Sundome: The first manga to ever make me cry.

When I first came across this manga, I didn't expect much. Even though the tags included "psychological", the ecchi elements of the first few chapters made me believe that it would just be a run-of-the-mill, borderline hentai manga with a few unique twists.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Story: 8
The story of a young, nerdy loser hooking up with a cute girl is pretty standard in ecchi manga. It has been recycled time and time again without fail, and for many people, reading one is like reading all of them. However, Sundome is different. Rather than using sexuality as a way to tantalize male (and female) readers, this manga explores sexuality in order to make a greater statement about the human condition. While there is plenty of fanservice throughout the story, much of it is used to heighten the raw emotions and carnal desire expressed throughout this manga. And rather than attempting to go for cheap panty shots and breast grabs, Sundome is not afraid to explore several darker sexual fetishes such as erotic asphyxiation. Much of the story plays on the dirty, gritty, and creepy side of sexual fetishes, but oddly it does this in a way that makes the romance between the two protagonists more believable.

The ending of Sundome can be seen as controversial for some, but I felt that it was the only "true" ending a story like this could have. Although the title, Sundome refers to stopping right before orgasm in a sexual act, the story itself becomes less about sex and more about love, and loss.

Art: 7
The art style for Sundome tends to fluctuate at certain intervals throughout the manga, which can be jarring for some. During the slice-of-life school scenes, the art is much simpler, without much shading or detail to body contours. But in the scenes depicting sexual acts and various perversions, the art is much more fluid and detailed. Obviously, due to the nature of this manga this change is to be expected, so I had no problem with it. Overall, the art conveys the story properly and I don't have too much to say about it.

Character: 10
This is where Sundome shines. Our protagonist, Hideo Aiba starts out as a shy, awkward, nerdy high school kid with no plans for the future besides the porn magazine he's planning on masturbating to tomorrow night. When he meets Sahana Kurumi, the "female love interest", it's love at first sight and his entire life is changed. Except...it's not actually that simple. Sahana turns out to be much darker than your average shounen romance female lead. She's not a tsundere, kuudere, or any type of dere, which was immensely refreshing. Although she's cute and upbeat at school, her darker side is only shown when she spends time with Aiba. Speaking of whom, Aiba also grows throughout the series, becoming much stronger and a better person. It was interesting to see his devolution into basically a sexual deviant, while at the same time becoming more assertive and responsible. The amount of character development seen in this manga is just amazing, as even two of the side characters grow into an interesting relationship. All in all, the characters in Sundome were portrayed very realistically, albeit with all the sexual tension. It's rare to see this amount of psychological character development in an ecchi series, and Love Hina this definitely is not.

Enjoyment: 8
I enjoyed Sundome immensely, despite being a girl and being bombarded with tons of fanservice. This manga is proof that a manga based on sexual themes can be very dark, thought-provoking, and almost tragic. Although the middle sections may have dragged a bit, Sundome was overall a very enjoyable and emotional read.

Overall: 8
Sundome is a manga I would recommend to anyone who isn't too grossed out by sexual perversions. Obviously, readers need to be mature enough to handle certain themes for this manga, but as long as that's not a problem, Sundome is a great read. There's something for the ecchi lovers, but there's also plenty of character development and dark romance for fans of those.

Sundome definitely left an impression on me, and it will surely do the same for you.