Eguchi-kun wa Minogasanai

*Note: This is a review for both this manga and the prequel.* This manga is about appreciating the small things in life. More specifically, the more subtle erotic moments in one’s life. Most ecchi manga try to be as in your face as possible to the point of absolute ridiculousness. While I won’t quite say this manga is realistic, it overall does feel more grounded. It features the protagonist, elementary school student Eguchi-kun, as he notices all the slightly erotic moments in his daily life. It has standard lucky pervert events, such as the wind lifting skirts or seeing cleavage as a woman bends down topick something up. But it also has a focus on more subdued events like sunlight shining through a dress or the panty line through a kimono. And even with the bigger things there’s a very different feel to them because instead of them just happening randomly, here Eguchi-kun actively acts in such a manner so as to make them happen. He doesn’t actually do anything too weird. Half of it involves him making sure he’s standing in the right place and looking in the right direction. The other half is often him being especially observant and helping out those around him in such a way that it works out well for him. For example, he’ll notice that the girl sitting next to him is cold, so he’ll get her a blanket, and thus she’ll fall asleep and lean on him, giving him a perfect view of her cleavage. The other big difference with other ecchi manga is that it shows much more gratitude towards the ecchi moments, even the subtle ones. There’s generally only one ecchi moment per chapter and that is the sole focus of the chapter, though the chapters are all pretty short. Eguchi-kun is also incredibly stoic. He doesn’t speak at all and the only emotion he shows is a small smile after each slightly erotic moment. This really increases the weight of the moments, and makes them feel more valuable. With that said, the manga doesn’t really have a plot at all. It’s just a series of small episodes without really any sort of progression. There are a lot of reoccurring characters of course with their own circumstances and relationships, but there’s not really anything that changes over the course of the manga. There’s not really anything special to the start or ending either, they’re just episodes the same as any other. Also, while this manga is divided into two parts, with the first being a single volume and the second being four volumes, there isn’t much of a difference between the two so it’s best to just consider this a single five-volume series. The only real difference is that the mangaka’s art improved considerably for the second part, wherein the first part is still okay art wise, the second part is eventually downright excellent. tl;dr: A manga laser focused on subtle ecchi.