Masquerade Vol. #01

By Eduardo M. Chavez     September 28, 2007
Release Date: October 01, 2006



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Fukuda Takushi
Translated by:Ex-S Woo
Adapted by:Ex-S Woo

What They Say
10 hard-core short adult comic stories by Takushi Fukada. In "Atonement," a young widow gives up her body to her kidnappers in order to protect the honor of her step-daughter. In "Taming of the Bitch," fallen teen idol ÂgMariaÂh receives training to become a submissive sex slave for her new masters. In "Past," a pretty news anchor is blackmailed by dirty pictures from her past, and is trained to be a sex-slave -- all on video. Plus "e-Mail," "Private Room," "Let's Party," "Masquerade," "Lady Teacher Bloomer Training," "Go Go China Girl," and "Love Ya."

The Review
Packaging:
Masquerade is one of the last GNs Icarus ran before switching printers. It is easy to tell the difference, as these older books are not as substantial as Icarus' 2007 publications. The cover lacks the glossy look and feel that their new books sport. I think the image of Rika-chan from "Love Ya" would have stood out more if the reflection in the window and her wet pajama top had more sheen to it.

The print is pretty clean. However, the paper is so white and thin that I can see right through most pages. Given how Fukuda uses a lot of tone for shading (maybe too much) the thin paper was a bit distracting. No color plates in this release. I am not sure if the France Shoin version had any, but I know that at least one chapter had CG at one point or another (maybe in the magazine release).

Artwork:
To be completely honest this is possibly not one of Fukuda's best-looking books. Character models are still a little bit on the bulky side as he has a hard time balancing out his bon-kyu-bon (hourglass shaped) women. Too much junk in the trunk make his characters look fat and flabby from certain angles. Fukuda also has trouble keeping faces on model. They get distorted very quickly and his overuse of lines for shading often makes those weird looking faces look smaller.

Fukada employs a number of genres in this collection of shorts. His best tend to be his comedy themes. These tend to have a lot more variety and better dialog than his shibari and ÂgtrainingÂh stories. Seeing his women often initiate and take command of the scene was a good change of pace from the cold faceless bondage chapters at the start of the book. Nothing against bondage, but there has to be a few more shibari knots out there. Fukuda hasn't researched enough of them to really make that genre work.

SFX/Text:
The translation for this title is pretty straightforward. At times, I felt it was a little too straight. So there were moments where I couldn't into the scene very well because the dialogue was a little stiff. Outside of that, I really didn't have a problem Mr. Woo's work.

SFX are not translated. I still don't get why this is. But then again, maybe I am a perv for wanting to read Âgthe sounds of sexÂh!? What frustrated me about this though is how Icarus can pick and choose which bubbles to translate. Some chapters have sounds in bubbles translated. Others don't. And there was at least one scene where dialogue was missed because it might have been confused for an SFX.

Contents: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Ahh! The funny thing about reading ero-manga is that quite often the covers of these books are masquerading as something very different from what you see inside. I was expecting to see stories about hot humid summers and what I got was a handful of stories of women in power positions being forced into sexual slavery!! And while I do not remember seeing that big bottomed lady in this collection, when you go through the ten stories in this collection readers will be treated to the many different faces of Fukada-sensei's work some very hot, some sweaty and others left me wanting to look out the window. The themes range from torture to cosporn. Characters range from debutants, idol singers, China girls and OL. Every chapter looks different but still somewhat familiar. Maybe that is what Fukuda's manga is attempting... It wants to show a different face with every new chapterÂc

An uppity pop singer is forced into early retirement by her management team in Idol Training. It wasn't long ago when Maria was a rising star. What she didn't know was how short a flight those stars have in the Tokyo sky. Tastes change and new fresh faces light up the sky. But the promoters and managers of these talents cannot let their investments go to waste. A young woman like Maria could have a great solo career... servicing the rich executives of record and TV studios

In Let's Party, a doujin circle prepares for Comiket by re-enacting a scene out of an ero-manga. While the team's writer sleeps, their artist and "assistant" try to quietly work out any pre-event jitters they have. After a couple drinks, the only thing that will really calm them down is a long hard lay. Apparently it was too hard, cause their secret meeting turned into a threesome and then suddenly resting before the con was not an option!

A brother and sister cosplay duo debut at the latest Comiket and they are the hit of the con in the title story Masquerade. What people do not know is that the girl in the maho shojo costume was a guy. In the west hall changing rooms, the two siblings celebrate their successful showing by expressing their excitement and affection the only way "family" can. Quietly and gently, they make this event a memory they will never forget.

Comments
Like many ero short collections, the level of quality in Masquerade varies from chapter to chapter. Themes range from hard-boiled blackmail rape to silly Comiket inspired 3P romps between doujin circle members. There is no pattern to these, just start anywhere and go. And the art is presented in the same manner. CG is used in one story and line art with heavy tone shading all over the next.

Grading a collection like this is tough because the stories don't work well together. There is very little sense of fluidity or structure. I couldn't really get in a mood because there is no real theme. Instead, I kinda have to look at the stories individually. Lighter stories are drawn better and are just more enjoyable. They feature some silly but creative scenes that were quite titillating. The hard stuff was generally thought through well but the execution was off. There should have been a little more research behind those scenes. A hard-boiled reader wants graphic scenes with more realism behind their favorite fetishes. I wanted to see more variety and more range shown, as I was actually bored by straightforward those chapters were.

Finding a balance in ero manga is difficult. In general, this is a fetish based niche. So when a title covers a number of them degrees of execution vary. Too much of one extreme could be too much of a contrast if placed next to a lighter theme. However respecting the genre and its readers might often mean pushing the envelope a bit. Masquerade tries almost too hard. It covers a wide spectrum of eros but only a few genres really stand out on their own. And after reading this manga, I almost feel the mangaka was searching for his style as well.