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I consider myself to be a pervert. And that’s good, I know what I want, I know how to describe inner feelings. I grasp my desires, have them in the palm of my hand.

And that story is all about perverts.
But…
Not in the considered normal, ecchi style of story.

This story is much, much more realistic, much more brutal in the way of describing perverts. A realistic story about people who live their own lives with the knowledge what arouses and interests them.

Our plot is set in the ~~20th century Paris, in a luxurious brothel where women are held as hostages. Even though the ... are free, they have to live in the brothel and work, work and work, because they earn less then the brothel pays for their livings (or so the brothel mom says).

They are in the endless cycle of debt.

We see everything from Colette’s point of view, a young prostitute working there. She wants to be a writer, this is her dream, her goal. But how can a seemingly ordinary prostitute achieve anything in the world where money is everything? Can she even find her own truth about the world? Can she understand love? She struggles a lot trying to find answers, and we can see exactly what was pushing her forward.

We can see the daily routine of her coworkers, clients they need to attend, how they behave and how they feel about everything. It’s interesting because it’s real. I don’t doubt a real brothel from that time looked exactly like that.


What makes this story interesting are definitely characters. Courtesans and perverts paying for them. We can see how they think and how they try to grasp their desires. Interesting to people who are really degenerates, you can find yourself here.



Sooo, the story is about a brothel but can we actually see some erotic motives?

Sure we can, all the time. If you are too sensual to see naked bodies, sex scenes, penises, strap-ons and pegging, don’t try to get into that. The manga is full of hardcore erotic elements. And they are wonderful, truly for perverts.



What can we expect from this manga?

1) Comedy, mostly dark humour.

2) AMAZING drawings, my god, the art is just WONDERFUL, expressions, gestures, architecture…. Certainly it makes the manga stand out.

3) Perverts, sex, degeneration, and so on. Beautiful, right?

4) Drama. There is a lot of drama. Human hardships, harsh loves, disappointments… A lot of stories are… sad. Just sad. It’s not really philosophical, it’s just… human.


It’s not a perfect manga, it could be longer, it could be explained more in-depth. But it isn’t and I still enjoyed every single chapter. Do I recommend this manga? I sure am! But not if you are a casual reader looking for something to binge. If you want some mature story, than it’s a good take.


Everyone has desires. Everyone. But… some of us want something really…. really… indescribable;)

The main problem of this manga is that it is extremely chaotic

We have an incredibly interesting premise of the story-> school uniforms that are made from alumni hair. At the end of their education at this girls' school, the girls cut off their long and beautiful hair, which is then used as material to create clothes for the new 1st years. These clothes can breathe, think and feel.


Unfortunately, this interesting idea gets buried in endless chaos and episodic stories without any order or composition.

In fact, most of the chapters take place in different times. For example, in one we have to go 2 years ... back, only to end up with 3 years time-skip in the next. And that's a constant problem with this story. I had to reread some previous chapters just to get the idea what is the chronology....


Characters:
For the most part, they're generic: a girl playing the part of the school prince, a girl playing the part of the "queen", another one is isolated and doesn't really interact with people.... And of course there are love triangles, friendships and other all-girls schools stuff. And... there is also a pointless drama....

Nothing interesting but at the same time nothing bad. Just average.


Art:
If I have to name one feature of this manga that actually deserves a praise and mention, it's the artwork. It's really beautiful, I went back to many of the drawings several times because they were sooo lovely.

If you like the atmosphere of all-girls school, this manga definitely has this. And the quality of this atmosphere is really top tier.



Overall:
Sadly, even if the artwork and the premise are really good, I didn't really enjoy the story. It was just too chaotic. It had a high potential at first but it went downhill really fast. I recommend it only to people who crave for more and more yuri manga, otherwise, if you want a strong story, it's not a good idea to start this.

This is the best black comedy I've ever seen in fiction.

This manga is a mix of everything- gore, comedy, rough sex, gunfights, martial arts, mafia, prostitution, experiments on people...

The story starts slowly, I think mangaka tried to identify the ground of his work. So we have a slow mafia-like start with yakuza identifying some shady buisness. The first volume introduces characters and setting. Aaand from the second volume onwards it is a hard ride without stopping.

The best thing is definitely the addition of comedy elements. It's mostly satyrical, for example we have a lady who works as a torturer for yakuza. She like ... to workout because she wants to be in shape. And how she does it? Riding on the electricity-making bike connected to the poor victim, stretching with rubbers connected to his skin via sharp metal spikes etc. You know, healthy lifestyle is important!

Sounds terrible? Yeah, it is gruesome... but it's so funny when you actually look at it. Add to this a mixture of interesting characters, catching story and awesome fights.

I honestly recommend it to everyone who wants something on a higher note with brutality and not cringy at the same time. That's why this work is so awesome. We don't have cringy badass characters. We have a lot of idiots. And badass killing machine women who are at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

Definitely worth to read.

Why?
Because even though the premise is simple, it's done in an unsual and beautiful way.

We have a pretty common story about the all-girls school filled with youthful feelings of friendship and love. We even have the typical archetypes as our protagonists. One of the girls is filled with energy, likes to eat sweets and doesn't like learning. The second one is a cold beauty who most of the girls admire.


So what is interesting in that?

...
Characters aren't empty shells. They don't have "just a complicated situation". They aren't in a phase of rebellion. They see the world with their own eyes, in their own ways. They say things, you wouldn't expect and do things you wouldn't even think about. It's a love story that touches deeply.

I said there are themes of friendship and love. But they are not the only ones. There are also themes related to war, refugees and history. Characters have a lot on their minds, really. Creativity of the author is amazing.

Art is absolutely stunning. Every panel can be put into a frame and act as a poster on the wall. The dresses looking like flower buds, detailed backgrounds, perfectly drawn emotions... everything.


I reccommend this manga to all of You, who are looking for the mature love story. It's filled with beauty, really;)

If you look for a psychological manga- Innocent is for you.

Innocent is another, after Kokou No Hito, wonderful case study of human minds by Sakamoto Shinichi. It's a wonderful psychological story, artistically presenting events and emotions using abstraction as a paint.

It's a story about a family. Family of executioners in Paris, before the French Revolution. You will be a witness to many historical turmoils, thanks to this wonderful setting. There is no much action or plottwists. It's all about the people, our actors on the big stage of France. How they live, what they believe in, how they react to suffering, who they ... love, how they think.

The setting is just PERFECT. You see everything mostly from the executioners perspective. And it's soooo interesting. You see beggars, kings, revolutionists, murderers, prostitutes- just as everyone is even before death, everyone is even before the executioner eyes.

The characters are portrayed in a specific way. They can change fast. But it's not without a reason. You see, that story is made for taking it slow. It's good to think about WHAT is happening and WHY. Human mind is complicated and in this manga, it is shown clearly.

There is an abstraction in every aspect of the story. If you don't want to connect dots or think about metaphores-> you will be bored to death.

The whole thing is BRUTAL. And sometimes I had to avert my eyes because it was so intense and realistic. The executions are presented in a very detailed way, with the explanations how human body reacts during beheading or wheel breaking. You will see many deatiled executions so be prepared for it.

....making it short: Innocent is a very good manga, psychological portrait of historical figures, brutal description of how society used to functon and the story of one particular family living during these extraordinary times:)