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Set in a near future where body-mods are common and black market surgeons can make you into the anthropomorphic animal of your dreams, Ryn is a non-binary, aromantic PI.

Sienna is a master at writing compelling characters who are - I suspect - difficult for most people to relate to. As a person who loves being in love I found it difficult to relate to the fact that Ryn is aromantic. My brain kept expecting it to be revealed that they just have a tough emotional exterior, and that they'd eventually open up to Shae romantically, but no Ryn's just aromantic. Similarly, Ryn's just nonbinary. It's not a plot point. It's simply an aspect of their existence.

I don't think that it's ever explicitly mentioned that Ryn is aromantic, much like we don't mention that we're breathing mostly nitrogen. It's just a thing that's part of Ryn's existing. I loved Ryn's casual acceptance of sex work and sex workers. I loved the way they respects the wishes of the person they're hired to find, and won't reveal how to find her unless she says it's ok.

I love the setting. I love the obvious trans allegory that furry people exist, and are fetishized, but also shunned and not accepted by much of society because of their choice to live as the person they see themselves as. I love that they have to go through black market surgery to have the body they feel is right for them.

I love all the characters, even the gross ones.

My only complaint is that it's too short.

I can't wait to read the sequel. I can't wait to see more of this world.

Note: this is a review of the entire series, not just the first volume. Includes minor spoilers, but nothing that'll ruin the story.

Plot

Mizuku is a small and effeminate looking boy, who refuses to allow themselves to like feminine things because their father has severely punished them every time they showed any interest, and they've been bullied by their peers. The bullying leads to a friendship with Takeru who becomes their best friend, and protector, especially after they have a huge growth spurt that leaves them a tall, and muscular high schooler.

Then Loki - the Norse god - gets bored and decides to screw with Mizuki for some entertainment, by turning them into a girl.

The core plot revolves around the fact that Mizuki has romantic feelings for a girl named Fujiwara, but she has feelings for Takeru, and Takeru, eventually has feelings for Mizuki, and of course the complications that arise from waking up magically female one morning, and whatever tricks Loki feels like playing on Mizuki after enrolling in their school to have an up close look at the chaos they've wrought.

The gender change is revealed to Takeru almost immediately when Mizuki - screams their head off at the discovery. Takeru comes in to find them freaking out while wearing an open pajama top, and nothing on their bottom half.

Review

There are a few interesting aspects to this story that are - overall - written pretty well. Takeru almost instantly begins struggling with the fact that his best friend's feminine looks are now backed by an attractive feminine body. Fujiwara - towards the last third of the series - gradually falls in love with Mizuki without it being a big deal that Mizkuki is now a girl.

The final, and largest, core thread is Mizuki learning to accept that they do like girly things, that they've always liked girly things, and that despite their conditioning, and how hard they try to fight it, they like being a girl.

Takeru's attraction to Mizuki, combined with his struggle over the fact that Mizuki was a boy, and not wanting to hurt his best friend is handled fairly realistically. The complicating factor is that Takeru keeps getting turned on, and when he does show physical affection for Mizuki she's into it. She's internally confused, but definitely enjoying it.

This would be a great trans journey except for the fact that it was written in an era when any manga that touched on gender issues seemed almost required to have a cast of "pervert" characters who keep sexually assaulting the main character. This was somehow acceptable because someone always steps in before anything "actually happens" 🤦‍♀️ or someone comically punches the pervert through the floor, or hits them with a brick, or whatever.

Additionally, it has: the cross dressing pervert, the muscle-bound brute who can't take a hint, the little sister (Takeru's) who keeps grabbing everyone's tits, and the muscle-bound mannish girl.

There's also the father who was cruel to Mizuki for showing any hint of femininity suddenly being revealed as having a secret shrine to Mizuki's femininity and wanting to marry Mizuki the moment he discovers she's a girl.

The tropes all suck. They hurt the story every time they come up. The only good thing about them is that when they do come up the author seems to get bored with them and fairly quickly and go back to the main - well written - story. Unfortunately, they don't get abandoned permanently.

Additionally, Mizuki is constantly referred to with male pronouns, by literally everyone, even after it's revealed to the school that she's now a girl. This only changes in - i think - the final chapter. The English translation I read doesn't note if Mizuki is using masculine or feminine I / me or if that changes at some point in the story.

This feels like the product of a society, and author, who can't allow themselves to just talk about queer issues, especially trans ones, so they insert some violent mysoginistic bullshit, as if to say "but it's all a joke see". Normally this just sucks. In this case it just serves to hurt a really good story of a trans girl growing to accept her feminine side, and falling in love with her best friend.

From the perspective of polyamorous reader it's frustrating. Like many stories the protagonist ends up falling for two people Fujiwara and Takeru who both like him, and and friendly with each other, but it's just assumed by all participants that Mizuki will end up with one or the other, and the other one will just stand aside. I find this especially frustrating in a series like this because they're obviously pushing past boundaries that they / society aren't comfortable with so why not let the protagonist enjoy loving two people.

Overall a good story that is occasionally hard to read because of the cruel misogynistic tropes that keep getting inserted. I'd give it 5 stars if not for them.

This is the coziest novel I've ever read. I love it so much. It's cute and sweet. I loved the characters, and the world. While it is an isekai, the world the main character is reincarnated into is not a fictional one from a video game, or TTRPG. It's just another world that happens to have magic and anthropomorphic animal people. The story is simple, and the stakes are low. They just need to deliver some messages to some hard to find people.

While part of the story is about the Luck Bunny learning to accept her new gender, it's more a story about learning to be happy, and growing close. As "Bunny Goddess", she is able to manipulate luck, but her powers are very limited, so mostly, she's just a cute bunny girl learning about her new friend, and the world around her.

If you're looking for a little bit of cozy escape in these trying times, I wholeheartedly recommend you cozy up with this book.

Abandoned 40% through. Good characters. Good writing. Good world-building. Enjoyable use of magic. The problem? One of the main characters is scrying day after day through the history of a book trying to find what happened to it. When ey - the story uses e/ey/eir for most characters - finally do she discovers that it contains some dangerous power that could be terrible in the wrong hands. Instead of going and talking to the people who hid it, or asking /any/ questions at all ey rush to tell their narcisistic boss who the story has established e doesn't like, and doesn't fully trust.

The entire remaining story would be based on something that is completely unreasonable for the main character to have done.

Handling of an agender society.

I didn't mind the idea that it was an agender society, where only a handful of people - mostly from other cultures - declared they had a specific gender. What I did mind was that for most characters clothes were described but not physical attributes that would give any clue if they were biologically male / female / whatever. It would be fine if individuals, or the society were ever described as striving for an androgynous look. Instead it was the opposite. People just wore whatever clothes they wanted, and it wasn't a big deal.

This was a problem for me because I could never guess if I was supposed to be visualizing someone with boobs and hips, or not. Did this person have facial hair? Dunno. When a character was finally described as having "wide hips" I was thrilled that could finally guess how I was supposed to be imagining someone's body. The next sentence promptly described them as having a big beard, and I gave up.

I don't care about the agender stuff. I care that the only thing i have any confidence about when trying to visualize a character is their clothes, and how they wear their hair, and in this society neither of those is a clue towards the sex, and thus physical characteristics, of the body under those clothes.

The story starts with Nakano an 18yr old Japanese woman who's just moved to Tokyo. She's laying bed in her new apartment listening to her neighbors having sex. The next day she introduces herself to her noisy neighbors Sakurako and Nagisa. The next day Sakurako comes over to help unpacking, and start hitting on Nakano. She tells her she's not dating Sakurako, but then Nagisa comes over and long-story-short informs Nakano that they're just Friends With Benefits, and she starts coming hitting on Nakano too.

What sets this apart from most similar stories is that there is absolutely no jealousy or competition between Sakurako and Nagisa. They're both attracted to Nakano and want to date her. They're both fine with the other one being attracted to Nakano too, and they're both fine with having fun with Nakano together.

It's everything happens implausibly fast, but Nakano doesn't fight it. She lets herself get pulled in by the tide of the other two. There's a lot of surprise and confusion on Nakano's part, but none of the expected emotional stress about how she should only like one person at a time. Nakano likes both of them, and doesn't stop herself from showing it.

Eventually Sakurako and Nagisa confess their love for Nakano, as well as two other characters we meet along the way, and that's where I start having problems with this series: one side plot shouldn't exist, another one is confusing, and those two come together in what feels like a forced and overly complicated scene of "Let's have everyone confess to Nakano at the same time!"

In the end this is a sweet and somewhat erotic (mostly kissing and fondling) story of a really sweet hinge relationship forming. Alas, it is hurt by the Harem genre tropes that seem forced onto it towards the end.

There's a nice, and realistic, B-plot involving Nakano's schoolmate / coworker Akiho who falls for Nakano, while Nakano remains pretty clueless because she is pretty focused on the rapidly growing relationship(s) between her and Sakurako and Nagisa.

There's a stupid, and implausible - but thankfully short - side-plot with the landlord's daughter. And a kind-of confusing side-plot with Sakurako's ex who moves in on the other side of Nakano.

The climactic scene is tropey, and the setup is nonsensical, but in the end our three lovers find happiness together.

I'm giving it 4 stars because the main storyline is good, the B-plot with Akiho is good, the kissing and sex scenes are good, but the climax and subplots with the ex and the landlord's daughter are poorly done.

Note: The erotic aspects of this are mostly passionate kisses and one or two sex scenes that gloss over most of the details and only show boobs.

An English fan translation of this can be found on Mangadex and Dynasty Scans.

I can't think of a person who wouldn't benefit from reading this, and the vast majority of the people in my life are monogamous. The only reason I'm not buying it for them is that they don't think of themselves as poly and thus would likely not read it.

Don't make that mistake. 99% of this book is useful for everyone in a relationship. Almost all of her advice about supporting your poly partners is completely applicable for a monogamous partner. The wee bit that's about supporting your partner's relations with others is almost all applicable to a monogamous partner's relationship with friends.

This is not a self help book. It's more like advice from a helpful therapist on how to think about your relationships with others, and what Attachment Theory can tell us about what your partners(s) may be struggling with, or how you can best leverage what they have to offer you.

The chapters end with very practical / actionable questions for you to ask yourself and / or your partners that will help any relationship, even if you don't feel there's anything wrong with yours.

I love how Jessica points out to other resources, and how she stops to point out when certain types of relationship problems really need professional support.

🗒 I should note that the first section of the book is an overview of Attachment Theory. It's a bit dry and academic, but Attachment Theory is the foundational concept the rest of the book is based on. If you're already familiar with this you can skip it. If it's too dry for you, I'd recommend reading a quick overview of the different attachment styles online and then coming back and reading Jessica's more detailed info on the styles you and your partner(s) likely have.

👂 The audiobook is well done but the sound quality could be a little better because it's recorded by Jessica herself. On Audible - and presumably other platforms - the audiobook comes with a PDF version of the charts and such at no additional charge. You'll want this.

reviewer context: I'm poly, and have been in a couple poly relationships. I'm considering her advice through the filter of my lived experiences.

NOTE: this review is of the full series rather than this specific volume.

I absolutely loved reading this. Arisa is portrayed as a lovable idiot. But, she's not an idiot because she's ignorant, or stupid. She's an idiot because she's ridiculously happy to have Mari as a girlfriend and has absolutely no shame regarding their relationship and blows past social taboos about being in a queer relationship because she's just too thrilled to be dating Mari.

Mari is deeply in love with Arisa, and is willing to do whatever it takes to help the girlfriend who has completely forgotten her. Things aren't easy for her though. She's afraid of coming out to people. Her parent's don't know she's not just roommates with Arisa. And now she's dealing with the loss of their relationship.

Mari goes from a life filled with sex and intimate touches with a woman she loves to a life with an innocent girl who is thrilled to be with her but has no idea how to kiss or have sex, and is adorably embarrassed whenever she tries, or sees parts of Mari that excite her. Mari is extremely careful to not push Arisa into doing things she's not comfortable with, even when she's desperately missing the physical intimacy they used to share.

I'm happy to say that Tamamushi Oku absolutely stuck the landing. I laughed so hard at the ending, and loved every moment of it.

This series is upbeat, silly, romantic, and filled with hope.

NOTE: at the time of writing (Dec 2024) only 4 of the 6 volumes have been officially translated, but all six are available via fan translations on the usual sites.

This review is discussing the series as a whole, rather than this specific volume.

This is the best Manga I've ever read. It is one of the best stories I've ever read. It is a stunningly good tale of love, trauma, healing, loss, and forgiveness.

Shizuku is withdrawn, and alone; filled with regret over her past actions, she has given up on life. While suicide is only explicitly mentioned once far into the series, the dark imagery of her inner thoughts early on makes it clear that this is a very real possibility for her.

Kaori stumbles into her path at a critical moment, and forcibly wrenches Shizuku's life down another path. Along the way we learn the source of Shizuku's regret. We see her pulled slowly through her trauma, and see her falling in love with Kaori. Ultimately, we learn the motivation behind Kaori's actions, and why our hearts are about to break.

It's been nine days since I finished this series, and I feel a tightness in my chest thinking about it.

About half-way through the series they let you see how this is going to end. You know it's going to be hard. You know it's going to be sad. You just don't know the fine details. Each new detail cuts into your heart, and yet you just keep reading.

You will be bawling your eyes out when you get to the end, and you will be thankful for having experienced it.

It should be noted that while the series involves two high-school girls, it is not in anyway a typical high-school manga romance story. It isn't about high-school drama, and the story would barely change if the characters were all working adults.

Warning: at the time of writing (Oct 2024) the final volume is not available for purchase in English, you'll have to read a community translated version on a site like Mangadex.

This is, without a question, the most unabashedly stupid manga I've read, and yet I couldn't stop reading.

The premise is pretty simple, Ichihara Chiaki is a well respected and handsome girl who love boobs. Without the "healing energy" of boobs Chiaki quickly becomes uselessly incompetent at everything. Harumi Hana is a big chested girl who inexplicably agrees to Chiaki's request to grope her. Every day they get together after school, and Chiaki lavishes praise on Hanna's boobs while groping them.

Hanna falls in love with Chiaki from the start, but Chiaki only has eyes for Hanna's boobs. Over time, Chiaki starts to realize that it isn't just Hanna's boobs she loves. In between those points are many silly scenes like boob obsessed Chiaki avoiding their daily groping, and Hanna yelling at her to grope them because she knows Chiaki wants to.

The ending is abrupt, as if the author was suddenly informed that the expected next issue wasn't going to happen. Nevertheless it's adorable.

Despite all the boob-play this is very much a comedy and not erotica or porn. It took me a while to figure out why I kept reading this. It was just so stupid. I think Hanna summarizes my thoughts well in one of the panels near the end. "I just didn't want to believe that I was in love with such a boob obsessed moron… "

--

There are two B-plots with other pairs of girls which feel like they get a good start, but are never satisfactorily resolved.

Content warning: One of the b-plot girl pairs are the same age, but one of them is intentionally drawn as if much younger. There are - of course - lots of panels with boobs on display. Anything more than kissing and boob-play happens "off-camera".

⚠️ this review is going to cover touch on very adult content. This series should definitely be considered erotica. ⚠️

Normally I'd avoid manga about going to brothels. It just sounds like a cheap excuse to have lesbian sex scenes, but It had an excellent rating on Mangadex so I hesitantly gave it a try, and just kept reading.

Basic Story

The premise is pretty straightforward. The best friend of our our 20-something protagonist (Asumi) asks her if she's got a girlfriend and she mentions that she probably "peaked" in elementary school when she got a kiss but didn't even realize what was going on, and then the girl who kissed her (Mai) moved away and she's never been able to contact her before.

Her best friend mentions that the friend sounds like someone she encountered working at a lesbian brothel. One thing leads to another and Asumi begins regularly hiring the girls hoping to encounter her friend. Somehow they make this feel plausible; increasingly so as time goes by.

Overall this is just a very sex-positive story about 3 women: Asumi, her best friend Ouka, and later Nanao.

Why it's actually great

First off, all of the sex-workers are written respectfully, and always treated respectfully by Asumi and everyone else. They're never looked down on, or treated as lesser. While Asumi is embarrassed to share the fact that she's using their services it's because of the social stigma not because she feels she's bad for participating in it or that the sex workers are bad people to be avoided.

Secondly, they ignore reality and make it so that all the sex-workers love their job, do it because they enjoy making people feel good, and they all think Asumi is cute and enjoy spending time with her. The result feels like a really healthy friend-with-benefits situation instead of cheap hired sex.

Additionally, with each new sex scene the girls help Asumi to learn more about what she enjoys in the bedroom, and how to be more comfortable with those things. Later in the series, when some light BDSM is introduced, and they make sure there's a safe-word and that there is full consent as they proceed.

The sex scenes are explicit, but it doesn't feel like they're trying to get you off, so much as they're allowing you to be turned on by watching two women pleasure each other. That being said, there was a sex scene in the sixth volume (I think) did nothing to advance the story and did feel like cheap sex.

The reason I kept reading though, was what happens between the sexual encounters. You learn more about her best friend, and Asumi temporarily becomes a live-in housekeeper for another girl who falls for her. You watch their relationship blossom, and overall it's really healthy (mentally). Emotional complications feel believable, and it's not all jealousy and characters making themselves feel like crap because they refuse to tell someone they like them. You want to learn more about these three characters, and what's going to become of them.

Honestly there's so much sex, and the scenes between are so good that there were a few times where I was like, "ok, that's hot, but let's get back to the story."

Content warning / Elephant in the Room

My only real problem with this story is the unnecessarily pervy inciting incident. It is revealed that when Asumi was in Elementary School, and shared a brief kiss with Mai, Mai was in her late teens. The story would be no different if they were roughly the same age when they kissed.

Fortunately the story doesn't dwell on that fact or try and use the age gap as some sort of kink turn-on. It only briefly mentions it in a couple quick moments when Mai remembers it. You can mostly just ignore this, and pretend they were roughly the same age at the time.

Summary

If you can get past the "Elephant" and are interested in some surprisingly sex-positive erotic Yuri I think you should check it out.

A story about a sweet and confused girl who lives with constant hallucinations, true glimpses into people's futures and pasts, and two mischievous demons. She's so confused by the world she walks through, that she doesn't realize she's a hundred year old vampire.

One night she gets run over by a junior priest with a good heart, and a wild series of events unfold.

Along the way she learns she's a vampire, makes friends, falls in love with the goth girl who decided to be her minion, and overcomes a host of violent encounters she would have happily avoided if possible.

This book is wildly unpredictable until the final showdown, and even then it's not clear how the relationship with her new girlfriend will resolve until the last few pages.

I found the initial scene difficult to read, because at that point all you know is that it's a suicidal girl who can't die who sees demons, thinks the convenience store clerk is invisible, and talks to Slurpie machines. While there are humorous elements to her hallucinations, early on you just feel for how confusing and difficult this girl's life is.

Keep reading though. The discomfort passes and as the story progresses her character growth is into more of a real person taking charge of her life despite the hallucinations.

There are two brief lesbian sex scenes in the book, that are well written and filled with desire.

If you'd told me the plot beforehand I'd never have read it.

Ultimately it's the story of a young lesbian in love with a girlfriend who doesn't give her the time and attention she needs, and what happens when she meets another girl who loves her.

(no spoilers summary) Our protagonist - Yuni - is high school student desperately in love with Nanase. Nanase loves volleyball, isn't sure if she loves Yuni, and is terrified of anyone finding out she's a lesbian. The combination of Nanase spending so much time at club, and refusing to let anyone know they're a couple means that Yuni is lonely and desperate to be shown affection.

Meanwhile Fuuko has found Yuni's "venting account" on social media, and fallen in love with her.

Fuuko is what makes this story complicated. She's manipulative in a way that typically makes me hate a character, but as the story progresses we learn that her manipulations are all because she truly loves Yuni, wants to protect her, and hates how Nanase neglects her and refuses to give her the attention and love she needs. I came to love her character despite being uncomfortable with some of her choices.

Fuuko manipulates Yuni into going on a date and their early relationship is rocky at best. Yuni lashes out, sometimes physically, and says some terrible things, because she doesn't want to admit that she could have feelings for her. A lot of Yuni's reactions feel like those of person who's pretending, sometimes violently, to be straight, and hurting those that care about her. This feels a little weird in that Yuni never shows any indication that she's afraid to be seen as a lesbian in public, its more as if she's pulling on those homophobic expectations to push Fuuko away.

Ultimately this is a story about Fuuko and Yuni's relationship and how it reacts when it bumps up against Nanase.

The following sounds like a spoiler, but it's really not: Some of the special images make you think they're going to end up in a polyamorous relationship. That's not the case, at least not in the first six volumes. I believe that Fuuko really could be happy in one. She's ok with the fact that Yuni loves Nanase. Fuuko just wants to love Yuni, and be loved back.

Yuni's mental state is not healthy, and her treatment of Fuuko is sometimes very unkind, but sometimes it's a direct result of Fuuko's manipulations. These are the kinds of characters I typically hate spending time with, and yet everything about this is extremely well done and I really want to see where these story goes. I love these complicated and sometimes broken characters. I want Yuni and Fuuko to end up together in a healthy relationship. I want Yuni to embrace what her heart really wants.

As far as "adult" content goes, there's only one sex scene in six volumes, but it, and the flashbacks to it, are excellent.

-- Update: I started rereading this last night, taking time to notice more details revealed in the background of the art.

I've come to believe that Fuuko isn't nearly as manipulative as it seems on first reading. Aside from forcing the reveal of their affair every negative and/or manipulative thing she does is a response to being mistreated or outright abused.

Fuuko is a girl in love, who's accepted that she'll never be "Number one" but still needs to be loved in return in whatever form "Number two" takes. She's from an abusive household that doesn't respect or love her, and as a result allows herself to be abused by Yuni and still want her.

This is another great book by Seanan McGuire. I was happily surprised at how it felt like everything just kept building, and building. Then, when the villain was finally revealed, our heroes still weren't able to stop them right away.

The characters are great. Each one feels unique and real. There's also an extremely minor romantic angle that comes in late and refreshingly "just is". The book would be 100% as good if it were edited out, but having it there just adds a nice little bit of character building that continues in the sequel.

My only issue with this book is that it reads like a bunch of serial episodes put together. This is because it was initially created for Kindle Serials. The end result is that you get a little bit of the recap of the setting and that the main character is a "Snow White" again and again. In Seanan's defense, she does a great job of minimizing that.

Bonus points for having a character who is transgender where the fact that they're trans isn't a central plot issue, or a joke, & the other characters are totally supportive and accepting when it's mentioned.

This is just a ridiculously adorable story.

The core storyline is "oh shit. I'm trans!" plus a sweet falling in love story.

The explanation for our main protagonist being turned into a catgirl is brilliantly stupid. I mean that in the best possible way. It's dumb as fuck, and that's absolutely perfect in context.

The conversations are fine but have some of the common problems of a new author. At the same time the whole thing is so wonderfully cute, and sweet, and hopeful, and innocent that you just won't care.

For bonus points the setting is a constant dig at billionaires with too much ego.