Midara Vol. #01

By Matthew Alexander     June 19, 2006
Release Date: March 01, 2006



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Yumisuke Kotoyoshi
Translated by:Ex-S Woo
Adapted by:

What They Say
You've seen his work in Saber Marionette J, now get ready to experience what Yumisuke Kotoyoshi is truly famous for in Japan his erotic manga! Midara is the first English collection of Kotoyoshi sensei's often humorous, sometimes brutal, but always action-packed adult comics that will tease more than your funny bone.

Featuring two full-length series:
Megumi Raiders - a send-up to treasure hunting heroines with a special manga twist dungeons booby-trapped with dildos and tentacle monsters!
Saeko - a tough, no-nonsense female detective faces off with the most perverted criminals in Japan with her own body as bait!

The Review
Packaging:
The publisher uses the original Japanese cover depicting the two main characters from both the larger stories in this book. Saeko and Megumi never actually meet in the stories in this book but Kotoyoshi has drawn them in various states of undress and handcuffed to each other for the front cover. The back cover has a picture of a sexy redhead bending over. The print reproduction has solid black tones and the pages are aligned nice and straight throughout the book. Extras include a table of contents, letter from the author, and a glossary of terms explaining honorifics and a couple of other Egyptian terms from the Megumi Raiders chapters. There is also a full-page black and white picture of Megumi at the beginning. The paper is a little on the thin side but Icarus is a relatively small publisher so this is a minor complaint and probably won't bother most people.

Artwork:
Kotoyoshi uses a variety of panel sizes and layouts to create a dynamic flow that does a good job of enhancing action scenes. Good usage of shading and tone work gives depth to the art, but the backgrounds are sparse. If you enjoy well-endowed women then you'll love Kotoyoshi's character design. The main female characters are exceptionally voluptuous and well drawn with minor characters being more realistically porportioned. I appreciated the body shapes of all the women in this book and the way their bodies move without a stiff plastic appearance that is sometimes seen in this genre.

Text/SFX:
The translation reads well for the most part and there are only a few grammatical/spelling errors. Honorifics remain in translation but are used somewhat sparingly. The Japanese SFX remains but lacks an English translation.

Contents: (Oh yes, there may be spoilers)
Midara mostly covers the sexual adventures of the treasure hunter Megumi and the detective Saeko. The first story follows the misadventures of Megumi who looks surprisingly like a naughty version of Lara Croft. In Indiana Jones fashion, Megumi finds herself searching for treasure in a South American pyramid that gives a whole new meaning to the term 'booby trap'. With her assistant Lug's help, Megumi is eventually able to escape alive and without any treasure but not necessarily empty-handed.

Still hoping to find treasure in pyramids, Megumi and Lug head to Egypt where they hire a local guide. They eventually find a pyramid still holding a pharaohs body and treasure, but it soon becomes apparent that leaving is going to be much more difficult. Their mysterious guide leads a supernatural attack against the would be tomb raiders and a massive orgy quickly ensues. It's going to take every bit of sexual power Megumi possesses if she's going to stave off the pharaoh's attack and lead Lug to safety.

Detective Saeko is an impressively busty woman who often finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her strong sense of justice leads her to the belief that righteousness will always prevail, but maybe not before the criminals get a chance to have their way with her. Of course she has the petite Mei Kusunoki as a cute sidekick, but unfortunately Mei isn't as innocent as she appears and often pushes the envelope of Saeko's safety if it might increase her chances for advancement.

Together Saeko and Mei go undercover to delve into the underworld of prostitute rings to flush out and arrest the power manipulators behind the street pimps. Once justice prevails against the sellers of illegal sex, Saeko shows her fellow policeman just how brave she is by willingly giving herself up as a hostage in exchange for the freedom of citizens being held by bank robbers. Saeko finds herself in over her head after the bank robbers escape the police and drag her down into a world of forced sex and drug injections. Will Saeko make it out alive? Where the heck is Mei and is there anything she can do to find Saeko?

The final three stories are all relatively short. Sleep Talking tells the tale of a couple who finally step over the bounds of a friendship to see what might lie on the other side. The head coach of a failing swim school decides to employ the services of a new female swim coach in Peach-colored Tropical Fish and Lover explores the possibilities involved in a relationship between a man and an abnormally advanced sex doll.

Comments
Midara covers are a good variety of themes and is generally a fun read. It does contain a large amount of non-consensual sex, but it is depicted less violently than some adult only manga. This book also does a good job of covering a variety of sex acts (natural and tentacled) and situations with a fair amount of comedy along the way. I enjoyed the humor in most of the stories especially those involving Megumi,, the tomb raider, as she combats sexually inclined ancient traps in an attempt to discover the treasures of lost civilizations. Sleep Talking was also pretty funny because just about everyone has found themselves at that border between friends and lovers at one point or another, and the guy in this story is such a goof ball.

Saeko's story has some humor but it is definitely more hard-edged in subject matter than the other stories in this book. The subject matter didn't bother me but the rape and forced heroin use may be too much for some readers.