It’s Guest Review Wednesday on Okazu and today we welcome back Matthew Rolf who will take a look at this new 18+ manga series from Seven Seas!

Asumi-Chan is Interested in Lesbian Brothels! does not convey an air of nuance or subtlety. The cover of the book shows our protagonist being ravished by three other women, with four sets of breasts barely covered by clothing or the book title. On the back cover, our heroine stands with her nightgown open the length of her body. Asumi gazes at the reader while another woman places her hands on her butt.

It’s true: this manga contains graphic depictions of lesbian sex, and the back cover helpfully contains a parental advisory for “explicit content.” Author Kuru Itsuki set out to create a “comical, sexy yuri manga,” and has succeeded. This volume contains five episodes in a story that now extends to at least three volumes.

Asumi is a sexually inexperienced college student pining for Mai, a slightly older girl who kissed her back in grade school. Asumi’s friend Ouka thinks she’s seen Mai in the lesbian sex trade. Ouka makes Asumi an appointment with a sex worker, so that she might find Mai. So begins Asumi’s adventure of hiring women for sex until she can find and sleep with her childhood friend.

This book is as unapologetically gay, sex positive, and kinky as it is implausible. Just one sexual encounter contains kink elements of cosplay, exhibitionism, voyeurism, and edging. Other encounters tease rope play, domination, puppy play, group sex, and a few other things. There are no men in this book.

The sex scenes are rendered both in cartoonish and more realistic styles, depending on the encounter. Some effort is made to show a variety of body types within a narrow range, and the chest excesses of the cover are mostly avoided in the story. There is nothing unusual in the artistic presentation, but the blocking and rendering of the intimate encounters is a strong point. The sex workers Asumi encounters are given at least some characterization.

There’s no gender play, and the book feels less queer than it might for being so kinky. The slick presentation feels inspired by mainstream pornography. That likely makes the book more appealing to a wider audience, including men, but will probably turn off some readers. It’s a minor criticism for a work that brings its protagonist to climax no fewer than four times.

This book owes more than a little to Nagata Kabi’s My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness. One can imagine an editor wanting a pitch for “Kabi’s book, but with hotter sex and without all the mental health issues.” Itsuki’s story delivers to the point of reading like an advertisement for the sex trade in places. Kabi’s work is undoubtedly more touching, moving, and real, but Itsuki’s work is pure fantasy to help you get off. This book is in a different genre with a different purpose, and I have veered between feeling it’s a salacious ripoff or just fine for what it is.

Asumi-Chan is Interested in Lesbian Brothels! is entertaining, explicit, and doesn’t ask much of the reader. If you like your lesbian sex manga explicit with a small side of kink, consider picking up this book the next time you need to get in the mood. The English translation of volume 2 comes out later in 2023.

Final Verdict: Gold Star Yuri Erotica.

Published by Seven Seas Entertainment, through an arrangement by Kodashana Ltd., with translation by Lily Aspen and lettering by Ash Works.

Ratings

Art – 7 – Sparse, mostly anatomically correct.
Story – 6 – Meticulously constructed to get to the next erotic encounter as quickly as possible.
Characters – 5 – Here for the boning.
Service – 10 – Non-stop lesbian sex.
Yuri – 10 – Gold Star.
Overall Score – 319 (referencing the apropos Prince song of the same title)

Thanks so much Matt!

Volume 1 is available in Print on Bookshop and RightStuf, and digital on Bookwalker. Amazon has Volume 3 listed, but not V1 or V2, presumably because of the covers.

There were a lot of lesbian sex worker stories that popped up after Nagata’s initial work. We’ve reviewed some here. Of them, the one I’ve really enjoyed is BariKyari to Shinsou.

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We’re always looking for guest reviewers, especially as there is so much coming out in English and Japanese, I can’t keep up. If you are interested in reviewing for Okazu – I am particularly interested in hiring non-white writers here  and queer folks, as well. I have a review copy of Futaribeya, V9 going begging. So if you like this series, and want a shot at a paid review gig, drop over to our Submission Guidelines and put yourself forward!