365 Days of Manga, Day 212: Manga Sutra

MANGA SUTRA • Katsu Aki • TOKYOPOP • 18+
“This isn’t just a hentai manga…I wrote this with the hopes that it would serve as a bible to those who dream of having the best sex ever!” Originally titled Futari H (”H for two”), this manga sex education series was a bestseller when it appeared in 1996, and still runs regularly in Young Animal magazine. (The anime has been translated under the title Step Up Love Story.) Makoto and Yura, 25-year-old newlyweds who met at an omiai (formal matchmaking meeting), are both blushing virgins on their wedding night. Through trial and error, with advice from their nosy friends and relatives, they gradually learn how to have sex and deal with new positions, premature ejaculation, and other issues. Drawn in a generic big-eyed ’80s-90s style, with gung-ho enthusiastic narration, Manga Sutra reads and looks like a How to Draw Manga book. Lovers of strange Japanese cultural artifacts need look no farther for plenty of details about Japanese sex habits, the average length of the Japanese penis, and video game analogies (”Then, the last dungeon is cunnilingus!”). As a sex/relationship book for the inexperienced, some of the information is solid (and Tokyopop’s appendix provides updated statistics), but the characters are extremely dorky. Yura is an idealized big-busted maiden who has never masturbated and who, after she tells Makoto she’s not in the mood, instantly changes her mind and thinks “Oh no! He looks like a puppy that got scolded. Well, I suppose just one time wouldn’t hurt.” Crotches are left blank, a fairly big problem in a sex book, although stylized cross-sections of penises in vaginas are okay. Furthermore, 350 pages pass without any serious discussion of oral sex and mutual masturbation–I know a mangaka has to save the big dramatic scenes for later, but come on! Despite the Tokyopop edition’s essays by sex therapist Ian Kerner, Ph.D (author of She Comes First: The Thinking Man’s Guide to Pleasuring a Woman), Manga Sutra is unmistakably a product of a decade-old Japanese men’s magazine. (”Prepare yourselves, men, for escorting your girls shopping! Some may take forever!”) In fact, a spinoff manga Futari H for Ladies was released in Japan. In short, it’s a penis-centric sex book with old-fashioned art. On the upside, you might learn something. (Review by Jason Thompson – originally printed in Otaku USA magazine.)

Today’s manga winner is Jason Q. of Texas. Congratulations, Jason! I’ll send you some manga ASAP. And since you’re over 18, hopefully you won’t mind reading about the fact that you won alongside this review of “Manga Sutra.”

And of course, by sending in your photo, you’ll become eligible to receive still more manga! Jennifer sent in this photo of herself with her own manga prize, Tokyopop’s long-out-of-print “Miracle Girls.” Glad you think it’s cute! I’ll send you some new manga soon!