Hentai manga artist Hyocorou is proclaimed by some to be the master of soft tits. After reading his debut hentai anthology Melty Gaze, it’s hard to disagree. Over the course of 12 chapters, I was treated to a variety of sexy stories and marshmallow-like girls that made me confident in agreeing with the sentiment that this artist is, in fact, the king of soft style.
It’s a shame that, of the entire 213 page volume, there’s only a short 4-page section where we get to experience Hyocorous full color artwork. It’s especially disappointing considering just how unique his colored pages are. While the tone and shading of characters skin is soft and simple, there’s a blurred and almost watercolor-like style to the way details like hair, eyes and sexual organs are colored on these pages. There’s also liberal use of vibrant greens and rich purples in these pages for things like the hair and sweater of the girl that make her pop on every page. It’s a really interesting blend of styles that makes you appreciate the artwork on a whole different level.
Even in black & white, though, the illustrations in Melty Gaze are downright gorgeous. There’s an incredibly wild and sometimes cartoonish nature to the way characters are drawn on these pages. Unique features like a strong jawline or intense eyes are exaggerated on each character and made the focal point of their design, the result being a set of unique characters in each story. No two girls, or even the men fooling around with them, ever looked identical. Yet each of these characters still had cute, soft-looking faces and incredibly gorgeous bodies that made each chapter an absolute treat to read through.
One of my favorite chapters from Melty Gaze, Deadline Arousal Management, is a great showcase of what Hyocorou has to offer with this anthology. In it, we see porn manga artist Minamino Maaya working on her latest chapter alongside her male assistant, Higashiyama Shinta. When she walks over to check on his work, she proposes a simple question: does working on naughty manga ever make you feel naughty? She immediately shares that her answer is yes, and what starts as a simple kiss to get her to leave him alone ends up leading to a night of hands-on research for their manga.
I absolutely loved the dynamic between Maaya and Shinta in this story. The dominant and playfully manipulative nature of Maaya contrasted with the nervous determination of Shinta. You can tell he so desperately wants to ignore her advances and finish his work, but eventually, the bubble pops and he’s flipping the table and taking initiative instead. It’s a simple premise that leads to one of the most enjoyable and erotic stories in the entire volume.
Later in the book, there’s a chapter titled Home-Delivery Lover. In this part of Melty Gaze, Nao is a tall, slender and beautiful adult woman who’s yet to do the deed with anyone. After a night out with her friends where they tease her for still waiting for her prince charming, Nao is in the bath the next day when she begins playing with herself and talking about someone named Nao-chan. In the middle of her getting all hot and bothered, though, a delivery man rings her doorbell. She rushes to put on a towel and greet the delivery man, who turns out to be none other than Nao-chan, her childhood friend who’s now a tall and incredibly handsome young man. She instantly embraces him with a passionate kiss, and the two go inside her apartment to make her dream of having sex with him come true.
Something that really stood out to me in this story was the design of our protagonist, the sexy young woman named Yayoi. She’s got a tall and well-built body with decently sized breasts, but it’s overall a very realistic design in terms of the proportions that are a hugely far cry from the other girls in Melty Gaze. While most of the other girls are small and soft women with wild, bouncy breasts, the slightly tame and more realistic portrayal of Yayoi does a lot to make this chapter stand out from the others.
While most of the stories in Melty Gaze are pretty tame, one of the chapters in this anthology goes for it all with what can best be described as a reverse NTR adventure. The chapter is aptly titled Netonetorare, and it’s set during a class reunion for the Minamiyagi Girls’ school. When Takahashi-sensei arrives at the reunion, he’s greeted happily by all of his students, including one gorgeous Hashiba Minato. It turns out that the two of them had a fling and were even dating back during school, but Takahashi is married with a family now, and when he half-heartedly tries to admit that he doesn’t regret breaking up with her, Minato runs away in tears. Takahashi rushes after her to make sure she’s okay, but a surprise kick to the back by a stone-faced Minato launches him into a private restroom, where she handcuffs him to the toilet instantly. It turns out that she still has strong feelings for her teacher, and like many other NTR stories, she forces herself onto him until his mind is broken and he can only love her more than anyone else.
Most of the time, NTR manga focus on a man overpowering and tempting a woman who’s in a dedicated relationship, but it’s rarely ever the other way around. Netonetorare even references that in a way, revealing that five years ago it was Takahashi who forced himself onto Minato, stealing her away from the innocent highschool boyfriend that she had. Seeing the tables turn in two ways, not just with the swap in gender roles for NTR but also in serving a kind of payback to Takahashi for what he did so long ago, made this chapter really captivating and unlike anything else I’ve read in a while.
Melty Gaze is a great book, full of a huge assortment of girls and guys getting up to various types of naughty action. The soft and delicate illustrations that tie each of these stories together, though, are what really make this volume worth remembering. Melty Gaze by Hyocorou is available at our shop here, along with many other great hentai manga series.
