FAKKU has been in the hentai manga publishing game for nearly five years now. They’ve put out an enormous variety of works, from all-time classics by legendary artists to brand new anthologies from promising new talents. For diehard fans of the hentai manga industry, though, some of the first few books published by FAKKU are sure to be instantly recognizable. One such book, one of the very first anthologies uncensored, localized and printed by FAKKU in fact, is Fresh Pudding by Isao. Die-hard fans of the artist most likely own this manga already, but if you aren’t familiar with Isao then prepare for a crash course.
Fresh Pudding is made up of 206 incredibly erotic pages that are full of jaw-dropping sexual action from beginning to end. Variety is the spice of life, and artist Isao agrees; this beefy hentai manga anthology is made up of 13 different chapters, each one running at a brisk pace of about 16 pages. Thankfully, the action never fails to stay fresh throughout the numerous chapters in the book. While the first two chapters are a two-parter story, every other section of the book is an entirely standalone story featuring new characters and fresh settings. Stories of promising young idols who engage in sexually-charged training sessions, young men reuniting with gorgeous classmates at a school reunion, a young woman struggling to find a way to lose her virginity and more make up some of the various encounters you’ll experience when reading Fresh Pudding.
Some stories are sweet and heartwarming while others are slightly darker stories of sexual corruption and manipulation, but they all have one thing in common: they get straight to the action as quick as possible. The short page-length of each story in Fresh Pudding ensures that you won’t be waiting long before dicks are whipped out and lips are curled around them. There’s a strong amount of variety in the personalities and histories of each character that keep each story fresh, too. Some women are promiscuous and starved for sex while others are hesitant to do it or simply don’t have any experience. That kind of wide-range of character archetypes helped keep everything from blending together.
Unfortunately, the quality of the art in Fresh Pudding doesn’t quite reach those same highs. This is a hentai manga anthology from 2015, and the style and quality of art are suitably dated in that regard. There’s a striking lack of polish and depth to the art in this book that makes it clear that this is some of Isao’s earliest work. Characters rock the tall and slender bodies that have come to be his signature, but their sexual anatomy and facial expressions lack the kind of detail and polish that make his current work so enticing. Isao attempts to help the women in each story stand out with varied designs, styles, and hair, but the somewhat flat and repetitive style that their faces are drawn in still ends up making the characters somewhat blend together over the course of the 13 chapters in Fresh Pudding.
Things don’t fare much better when Isao briefly dips into coloring his pages during Fresh Pudding. Over the course of the entire hentai manga, there are only eight full-color pages, but perhaps that’s for the best. Isai puts earnest effort into rendering soft shadows, glistening sweat and vibrant spots of shining light on his characters in these pages. Unfortunately, that attention to detail only serves to highlight the flatness of his original linework. This is especially prevalent in the coloring of the sexual anatomy on these pages. FAKKU takes pride in releasing uncensored versions of the manga they localize and publish, but the flat and low-detail quality of the dicks and vaginas in this book make it obvious that Isao never quite intended for these parts of his art to be seen uncensored.
One of my favorite chapters from Fresh Pudding is titled Lesson To Me. In this, a young high schooler named Tomoaki is in need of a tutor to help him get prepared for college entrance exams. His mom introduces him to Suou Satomi, a gorgeous, steel-faced and big-breasted woman who’s going to serve as his tutor. With the two of them alone in his room, she looks over his mock test scores but discovers that he’s already getting perfect A’s. Our protagonist reveals that whenever he’s in a test set, he gets so nervous and worked-up that his mind goes blank and he can’t do anything. Satomi realizes that the issue here isn’t his grades, but how timid he is. So, she decides to give Tomoaki some special sex-oriented lessons to deal with his virginity and help him get over his anxiousness.
This chapter was great for a number of reasons. The dynamic between Tomoaki and Satomi was incredibly sexy. I love a forceful, dominant woman, so seeing the experienced tutor give Tomoaki a taste of sexual pleasure was a delight. Her design is also incredible, with gorgeous hair and a curvy body that I couldn’t get enough of. While a lot of the art in Fresh Pudding falls flat, this is one of the better-illustrated chapters in the anthology. There’s decent detail put into the sex scenes, and even the sexual anatomy of each character is rendered surprisingly well.
Fresh Pudding, overall, is a bit of a mixed bag. The sheer variety of stories and characters in the hentai manga anthology is certainly impressive. Unfortunately, the dated and mostly flat artwork holds it all back a bit. Some stories are better illustrated than others, but it’s still an incredibly hit or miss book. If you’re a die-hard fan of Isao, though, the chance to own one of his first hentai anthologies in physical form is sure to be something you can’t pass up. Fresh Pudding by Isao is available at our shop here, along with many other great hentai manga series.
