Sensual Phrase

I've had the pleasure of finding this manga series way back when I was in middle school, I was twelve at the time. While it was the front cover that grabbed my attention (The artwork was appealing and Sakuya's blue eyes attracted me to him), I actually fell in love with the plot and its characters. At the time of me getting the first volume, I didn't even know that it was gonna have sex in it. I mean I guessed it would have some adult themes given the English title, Sensual Phrase, and a flash of Aine's breasts at the end of the firstvolume. And I don't just mean one or two panels that depict people having sex (where it just shows a headshot or even a shot from the waist or ever would be considered an implied sex scene). The manga is literally littered with quite a few steamy shots of Aine and Sakuya at it, though the worse you see is Aine's breasts, or Sakuya's butt (depending on how the shots are drawn), but still, I'm sure other readers of this series can agree that this manga is definitely filled with smut. The story starts off simply enough: High School Girl meets a hot musician dude, they fall in love, the girl becomes involved with the hot musician's band/work, and together, they face a string of suitors and rivals vying for their affections, etc, etc. But I have to say that while I enjoyed the story at the beginning (who wouldn't want to stick around to see a hot bishonen guy in his full glory?), but during my second and third times of reading this manga reveals that the story is a little too fast-paced for my liking. The pacing starts off steady in the first half of the first volume after Aine and Sakuya share their first "kiss," things develop a little more quickly than anticipated. Who knew that one kiss from the sexy Sakuya would make the innocently naive Aine become a dog in heat and want to go to bed with him right away? Now I'm not saying this is bad, I mean there are a lot of people/relationships like that in the real world, but the story gives off the impression that you'll be seeing a lot of Aine's involvement with the band, Lucifer grow as much as her relationship with Sakuya does, but it doesn't. Aine's involvement with the band is limited to her writing up some sensual lyrics after Sakuya gets her hot and bothered and then she sits there at the concert and watches the band perform her lyrics. And it's at the concerts or rehearsals that Aine and Sakuya would usually meet the "rivals" or "Suitors" for their hearts, whether it's Sakuya's jealous half-brother or some rabid Lucifer fan girls from Aine's school, they usually get these "villains" by the butt-load. When you think the rivals and suitors would be around for a few volumes, they don't. Hardly any of them make an appearance more than once, save for Sakuya's half-brother, Ralph, who appears three times in total and at random times, might I add? Most of them stick around for maybe half a volume or just one volume, and then they disappear, never to be heard from or seen again. On top of the drama that the suitors and rivals cause, Aine's and Sakuya's love story develops into a "Rescue the damsel in distress and screw her afterward" kind of story because that's all you'll be seeing after Aine and Sakuya overcome what is the climax of each volume, and when you think they're gonna live happily ever after, they're thrusted into another situation where a good screwing seems to make everything alright. The characters all have their own quirks and charms, but honestly, the main focus is Sakuya and Aine. Sakuya appears to be an aloof playboy with a mysterious charm, and who doesn't give a rat's butt about manipulating women/girls into doing and getting what he wants. But after meeting Aine, he suddenly feels a strong attraction to her and decides to screw her, but after they first sleep together, he turns into a highly possessive and jealous boyfriend, who in his intense anger and jealous, oftentimes comes close to raping Aine. Despite that, he does pretty much love Aine, because he goes to a lot of lengths to protect her and showers her with as many gifts and affections as he can, even if it means they end up having a good romp. Sakuya's past gets a lot more attention than Aine's, mainly because he's the sexy love god I guess and it apparently gives him more depth and we see the reasons as to why he acts like a sex-driven animal. Aine is a ditzy, naive teen who has no backbone. She rarely stands up for herself, unless Sakuya has already knocked her assailants down a peg. She always goes crying to Sakuya whenever she so much as breaks a nail, and of course, she also gets exceedingly jealous of other girls/women fawning over Sakuya so much that she either can't come out and tell him that she feels uncomfortable about him working with another woman, or she actually yells at him and claims he's being unfaithful to her (which wouldn't be much different than when Sakuya expresses jealousy over other guys that seem interested in Aine). There are some rare moments where Aine stands up for herself, especially in the later chapters when the producer Takuya comes in. Despite that, her character is seriously flawed. Her past isn't explained in full, at least not like Sakuya's, anyways. When we meet Aine's parents and are told of her past, we're told that her parents aren't all that attentive to her and she's pretty much a loner in school, save for about two friends (who don't appear very much, unless it's to add onto Aine's troubles). Sakuya's band doesn't really get much "screen time" in the mangas. I mean you see them and read some comments by them, but they honestly don't add much to the plot, outside of their own special bonus chapters and comforting either Aine or Sakuya. They only serve to prove that Sakuya is in a band. I mean we see some of their private lives once in a while, but you mainly see them just sitting there, witnessing Sakuya and Aine meeting the next rival/suitor at a concert, or up on stage with Sakuya. Otherwise, they're just practically background characters. Of course, when they do show up, each member is shown to have their own personality but they hardly get any development whatsoever. If it weren't for some of the dialogue, you wouldn't even know what Sakuya's relationship with them was. I admit, the art looked a bit funky at times, especially with how ridiculously tall the male characters looked and how short the girls were, but still, the art was beautiful just the same. The proportions of the bodies seem a bit weird or even off, but Mayu Shinjo's style gets better. I honestly can't say any more than this. Despite this manga basically being "soft hentai" kinda deal, I did enjoy the story overall. I mean I didn't particularly like Aine, but I did enjoy seeing her relationship with Sakuya grow, even if the smut scenes were almost off-putting. It was because of this manga that I grew into anime and mangas, and I actually really enjoyed the conflicts that Sakuya himself goes through because he seemed to grow the most as a character, despite the manga's summary listing Aine as the MAIN MAIN character. It's Sakuya's sexy butt that makes Kaikan Phrase the most memorable to its fans. So if you want a decent story about a regular high school girl meeting and dating a popular boy band singer/idol (even though their romance is a bit unrealistic) then this manga is for you.