Ase to Sekken
Sweat and Soap

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Ase to Sekken managed to impress me with how smoothly the story flows. Romance manga has never been much to my liking, but this read was extremely enjoyable and fun, my eyes floated through the pages.

Prior to this manga, I read another short romance manga that also caught my attention, called "Telework Yotabanashi." Soon after, I started reading Ase to Sekken, but I never imagined that the author would be the same. What surprised me, he truly has a talent for romance stories.

At first, I found it strange how Natori had this obsession with smelling and how he would be constantly sniffing Asako, but it ... eventually merges with both Asako's character and the story's purpose.

There are many fun and happy moments with some drama along the way. The author portrays a relationship between two people and the difficulties we face when opening up a space that used to be exclusively ours to the entry of someone else.

The pacing of the story is excellent, and the ending warms the heart.

It's a romance worth reading; it was a good read.

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Pt/Br

Ase to Sekken conseguiu me impressionar com o quão fluída a história consegue ser, ler mangas de romance nunca foram muito do meu agrado, mas essa leitura foi extremamente gostosa e divertida, meus olhos flutuaram entre as paginas.

Anteriormente a esse manga, eu li um outro curto manga de romance que também chamou minha atenção, chamado: Telework Yotabanashi. Logo após comecei a ler Ase to Sekken, mas sequer imaginava que o autor seria o mesmo. O que me surpreendeu, ele realmente leva jeito para histórias de romance.

Inicialmente achei estranho, o fato de Natori ter essa obsessão por cheirar e ficar cheirando a Asako a todo momento, mas isso acaba se fundindo com o propósito tanto da personagem Asako, como da história.

Muitos momentos divertidos e felizes com alguns dramas pelo caminho, o autor retrata bem um relacionamento entre duas pessoas e as dificuldades que enfrentamos ao abrir um espaço que anteriormente era só seu, para a entrada de um outro alguém.

O ritmo da história é ótimo, e o final aquece o coração.

Um romance que vale a pena ser lido, foi uma boa leitura.

This is meant to be a gentle, heartwarming romance between a shy girl with excessive perspiration and a brilliant coworker with a smelling fetish.
They meet, get involved with each other and gradually their relationship deepens. So, where's the problem?
Well, maybe it's a good read for girls, I wouldn't know, but from a guys point of view there are several issues.
Their relationship is too perfect. Come on, it's an eternal honeymoon, not even one tiny slice of selfishness anywhere!
He is really too kind and sweet and caring; every single waking moment he is only thinking of her, how to make her happy, how to surprise her. ... I can understand people might dream of a robot lover who is absolutely selfless, but this is really ridiculous.
The MC is the worst element in the story: she is this bland girl who simply can't grow up. She catches a very desirable bachelor, but her insecurity gets in the way all the time. It may be cute at the beginning, but after several months she still blushes for EVERYTHING, is incapable of expressing her feelings and behaves like a 13yo for what concerns physical love. She is lucky enough to have a sexy partner that desires her and only her, but her only concern is to avoid essentially anything but the blandest contact, to the point of being afraid of taking a bath together, let alone DOING something in the tub instead of the bed. Seriously, at one point she even blushes and frowns, as if he's a pervert just because he wants to see her in a swimsuit she has bought for a trip! Seriously??? Moreover, considering she is well aware of his scent fetish, does she learn to use it to seduce and tease him, for mutual satisfaction? Of course not: she just keeps requesting him to suppress or limit it, because it's so embarrassing - and of course, he obliges.
I don't think there's a man anywhere that would put up with such an insecure prude, except maybe some mama's boy who's just fine with holding hands. While some insecurity may be ok in a shy girl, even she should learn to move on her own two feet, eventually. Facing an eternal child will inevitably kill love in the end, so the impossible attraction this nice young man feels for this boring and childish woman is well beyond any suspension of disbelief I can muster.

I went in with high hopes after seeing the glowing reviews but dropped it in just 6 chapters though I would’ve dropped sooner…I wanted to stick it through for a bit first.

It was a weird read. Hear me out, I love josei romances set after high school (though fem MC acts & looks like a high school girl IMO). I’m down for steamy scenes. But it was just too weird and the pacing was not great.

STORY
When I read the premise & saw the cover I thought it was going to be some fetishy smutty stuff (and from what I read it was) but ... I gave it a try, especially seeing how it was adapted into a drama, so I figured it couldn’t be that bad.

Kind of a spoiler but not really because you learn this within the first 3 chapters. The romance is QUICK and I mean quick. They sleep together and say “I love you” in the shortest time I’ve ever seen or read from manga or anime. I love a straight forward read but this was too laid out for me. I don’t think any real life couple should take things that quickly…even reading it put a weird taste in my mouth. It just didn’t feel genuine. Nor was it interesting. Theres no buildup, tension or chemistry. How can you love someone you just met just because he showed an interest on how your sweaty stinky body smells?

Female MC of course is inexperienced with love so it would explain her quickness to cling to male MC. He seems like a decent enough person but with a weird fetish.

CHARACTERS
I’ve learned nothing about them from what I’ve read just that female MC stinks and was bullied in the past because of it. I know it’s a real condition, so I didn’t really mind the implementation of it. Again, she’s very “high schooly” blushes at everything, can’t seem to express herself well, very meek etc. not typically a MC you’d see in a josei.

ART
Art is nothing special. I wasn’t crazy about the character designs and the “tiny eye” design on male MC.

Overall
Obviously I didn’t read much but I don’t think I can continue this one. I really wanted to, but I don’t see it going anywhere. From the other reviews it seems like something I’d enjoy but it didn’t even feel like it was written for the female gaze with the lack of chemistry, development (at least at the start) etc. Just a lot of nudity and smutty faces from female MC with giant boobs /shrug. Clearly this is an unpopular opinion though, so maybe it’s a worthwhile read.