Sundome by Kazuto Okada Manga Review
An ecchi romance manga that used to be popular on 4chan. The protagonist is an unassuming typical perverted highschool protagonist #6723 infatuating himself with mysterious transfer student #9969 who for some unexplained reason takes interest in our protagonist.
As an ecchi, it's a diamond - shamelessly kinky, but connecting the fetishes to emotional evolution of the characters. It's not that explicit but then I may say that because of the smut I normally read hehe anyway...
As drama, it doesn't have any problems hitting you in the face, moving you, making you uncomfortable. But perhaps the ending is foreshadowed a bit too much. It's still a good plausible ending which doesn't feel contrived at all.
As a comedy, heh, not the finest comedy style around, sure, but it was able to get a chuckle out of me more often than not every chapter. It's mainly ecchi humour.
As a romance, it is very good. The relationship between the MC and the girl(who is on the book cover above which is why I read this in the first place) actually progresses gasp instead of there just being cute girls, a clueless mc and an open ending.
The MC(the main character) and the girl are part of an after-school club called the 'Roman Club' which makes less sense than SEELE. Basically, it's a club which researches the supernatural and aliens whose former alumni are in positions of power in society. The only rule of the club is that if the club members manage to not get laid during their high school years then for some unexplained reason, they would be guaranteed high positions in society (why wasn't there such a club at my high school). The protagonist and the two boys in the club are all losers so it doesn't seem to be a problem but then that mysterious transfer student cute girl joins the club... The shenanigans with the club members were uninteresting as fuck (e.g going to a cemetery to search for ufos or something ..bleah). Just ignore the Roman Club as you would try to stop trying to make sense of SEELE in Eva actually, in this case, is much easier to ignore because it's only implied there are no evil masterminds' meetings. It's not a major plot point I am just trying to find something negative about this to be impartial. Some people(well, probably guys) on MAL were whining about the art I actually liked this art style a lot. The backgrounds are nothing worth talking about but the girl looks cute so...
The guy protagonist is an outright masochist, and the girl isn't so much a bully as she is a gentle dominatrix. I can see why 4chan likes it... Basically, it's the premise of a lot of anime (e.g Oh My Goddess, Hyouka, Oregairu) of some cute girl coming to save some loser from himself (from his own laziness and lack of initiative). What makes this series better than the others is that it is clearly formulated in their relationship that she will give him sexual favours if he improves himself as a guy. Actually, there is a second pairing with another member of the class and a 'gal'(hot high school chick who is superficial and rude archetype) character to further add fuel to 4channers day dreaming fantasies.
By the way, after you have read this manga come back to this blog and watch the video below. You will understand why then. Bookmark this page if you like.
I give this manga an 8/10. It has many flaws but it hit close to my heart. I know, I know "Do you feel the feels in my feels" I can hear @thatanimesnob say but if my doki doki disagrees there's nothing I can do about it. I know enjoyment isn't the only way to measure how good a series is per se, after all, there can be so many things surrounding a series, like the fanbase and other people's opinions, that can affect my enjoyment of the manga but in the end even in a formulaic analysis of art what you are trying to gauge is which criteria you find enjoyable and then apply it throughout making an exception there, changing a rule here and so on. Basically trying to figure out the formula of the masterpiece that you will enjoy the most. It's just that my perfect masterpiece would be kinky and perverted as well, I guess (Gunbuster nearly reached the bar for my perfect anime but it just wasn't perfect in so many ways even if it is still great).
Recommendations: Nana to Kaouru(manga), it's too long for its own good and suffers from why-doesn't-their-relationship- progress-after-so-many-chapters-syndrome. The girl is the masochist and the guy is still pathetic but also the sadist(is that what you call it I am not that familiar with this stuff). The girl is less interesting than in the girl in Sundome but the guy is a more interesting character though not by much. I basically see it as a lesser version of Sundome which is more concerned about the accessories around S&M though it does make some good points too. It's a lot less kinky too which for me is a major minus. But it's still good, don't get me wrong.
Welcome to the NHK(anime, the manga and light novel are inferior which I will explain why in my next blog post): It's the same premise as this manga basically (though it plays out more realistically as unrealistic of a premise like this can be played out realistically) of a cute girl coming to change some loser. A much better show in my own opinion though if I am being nitpicky the problem with the nhk anime compared to sundome, is that the Welcome to the NHK anime covered too much group and it felt episodic even if it actually wasn't but more on that in my next post which deals with the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation's evil conspiracy to turn us into NEETs trying to make a buck or a pound on Steemit by writing about anime instead of being productive citizens washing old people's asses and working at McDonald's because we were too busy watching Chinese cartoons to get an education, amirite guys? Guys?
Great Teacher Onizuka(anime and manga): This may seem like a strange recommendation but bear with me. Basicall, this is one of those shows in which a charismatic teacher tries to help some troubled students, there used to be a lot of these. In this the teacher is a perverted virgin ex-biker gang leader turned into a middle school teacher - he wanted to become a highschool teacher to hit on high school girls but that didn't work out. The reason that it has a protagonist like this is because this started as a parody of the 'charismatic young teacher helps troubled students genre' but in the end it became the very thing it parodied and the best of its kind. Are you still reading? Good. Well, basically manga like Sundome were preceded by manga like GTO - just replace the charismatic teacher with a cute mysterious girl who for no reason wants to help the self-insert-loser-protagonist to be his best? See what I mean? GTO has also got a fair amount of perverted jokes but nothing coming near to the level of Sundome. GTO is a shounen (young adults 12-18 years old male category) and Sundome is a seinen (18-30 years old male category).
Onanie Master Kurosawa(Literally; Masturbation Master Kurosawa): A manga drawn with very very crude art and not nearly enough fanservice for my tastes (not for a lack of taste) but which makes up for it with its cathartic ending. It's also about some perverted loser but unlike in Sundome and Nana to Kaoru he isn't some good guy and the innocent cute girl doesn't fall in love with him for no good reason (or at all) and he is bitter like the average reader.