Often times, hentai manga suffer a similar issue of character variety. No matter how different their personalities or hair-styles or outfits are, a dozen characters drawn by the same artist will most likely end up looking pretty similar to each other. Artists might have a preference for a very specific body type, or a natural inclination to draw the same kind of face each time. Surprisingly, Savan seems to have no such limitations, drawing some of the most varied and unique women I’ve ever seen in Melty Lover.
There’s an incredible array of stories in Melty Lover, but each one is just as sexy as the last. Some are cute stories of school lovers expressing their feelings for each other, while others are raunchy tales of adultery or secretive sexual relationships. Each of the 12 chapters in the anthology rarely delves into comedy or silliness, though, focusing instead on the eroticism of each adventure. Savan has a knack for writing interesting characters that go beyond simple archetypes. Sure, some of the characters in these stories are just horny housewives or shy and horny singles, but a good amount of them are a bit more complicated than that. The depth of each girl’s personality added a lot of value to each of the stories in the book.
Of course, a lot more value comes from the incredible artwork of Melty Lover. Savan does an absolutely incredible job of drawing each girl in a totally different way. Almost every woman in the book has pale skin and black hair, with half of them even rocking incredibly similar short haircuts. Yet Savan still manages to make them stand out from each other perfectly. One girl has a sharp face and petite, sporty build. Another, meanwhile, has a soft face with full lips, massive breasts, and a deliciously plump body. There are much more varied characters in the book, too, with tanned schoolgirls and tall, blonde bombshells being featured in the anthology as well. Every girl in Melty Lover certainly has large breasts of varying degrees, but beyond that, each one is totally unique in a way that I’ve rarely seen in hentai anthologies.
Even the male characters in the anthology have a surprising amount of variety in their design and attention put into their looks and personality. One story might feature an older gentleman with a realistically aged face and muscular build. Another, meanwhile, would focus on a short and shy ninja boy with a surprising aptitude for sexual ability. While each story certainly focuses on the women, the men in every chapter end up being far more than just faceless dicks or identical, black-haired self-inserts. A few of the stories especially benefit from having these interesting male characters, as it’s a lot more enjoyable to see tales of romance or reluctant relationships develop when both characters have a depth to them.
Despite the large variety in character designs and styles in Melty Lover, there’s still an absolutely wonderful and gorgeous consistency to the artwork in Melty Blood. Savan draws the face of each character with a delightful sharpness, drawing detailed eyes and gorgeous mouths that add a heap of extra expressiveness to every facial reaction in the book. There’s beautiful realism to the way bodies move and interact in the book, as well. Breasts naturally spill out of their bras as girls begin to undress, and bellies naturally bend and bulge as they’re grabbed or moved around. Every sexual position is drawn in exquisite, appetizing detail, and the uncensored artwork of this release lets you appreciate these sex scenes even more.
While there aren’t a lot of colored pages in Melty Lover, the first chapter of the anthology is a 10-page story rendered in delightful full-color. It focuses on Kenji, a young man in Japan who’s been having a steady sexual relationship with his next door neighbor, Chris. Chris is a tall, busty and beautiful girl who’s half Japanese and half Russian. She moved in next door, and after discovering the wide variety of erotic content Japan has to offer, she developed an insatiable love for sex. Her and Kenji explore every fetish and position possible with each other, from anal sex to cosplay sex and even out-door play. One day, she proposes that the two recreate scenes from ero games. So Chris dresses up as a sexy visual novel girl, and the two spend the afternoon have steamy roleplay sex together.
The full-color nature of this story adds a lot of appeal to it, especially when it comes to the blonde beauty, Chris. Seeing her pale, white skin contrast with her vivid blonde hair and sharp blue eyes is delightful, and helps make her even more gorgeous. I have to wonder if this was the first time Savan had done a colored hentai chapter, though, because there’s a surprising amount of inconsistency with the style of coloring on each page. Early on there’s a softer, pastel quality to the colors used and a large amount of nearly white value on the skin of Chris that seemed a bit too oversaturated. In later pages of the chapter, though, her skin is far less saturated and the color of her hair is a touch darker. It feels like the artist is slowly discovering and practicing their coloring style as the chapter progresses, which ultimately proves to be a little too distracting. Still, despite that, it’s an incredibly fun chapter with a sexy girl and even sexier scenarios that left me wanting more.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by Melty Lover. I had never read any works of Savan before, but I’m definitely a fan now. Despite a consistent and high-quality art style, there’s an absolutely incredible amount of variety to the way he draws each and every character in the anthology. Coupled with the different kinds of stories and personalities featured in each chapter, this is a high-caliber release well worth checking out. Melty Lover by Savan is available at our shop here, along with many other great hentai manga series.