Natsuyasumi

Natsuyasumi

By Matsumoto Kazura

Overall: Crap
Smex Factor: Chaste
Art: Ugly
Status: 1 Volume; Complete

Review: At first, I thought I had downloaded shota.

“How can this be?!” I thought, “I’m always so careful!!”

How it “could be” is this: it’s not shota. At least, not technically. Of the two main characters, “Dasku” (what kind of name is that, anyway?!), has the appearance of a fifth grader. And it’s not simply the artist’s lack of talent. The characters comment on the fact that he should be in grade school.

Dasku (THAT NAME) even behaves like a small child. He’s sheltered, selfish and stupid, and his primary focus in life is on CAAAAKE. I’m not convinced he even understands that he’s in a sexual relationship, even after he’s kissed Maki.

And Maki I would almost say is worse. Does he not feel like a pedophile when he looks at this child? Sure, Dasku may be older than the infinitely more manly (not that that’s really saying much) Maki, but come on. The hopelessly childish personality is one thing, but coupled with his pre-pubescent body? It’s like dating Forrest Gump, only Forrest looks like a ten year old.

Makes my skin crawl, man. Makes me question your morals, man.

I suppose later Dasku proves that he’s (sorta) capable of independent thought, even on a basic level, so maybe I’m not giving his as much credit as he deserves.

…No, I changed my mind. I’ve considered him fairly, and that dude has an EIGHT-YEAR-OLD MENTALITY. Releasing him into society should be a CRIME. Finding that attractive makes you a PEDOPHILE. Reading through this whole thing made me feel creepy as fuck, and, more than that, simply uncomfortable.

Putting the blatant pedophilia aside, let’s stumble into another taboo! Later on, Maki (the adult-child’s pedophilic boyfriend mentioned above) is told that he was promised to his uncle when he was three years old. You know, promised. As a bride? Wow! Wow, because this really needed some other squicky element to bring this whole debacle to a climax! And have I mentioned that his uncle is a creepy, stalker pedophile? But maybe you could have guessed. (Think it runs in the family?) And the uncle’s actually pretty into Dasku, but that’s pretty much a given at this point.

My question is: in what kind of modern society is it kosher to marry your uncle? More than that, why does nobody seem to find any problem with the fact that HE IS HIS UNCLE!?? They complain often enough about "BUT I'M A MAN, I CAN'T MARRY MY UNCLE!" So, if you were a girl, that'd be okay?? PRIORITIES.

I don’t even.

I forgot to mention, one of the dumb side-plots is about about Dasku’s (manlier) overprotective older brother coming and deciding that DASKU SHALL BE FOREVER SHELTERED AAAAA. And then Dasku decides that he likes Maki, and Maki remembers to actually tell Dasku that he likes him too, and the brother-complex nii-chan is foiled. I’m sure that if you’ve ever read BL, you’ve read this before, and probably with better writing and art. Hell, Stop Bullying Me! did it better, and that was a piece of shit!