I first started Velvet Kiss in high school when all I saw on the thumbnail were boobies, and never finished it until recently. I decided to start it over from the beginning since it isn't too long at only 4 volumes, and I'm very glad I did. Velvet Kiss surprised me with it's dreamy artwork, very clean sex scenes, and competent character drama. With the high school English paper thesis out of the way, let's get on to the review:

The artwork in Velvet Kiss is pretty fantastic. Characters have highly expressive faces, the character's fashion choices are adorable, and all of the nude illustrations look appropriately soft to the touch. In particular, the boob positioning is very nice, and more often than not gives a nice sense of motion. There are many large, nearly full page character illustrations floating in a dreamy, shoujo-esque void that invite your eyes to linger on them for longer than you (read: I) might like to admit. I similarly enjoy the slow transition pages where Harumi-sensei takes us past several establishing shots in a row, sometimes in rather small frames with lots of white space in between them. Overall, the series has a very soft, calming aesthetic that's easy on the eyes.

Alright, let's talk sex scenes. Because genitals are pretty much entirely censored/not even illustrated, it makes the sex scenes a lot less gross than a straight up doujinshi, and the sex scenes are pretty pleasant and light because of it. I don't feel totally weird reading it on the bus or in the break room because there aren't throbbing, sweating genitalia taking up half of the page. There are still a lot of bodily fluids present, and I'm not entirely sure where most of them are being emitted from, but they're mostly just an indicator of some damn good sex.

Despite my high praise for them, the novelty of the sex scenes wears off pretty fast, and after a while all I was coming back for was the character drama. The story wastes no time introducing us to our two leads and letting their misadventures begin, trucking along without any major changes in the story until around the half way point. A standard chapter sees the main character Nitta called away from his office job to have sex, while his lack of agency is usually played for laughs as he finds himself flustered over Kanoko's incessant neediness and total control over his life. It managed to endear me to Kanoko and Nitta early on by showing how they each try to feel better about themselves, so when they're faced with emotional trials later on, I was sucked in reading chapter after chapter way past my bedtime. Unfortunately, the ending is a little anti-climactic. We do receive closure on most if not all of the plot threads, but it wasn't exactly the full happy ending that I wanted. Then again, maybe that's the whole point!

So who should read Velvet Kiss? I could safely recommend it if you're in the mood for a bittersweet romantic drama with a good bit of comedy and abundant oppai, but don't blame me if you're too invested and don't get the ending you want!