Also by this author: A Trail of Blood, Happiness, The Flowers of Evil
My Thoughts
The premise for this manga was ridiculous enough to pique my interest and I honestly don’t know what I expected. A teenage boy who hasn’t grown any body hair meets a girl with a lot of body hair, and the two band together to shave. There is some good commentary about the way that society judges both men and women about body hair underneath the obvious ecchi scenario of a boy shaving a girl. This little manga would definitely appeal to folks with trichophilia, particularly the ones that find shaving arousing.
Ayako actually has a normal amount of body hair, but like many teen girls is embarrassed by it. I could relate to Ayako in that way because bodily hair can be a source of teasing from other teens. When I was in middle school I didn’t shave my legs or my armpits, my mother had warned me to hold off on shaving as long as I could so that my hair wouldn’t grow hard and thick like hers and she was right, I had soft baby hair. I began shaving in seventh grade, after wearing a shirt vest that had no sleeves and I got ridiculed mercilessly by a boy in my class. I was so embarrassed I went home and took my dad’s razor to shave my armpits.
“Even though our genders are different, Gotou and I might actually be similar…”
Ayako struggles with shaving, cutting herself left and right. It sounds ridiculous but when you first start, especially when nervous and ashamed, it’s understandable. I too used to get tons of nicks and cuts because I was clumsy and would push too hard, so in a way the manga is not entirely unbelievable. Like many slice of life manga, the story does not really go anywhere beyond the strange shaving friendship shared between the two main characters. However, I liked the message that body hair is natural and beautiful, it is a message of body positivity that I didn’t expect to find in a silly ecchi manga but here we are.
Warnings: sexually explicit content
I didn’t know I needed this manga until I chanced upon it. The Way of the Househusband is a laugh out loud funny manga about a former Yakuza legend adjusting to his new life as a dedicated house husband. The manga follows Tatsu as he tackles every day tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and shopping. He faces judgment from other gang members that run into him but doesn’t let things phase him.
This manga was incisive in the way that it explores what it means to grow up and the tragedy of letting go of one’s teenage dreams. The main cast of characters feels like they are simply drifting along with their circumstances, aching to be ‘free’ but conceding to the necessities of work. Meiko feels bored, but no matter what decision she makes to try and free herself, she finds that she’s no freer of boredom. The characters grapple with what it means to be anti-establishment and desperately hold onto their college days.