Nana to Kaoru

Nana to Kaoru by Ryuta Amazume is not, I suppose, strictly speaking, porn - but it is a seinen romantic comedy about S&M, so it may as well be. It’s also a personal favorite. The comic follows the burgeoning relationship between two childhood friends, grown distant and now in high school, who through sheer coincidence (the engine that drives a significant portion of the plot!) discover a shared interest in S&M. High-strung high-achiever Nana likes the freedom from responsibility and self-control that comes with submission, and crabby slacker Kaoru likes using his fetish gear on the girl he can’t quite admit he’s always had a crush on.

If there’s one thing Amazume is brilliant at it’s tension and managing pacing - he’ll create long sequences of multiple small panels featuring tight shots of details, faces, hands, and scattered dialog bubbles, thought bubbles, and captions running in parallel as characters hesitantly, stutteringly move toward some resolution, then throw down a half- or full-page spread as the moment of impact hits. This style works well with his psychologically introspective story, getting fully into the troubled minds of his angsty protagonists. Not to give the wrong impression, though, this is a romantic comedy and the intense bondage sessions are separated by - and sometimes leavened with - moments of keenly observed humor. It’s not just an S&M comic, but a comic about people who enjoy S&M, and it helped me understand why people do enjoy that kink (which is not really my kink) in a way that makes sense to me. It’s also (while problematic in ways that are actually fairly realistic for experimenting teenagers) a way, way better depiction of S&M than Fifty Shades. Where’s my English release, you cowards?

I recommend reading the whole thing, but if you’re looking in particular for some Relatable Content™ then I will point you to this arc in which Kaoru helps the student council president find back one particular porn clip, and if you can’t relate to that then I’m not sure we’re ever going to be friends…