Sensual Phrase: Someone needs a cold shower, stat!

[dangermousie]

OMG OMG LOL. Sakuya (the hero if the manga Sensual Phrase) is in high school? ROFL.

*dies*

ROFL.

Sakuya, if you wonder at my amusement, is the frontman for a rock band, which is very popular with screaming fangirls as the combo of hot band members + NC17 rated lyrics=win.

But he is in HIGH SCHOOL????

The thing is, I am not truly rolling my eyes, because while I don’t know much about rock bands, I know that a lot of jpop boys start out (and get famous) while definitely under 18.

Still. Heeeee.

Oh, Sensual Phrase is such a deliciously guilty pleasure. It’s such a fangirl trope. As our heroine Aine, becomes the lyricist for this hot band, and also subject of the hottie lead singer’s affections. Heh. I do give it some points because:

a. Aine is not much into rock bands so she isn’t a fangirl for the band (when she first meets Sakuya as they literally crash into each other, heh), she doesn’t know who he is, though she thinks he’s hot. Of course, by mistake he ends up getting lyrics she was going to submit for a context and liking them because they are dirrrrrrrrrty. I gotta say, for a virgin, Aine has some interesting fantasies…

b. She gets the lyricist job in part because Sakuya wants to fool around with her, probably drawn in by the combo of innocent/sick minded she is, but (as his friends correctly point out), he gets like this all the time with random girls as he is total boyslut and he’ll chase after her for a while and then move on and be bored.

Of course, since I know the last volume ends with the guy begging her parents for her hand, I am eagerly reveling in anticipation of the totally cliché and delicious ‘heroine tames bad boy’ scenario which would suck in rl but fun in fiction.

Also? It doesn’t hurt that the hero is not only hot, but he seems to spend a deal of his time wearing leather pants and open shirts. Heh.

I can also get the shrinkwrap in later volumes because even this first volume is totally R-rated. Very very VERY hard R.

LOVE. Trashy yummy love.

Found this review on some manga site which totally sums up the appeal and the guiltiness (even though nope, don’t have an idol fantasy myself):

"Mayu Shinjo does succeed in is giving the reader a perfect idol fantasy through all the angst and drama. Sakuya-- precious, sexy, passionate Sakuya--is exactly how we girls want our idol fantasy guy to be. He rocks the stage and is totally hot--broad shoulders, firm hands, perfect hair, brooding eyes and stern features-- but he’s attentive to only us, even in the face of glamorous women throwing themselves at him. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and is sexually aggressive but not mean or hurtful. He will protect us from anything and everyone – even to the extent of giving his own life for ours. He rocks in bed too, of course, and if the number of times Aine is thrown down on a bed or pushed up against a wall is any indication, it is most definitely the fantasy of young women to be overpowered by force (although non-threateningly) in a sexual situation."

LOL. So trashy, so good.

P.S. OMG. Heeee. There is an anime of this, which sort of decided to go for the jugular and make it borderline shounen-ai (boy/boy). But can’t find it anywhere! *am sad now* Or something…*remembers she prefers het anyway and cheers self up with more SP manga*

ETA: Did I mention that the hero is a product of rape??? His Mom got raped by his Dad. And she got pregnant and she wasn’t going to tell her husband because if the baby turned out white (the rapist was this US mogul), she’d just give it to an orphanage and say it was stillborn or if Japanese she’d just say her husband’s. So the baby was Japanese so the couple celebrated but…*ta-dum da-dum* the child opened his eyes and they were blue (btw, a lot of babies’ eyes are blue so whatever, and also, blue eyes are recessive so he wouldn’t have blue eyes no matter what, but hey, it’s manga). So she got branded adulteress and thrown out and she never loved her kid telling him, if only you were the son of my husband, I’d love you blah blah. Cry me a river. Why does it never occur to manga women to mention the rape to the spouse? Seriously. Oh well, I don’t want to think about it too much as it would take time away from my picturing random jdrama actors in various roles. Right now it’s Takeshi Kaneshiro as the lead. He could just reuse the leather pants from Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake.

ETA 2: OMFG. OMFG. Soooo twisted. I read the rest of vol 2 and not only do we get a sex scene between the OTP (which is steamy but not as steamy as the ones in Ayashi No Ceres) but there is some twisted s&m-mess, as the hero’s evil half-brother has him kidnapped and chained up and drug-injected and does some weird s&m-ey, sex-type stuff to him (“he is a biter” wtf?) and is all ‘hey, you want to save your bf, become mine’ to the heroine. SO AWESOME. Such CRACK.

ETA 3: I am very amused because at one point Aine thinks about how awesome it is that ‘the one they all want, wants me’ and because I am so crazily multi-fandom, I flashed to Suzanne (Bolly superstar Hrithik Roshan’s wife) comment in an interview which was totally identical. Heeee. Though I don’t think Hrithik has evil half-brothers.

ETA 4: I read vol 3 and I take it back. This is definitely most explicit manga I’ve ever seen. Whoa. WHOA. If I were still in high school, I’d be getting a hell of an education. Hmmm, not for metro reading, then ;) Also, I guess I better stop picturing Yamapi and Maki as the leads because now that it’s gotten that explicit, it’s sort of making me feel odd to do so ;) It’s interesting because the vibe in those scenes is different than the vibe in Ayashi No Ceres. In Ceres, while explicit (though not like this), the vibe I got was yes, hot and sexy, but also hugely loving and romantic. Here it’s hot, hot, hot with a side of scorching SEXY.

ETA 5: Gotta love the way characters in this recover from trauma. Normally, I’d think an attempted rape or torture and forced drug addiction would mess you up for a bit but nah. Aine and Sakuya just move on ;P

ETA 6: I loooove the translator for this manga. She is a such a fangirl, with her little notes at the end and her husband referring to the male lead in this as her bf. Heee. She is all, yeah, I guess I have a thing for fictional Japanese, vaguely misogynistic rock stars. Heeee.

ETA 7: I went through the manga and there is no rape of the heroine, [Bad username or site: ”meganbmoore” @ livejournal.com] nor cheating by hero. I still don’t think it’s your bag though ;)

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

heh. almost everything you said set off my *urk* meter.

But yeah, like I said, just going by what I remember people who read it telling me, and it's been a couple years(I think it had reached vol 10 here by then)

Out of curiosity, have you had a chance(or still plan to) checkout Platinum Garden?(curious to see if it'll even be in stores for you, as Ithink I've had to order every volume so far)

Oh, saw Fruits Basket 16 at Waldenbooks today.

*glares at LJ* What do you mean bad username? It's is a perfectly decent username(what with it being my real name and all) Silly LJ HTML failure...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

No idea what Platinum Garden even is.

FB vol 16. Must get (even though read it online. It was mainly Tohru's om's backstory)....

Re: Sensual Phase. It totally has a lame story (and even that is stretching it) but for what it is (and it never makes any bones about it), it's a good entry into the genre, and has very pretty artwork. Turn off any brain entirely though...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Platinum Garden is the one you asked me about a couple weeks back...the slightly sadistic spawn of It Started With A Kiss and Fruits Basket(except the family is even eviller than a lot of the Sohma adults)

I flipped through the new FB(it's in the car...new dresden and Her Majesty's Dof first) and noticed that...also noticed someone who, just glancing, looks like a certain prickly Sohma guy.

It requires swords or extreme cuteness or crack(the funny kind) for me to turn my brain off...it prefers to function.

[janlake83.livejournal.com]

i am sooo going to barnes and noble and looking for that as soon as i can... why because i need something to read that is just smut and that sound like it would fit the bill... and the guy looks hot...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It basically is. It's very hot and the guy is hot and very well drawn, and not too much story :)

[ficchica.livejournal.com]

Oh no I'm going to be looking for this in the shops now and I was trying so hard to get rid of my manga because I'm supposed to be moving to a smaller place!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heeeee. *spreads poison*

It's totally trashy and totally addictive.

[vierran45.livejournal.com]

Now I'm tempted to check it out :D. Sounds like total "guilty pleasure" reading, but that's what I like to read every now and then.

Hmm, I see my manga provider has all 18 volumes available... And since they also finally have Wallflower 11 as well, perhaps I should pay them a visit next week.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

like total "guilty pleasure" reading, but that's what I like to read every now and then.

Exactly. It's prettily drawn and totally trashy and really awesome.

Wallflowr vol 11 is great!