Sex-Philes

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I discovered Benkyo Tamaoki through a compilation of manga called Secret Comics Japan featuring a variety of off-kilter manga artists such as Shintaro Kago and Makoto Aida. Of many of the featured stories, 'Editor Woman' had a significantly more down to earth, almost wholesome, story. It is still very much erotic in nature, however there's a significant focus on a narative than purely sex.

I'm a sucker for ero-doujins with an interesting story and compelling characters, so I tried to look futher into Tamaoki's releases. To my dismay, the release where 'Editor Woman' had originated from, Sex 2000 (yes this is the actual name), had not ... been translated, along with many of his other works. Luckily, 'The Sex-Philes' had an official english translation. So how does it fare? Let's just say the reference to the X-Files isn't just a silly pun.

The Sex-Philes seems to have a relatively consistent pattern. There's two stories per volume; One will usualy be a bit more grounded, but there's the chance of a story featuring more extreme or goofy situations. I can see this being a point of contention for some readers, especially when some of the stories can contain content like futanari, scat, incest, and other posssibly "extreme" fetishes for your average vanilla hentai enjoyer. However, it's important to realize the stories presented here aren't really framed as anything to "get off to" per se.

The way sex is presented in these stories is relatively "straight forward" for a lack of better phrasing. There can be some interesting and rather erotic scenes, but not often so that it takes precedent over the story being told. I tend to appreciate that aspect of Tamaoki's stories throughout my time reading The Sex-Philes. Volumes go by quick so expect to read through all 34 stories in a sitting or two.

I enjoyed a selection of the stories, but not all of them are winners. Some of them can be pretty goofy, but the comedy doesn't usually land and mostly serve as odd diversions placed in-between the more interesting stories. Some other stories can just be a tad bit too weird for my liking, I'd say the second story featured in volume 1 will give you a good idea of how weird some of the stories can get. I might feel interested in revisitng a few of the volumes, but it's hard to say whether I would recommened this series to someone who may not be comfortable with some of the more "out there" stories. I'd still say it's worth a look, but definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea.