Sweet Poolside

Name: Sweet Poolside
Rating: 5.37 (4190 reviews)
Author: Shuzo Oshimi

*This is a digital eBook, not a physical book.

Synopsis

Middle school is hard enough without problems like these... Toshihiko Ota is mocked by his peers for his smooth, hairless body, but his life changes forever when he meets a young woman in swim club with the opposite problem: Ayako Goto, poised for swim-meet glory but too ashamed of her body hair to compete. After Ota happens on her trying unsuccessfully to shave in the locker room, she comes to him with an astonishing request...! Can they help each other find the confidence to embrace their own bodies? This sweet yet erotic early work from psychosexual auteur Shuzo Oshimi (Blood on the Tracks, Flowers of Evil) is not your average tale of puppy love. A quiet story of budding sexuality, self-exploration, trust, and friendship, Sweet Poolside is ultimately one of Oshimi's most focused and sincere works, as well as the basis for the live-action movie of the same name.

Volumes

Review

Aug 9, 2016

8 of 8 chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

Covetousness (All reviews)

20 people found this review helpful

So what can i say about this masterpiece..
Not much to be honest but i can say one thing straight this manga was the first and probably the last that i absolutely loved (considering i like to watch not to read..)
i never seen such a unique story with such a unique characters.
The environment and characters development is just breath taking despite this manga being poorly drawn.
But with story like that i think it fits perfectly.
For people that don't like awkward moments and a little bit of ecchi i wouldn't recommend reading this.
But for people that do i definitely recommend reading this and i swear to you read more

permalink | report

Apr 27, 2018

7 of 8 chapters read

Overall Rating: 4

FAKEANIMEGIRL (All reviews)

16 people found this review helpful

Preliminary

(Check out my profile for a link to my site containing more up-to-date reviews and bonus media!)

Written April 27, 2018 5:54 pm EST
Edited November 8, 2025 8:53 pm EST (improved grammar and syntax; minor expansion of some sections)
---
While reading Shuuzou Oshimi's popular Flowers of Evil manga, I took a look at the rest of his works and noticed recurring themes of adolescent sexuality. Some premises had more of a… questionable nature than others, and after sharing a few with a friend, we each decided to read a different one-volume work from the author. Curious if the rest of his works would have the same nuance and tact as Flowers of Evil, I decided to give the most absurd premise a shot: Sweet Poolside, a manga about a hairless boy shaving a hairy girl. And thus, my life sank further into the abyss.

This romantic drama's largest issue is not its controversial subject matter, but rather its lack of justification for it. In stark contrast to the Flowers of Evil, Sweet Poolside doesn't use its premise as a philosophical vector. For the most part, this is an atypical framework for a typical plot.

It's organically cute how embarrassed the two main characters are of their bodily problems and their learning to support each other in their uniquely empathetic way. This relationship and also the characters' contemplation of their own self-consciousness are the highlights of this coming-of-age story, but what could be further expanded upon is instead covered hairy exposition.

When I first read Sweet Poolside, I felt the shaving scenes were given far too much focus, to the point where they almost seemed fetishized. Since becoming more familiar with Oshimi's style, I now give him the benefit of the doubt. I suspect he was pacing the sequences slowly to imply a delicate tenderness. The two leads are vulnerable in these scenes, and the shaving is an appropriate metaphor for gradually letting go of their insecurities.

All the same, the story does not give itself a lot of time to develop its characters. Some of this could still be argued to be redundant, blunt characterization that takes page real estate from other elements that could have been expounded on. The initial shaving scene was the only one that "needed" to be shown in full, and after this, the manga could've focused solely on the characters growing up after finding someone to trust. That development is there, but buried under this worn, dull razor blade of storytelling. Seeing multiple pages of shaving, yet only one page of the female lead reflecting on what that meant to her is disappointing, and a waste of a possibly pure-hearted intent from the author.

Beyond that, the art is decent but frequently cartoonish in a gag manga-esque way rather than what can be seen in the detailed realism of Flowers of Evil. There's also a one-shot manga chapter included in this release entry, but I can't find it anywhere. Fine enough, I suppose, as MAL grouping unrelated stories is dumb, anyway. If that bonus chapter exists out there, please let me know.

Helpful

Overall	10
Story	10
Art	6
Character	10
Enjoyment	10

Overall	4
Story	0
Art	0
Character	0
Enjoyment	0

Manga Store

Sweet Poolside

Synopsis

Review

Just in

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters