and hair is great to see, especially once sex begins. He’s not given the dark-eyes treatment and cropped out of frame for everything, but is an actual character in this story. This pairs with the large amount dialog we get from his perspective and it reinforces that both these characters are important. It’s all too easy in hentai for the male character to be ignored or simplified for the sake of sex and I appreciate the detail given to his character.

Flow & Camera

The beginning of this story plays out more like a traditional manga. There’s a good number of close ups and dialog heavy panels spaced out with establishing shots while the occasional larger panel gives us a wider view. It does a decent job giving us the information we need while still giving some juicy visuals so we can anticipate what’s to come.

Once the action gets started, things switch up a bit. The artists pulls the camera back a bit to a more medium distance and we get a good number of body shots from various angles. The camera is really interesting as the placement allows for getting a good view of the body, but it still feels close enough to be intimate. [Ex. 05]

The artist also makes good use of closeup panels to focus in on parts of the action. They are usually featured in groups with continuing action being emphasized, but sometimes a stray panel will show up alone for a specific reaction. There’s also one page where Kenji uses the panels in a series to create a zoom sequence that really works well as a manga-version of an analog camera zoom that shows a good mastery of 2D cameras.

The panels all flow fairly well and each page feels well paced. The poses are dynamic and the camera is able to capture the action quite well. Like I just mentioned above, camera does tend to straddle a strange line of close, but not too close, which works quite well for most pages, but it can feel a little too close sometimes with text bubbles or panel edges cropping slightly too much.

The camera tends to focus on the front and side of the main heroine so if you’re looking for a lot of butt, you may be a little disappointed, but the panels we do get are very well done. Slightly in-line with this camera placement, the camera does get obfuscated by Shirai a couple of times near the end of the story, but it doesn’t feel too egregious and the intimacy is well conveyed in those scenes.

Sexual Content

Overall, this story has 17 pages of nudity/sex, not counting page 23. Almost half of the sexual pages constitutes foreplay with 8 pages being dedicated for a bit of rubbing and cunnilingus followed by some fellatio. It’s best not to underestimate these pages as the foreplay is really well rendered and will undoubtedly get the reader in the mood.

One major reason for this is that it’s not just a jump-in-and-go kind of foreplay. There’s a bit more nuance here with some panels being used for appropriately setting the mood [Ex. 06]with kissing and caressing balancing out the more traditional, straightforward foreplay that’s just a short intermission before the “good stuff.” Oh, and it also doesn’t hurt that the artist flaunts his masterful ability  to render a seductive vagina in this very evocative foreplay section. [Ex. 07]

This is also a good time to mention that Chie is a bit hairy down there, marking a departure from the more common shaven, or bare vaginas in hentai [Ex. 05]. Honestly, I usually find the shaven version to be the style I prefer, but I found myself doubting that belief as I found no fault with this rendering.

Not to forget Shirai, he and his penis are also treated to a great level of quality with the details of the penis being well rendered and an equal match to the vagina it penetrates [Ex. 08]. As I alluded to earlier, with Shirai being on-page as much as he is, it’s nice to see that he wasn’t neglected and has appropriate, if a little more subdued, reactions during the story.

Chie’s reactions are much more pronounced and I appreciate the quality of Kenji’s reaction faces. However, there tends to be only one kind of face Chie can make, so while the quality is fantastic, variety is a little lacking. What is a little more dynamic, though, is Chie’s breasts. I touched on this earlier, but I found Kenji’s ability to draw Chie’s breasts a complete win. They are rendered with a plump weight that works brilliantly with the chosen poses. Whether laying flat, hanging down, or being squeezed, the breasts are always drawn well and have a physicality to them that makes for a very sensual appeal. [Ex. 09]

Now, once sex begins, we are treated to a number of gorgeous panels with an emphasis on Chie’s chest as they enjoy the cowgirl position. Things get a little more intimate after that as they hug and transition to a more missionary-like position. Things come to a head on page 39 when the two climax together in a brilliantly rendered half-page drawing. The final page gives one last panel of the two in bed, post climax, but lacks an actual pull-out panel so if your looking for a little more post coitus content you may be a little disappointed. However, there is a nice, albeit simple tie up for current story to give an open-ended, but somewhat sweet conclusion.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I found the blend of Kenji's art style and script writing to be a fantastic display of maturity in hentai. I think he was able to deliver a more complex story with more believable characters than many other doujin given the same page count. And despite feeling a little generic in character design, Kenji's ability to render their nude bodies far surpasses any blandness in design, as quality is delivered in spades across all 17 pages of spiciness.