Sensual Phrase 6
Posted: May 29, 2011 Filed under: Sensual Phrase 1 Comment »Mayu Shinjo – Viz – 2005 – 18 volumes
Oh, Sensual Phrase. Why must I love you so? I know you’re no good for me or anybody else. But you’re so addictive.
Only half of this volume deals with the main Sensual Phrase storyline. In the first half, Aine meets the family of one of Sakuya’s bandmates, his wife and daughter. Sakuya, being perfect at everything, is wonderful with the baby. This gives Aine food for thought as she begins experiencing morning sickness and realizes that her period is quite late. In the second storyline, Aine writes another naughty song and Sakuya pulls out another amazing video for it, and yet another band swoops in and is determined to steal Aine to write their lyrics. The story ends on a cliffhanger before we know what the plan is, but… haven’t we seen this story before?
I’ll admit, the story is still mostly just carried by passion and romance. But it’s hard to resist, since as I said before, Sakuya and Aine are such a close couple that it’s hard not to like the story. They are good to each other, and the drama comes from outside sources, the satisfaction comes from watching the two of them pull through. It sounds sappy, and it is. You also have to remember that they have sex a lot, which is something I don’t mention too often, but it happens at least a couple times a volume. The quality is not good, people. But it’s addictive all the same.
The rest of the volume contains two short stories, each focusing on a different member of Lucifer. The second talks about Yuki, the member with the wife and child I mentioned earlier. Not only are Yuki and his wife completely devoted, the same way that Aine and Sakuya are, but his story’s actually very interesting since he and his wife originally come from a very prestigious family of Noh performers. I can count on one hand the number of times traditional Japanese theater comes up in English-translated manga. This story doesn’t go into any detail of Noh performance (just the drama of being in such a family), but that it was a detail that was included at all is pretty great.
The other story is about Atsuro and how he and his step-sister are madly in love with each other. That chapter ends with sex. I was more than a little disturbed by this chapter.
Heh, I always figured you’d like Sensual Phrase. I think my favourite storyline comes in around Volume 13 – it’s the one where Aine gets a fiancee whose name is not Sakuya.
There are few things in manga which have surprised me more than the last few volumes of Sensual Phrase (note: they are neither surprisingly good nor surprisingly bad). I am very curious what your reaction to the late volumes will be.