A lot of hentai volumes focus on what is, arguably, the most important part of hentai; the sex. Hanaharu Naruco, however, decides to explore something different from his FAKKU published book release Shoujo Material. During my time reading through the 11 chapters and 208 pages of this book, I sometimes forgot that I was even reading a hentai anthology in the first place. In some ways, though, that isn’t necessarily a good thing.
The first story of Shoujo Material is called Two Quarters, and it’s a gorgeous 9-page full-color adventure. The premise is seemingly simple at first, with high-school swimmers Chiaki and Eri, along with their boyfriends, deciding to have a foursome. As the group fools around and explores each other’s bodies, they come to believe that Chiaki is more attracted to Eri’s boyfriend than her own. The truth that everyone, Eri included, is oblivious to, though, is that the person Chiaki really has feelings for is her friend Eri. She spends the entire chapter cherishing and touching her friend’s body, despite the mixed signals being sent.
The entire chapter is a standout primarily because of the gorgeous colored artwork. The full-page spreads at the start of the story are packed with gorgeous detail by Hanaharu Naruco, with the soft and pale skin of the girls contrasting against the rough and tan bodies of their boyfriends nicely. Finer details like the shine bouncing off Eri’s breasts and the school swimsuit tan-lines on Chiaki’s body were also absolutely beautiful. There’s an incredible amount of fine detail put into the anatomy of each character, and those amazingly rendered sexual organs are only made even more impressive by the sharp coloring work put into them.
This story is also really interesting because of the pacing of the entire thing. You start off being thrown into it, with a set of two-page spreads and a handful of vague dialogue telling you the story. As you continue reading, you slowly piece things together, until the last 2 pages hit you with proper manga panels that show you the bigger picture. Realizing the error in communication happening, and seeing Eri confuse Chiaki’s feelings for herself as being attracted to her own boyfriend, added a touch of sadness to the sexy affair.
While much of Shoujo Material is made up of individual stories, Two Quarters gets a follow-up that focuses much more on the relationships and story than the sexy foursome action. In chapter two, we learn that Chiaki is truly in love with Eri, and mainly decided to date her boyfriend, Takashi, as a cover. She’s also the one who proposed the foursome, which has now become such a regular thing that Chiaki and her boyfriend Takashi never have sex alone. After witnessing Chiaki fall into sadness from how distant she feels from Chiaki compared to the other three, who were also childhood friends, her boyfriend Takashi admits that he knows about her feelings for Eri, and decides to help her express them better.
It’s really touching, and sometimes very sad chapter. There’s a brilliant page where Takashi pins down Chiaki to try and seduce her after they talk about her feelings for Eri, and just in the disappointed yet distant stare of Chiaki and the uncomfortably accepting face of Takashi, you get so much character development and expression. Hanaharu Naruco is talented at drawing sexual and erotic scenes, of which there is a short handful in this chapter, but he also excels at drawing vivid expressions and poses for his characters that add so much to the story.
In fact, much of Shoujo Material focuses much more on story-telling than it does on big, naughty sex scenes. The next chapter in the anthology, Forehead, is a huge indicator of that. When the shy bookworm Tanimura is talked to by her big, handsome crush Fujiki-kun, she’s over the moon about it. When she starts changing up her hairstyle to please him, her friend Tomo-chan doesn’t react too warmly. When she’s missing from lunch one day, Tanimura goes to look for her only to find Tomo and Fujimura fooling around in the store-room. She runs away in fright, but when Tanimura is alone later that day she ends up in a shocking confrontation with Tomo and Fujimura.
I won’t spoil too much, as this story is 24 pages and barely 4 of them are sex scenes. It’s very much focused on the nerve-wracking and grim developments between these three kids, instead. Seeing Tomo turn from supportive friend to manipulator and obsessor, as well as witnessing the true and incredibly vile nature of Fujimura, was a rollercoaster of emotions. The previous story balanced eroticism with character development in a way that was still appealing, but Forehead was simply a dark and sad story in the middle of a hentai anthology book.
While there’s a melancholic or sad tone to a lot of the stories in Shoujo Material, the brighter ones stand out and end up being my favorites. One of those, Say Hello to the Tomorrow Me, is about a girl who loses all memories of the previous day due to an accident she was in. One day, she confides in her best friend Haruhiko that it seems like she had sex with someone yesterday, and she can’t remember who. Frustrated with having lost her virginity despite still feeling like a virgin, Haruhiko offers to help her gain that experience. It turns out, though, that this is the 14th time Haruhuko has helped Natsuko and had sex with her. In fact, they were dating at one time, but when she got into the accident she forgot about their relationship.
When I got to that twist, I was ready for this to turn into another heartbreaking gut-wrencher. Thankfully, though, this story ends up having a very happy ending, as well as a wide variety of sex scenes that help keep up the balance between story-telling and sex that other chapters in this book have lacked.
Overall, Shoujo Material is a huge mixed bag. There’s a big focus on writing and storytelling here, but while some of the chapters are fun and sexy, others focus far more on sadness and shock and feel like awkward marks on an otherwise gorgeous hentai book. The consistency in style from Hanaharu Naruco makes even the downer chapters a joy to look at, though. Despite every girl in this volume having black hair and pale skin, their proportions and hairstyles, as well as their personalities and faces, are varied enough that things never feel repetitive or samey. I just wish the stories had that same level of quality and consistency. Shoujo Material by Hanaharu Naruco is available at our shop here, along with many other great hentai manga series.
