Nana to Kaoru
Nana & Kaoru

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This is a highschool softcore BDSM romance manga which I am in love with mainly because of the personel development of Sugimura, the MC, and the pureness of the relationship with Nana, his woman. I was able to insert myself into kaoru, not because of the lack of personality the MCs are usually given, but because i also was going through some of the same problems the Kaoru had, at his age. I was able to cheer for him when he was studying to get a better future, i was cheering for him when he worked on to better himself psychically, i was cheering ... for him when he wanted/worked for a closer relationship Nana, or confessed to himself he actually did.
The manga starts with nothing but the vibes of a typical h-work, which might let you to think this is nothing but borderline ecchi manga with lack of any personality and depth about both the characters and the story. Which, still being a borderline echhi manga, is wrong. Sugimura has a life, things he goes through mentally, things many people at his age does. Nana has problems she goes through, some people might go through at her age. Everyone has a life and things that they go through, which being the main reason why BDSM part works, feels real, very well.
I wont act like nothing felt being forced when their relationship, the BDSM relationship, started. But every thing after this point felt real, we went through how their relationship went on, we went through how charcters felt and why they did it the way it did, we went through the effects of this relationship on their life and how it effected/improved them. And i would argue this work was much more honest and much less forced than the bulk of high school romance content there are. Their BDSM relationships worked. Not to mention the art, the sexy detailed art. It was a bit of old style but nonetheless a great work.
I am not sure if we ever will get anything similiar, a quality highschool softcore BDSM long detailed romance manga, but at least i am happy this existed. 10/10

Well, I have mixed feelings about this manga. On one hand the "will-they-won't-they" style of romance storitelling is painful, tiring, and infurating. I can't stand it. On the other hand the BDSM (more precisely the Bondage) aspect of it is quite decent. Really conveys the emotional rollercoaster of this weird kinky world. Hence, if you want to read a good romance story then look elsewhere, however if you are curious about the kink, then I would definietly recommend it to you. It depicts a healthy way to participate it, and it shows the beauty in it.

Even though I was complaining about the romance, it was ... mostly understandable from the perspective of our our main duo. It is not that simple to accept that you are very different from the norm. Also additionally Kaoru (male lead) has a low self-esteem, or I would say realistic self-esteem, since he is not smart, nor successfull, not even handsome, he is just a deviant. Contrary, Nana (female lead) is a beauty, smart, charismatic, and popular so it is understandable she wants to keep up the faceade. So as you can see it is not a perfect breeding ground for a romance to begin with betwen them. Hence why their only connection was their kink, which was fine for a long time, but with 4,000 pages of romance going nowhere, it was tiring.

All in all, as I said in the intruction, don't read this if you are curious about a good romance story, since this is not one, but if you are curious about this deviant world then definietly a good starting point. It will not throw you in the deepest pit of the rabbithole, but you will get the taste of it. I also like that this is not a sadistic h-manga and perfectly depicts that this world is more about mutual attention, attuning to each other, self-control, and not about animalistic instincts. (Also if you read this, don't miss out the Nana to Kaoru: Black Label for a more statisfing ending)

I don't want to go on a rant so I'll try to keep this short. I'll start this off by say, if you are hoping to read this series for the kinky factor and mostly just that than I think you'll like this a lot? Maybe? I'm not really into S&M so those segments didn't do much for me outside the first few sessions but obviously if you are into that stuff then by all means enjoy.

If you're a poor hopeless romantic idiot like me who is going into this expecting a well told romance story with a kinky factor and amazing character development ... and whatnot, then do yourself a favor and don't read this. I'm not going to spoil anything but I will say this series is the literal embodiment of nothing happens. The whole story revolves around male MC liking female MC and female MC somewhat liking male MC but mostly liking the S&M sessions and then they have some sort of conflict. They then proceeed to have a session to "clear up the air" and then repeat. Theres a lot of side plots that I personally was invested in or at least curious in and all of them aside from a few got dropped entirely with no resolution or just forgotten and the very few that did have resolutions, felt more like cliffhangers or had no proper resolution. The ending was a huge let down, both in this and the sequel manga.

If you want to read something similar that follows the same vibe as this story (a kinky "romance" comedy) but with an actual ending and actual development then I'd recommend reading a series called Sundome.