Sweet Poolside

Name: Sweet Poolside
Rating: 5.37 (4104 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.

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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

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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!)

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.

The manga's largest issue is not its controversial subject matter, but rather its lack of focus on the motivation behind it. In stark contrast to the Flowers of Evil, Sweet Poolside doesn't use its premise as a means to share philosophy with any depth. For the most part, this is an atypical framework for a typical romance plot. It's organically cute in how embarrassed the two main characters are of their bodily problems and how they learn to support each other in the way that only they empathetically can. 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 detailed is covered with an overgrowth of hairy exposition. The shaving scenes are given far too much attention to the point where they almost seem fetishized, and as a story element they rarely serve any point other than to demonstrate the boy's nervousness and the girl's shyness. The only point of this is beaten over your head as these scenes are dragged out for far too long. The initial shaving scene was the only thing that needed to be shown in full, and after this the manga should've focused solely on the characters growing up now that they've found someone else to trust. This element is there, but buried under this worn, dull razor blade of storytelling. Seeing multiple pages of shaving and only one of the main female character reflecting on what that meant to her is kind of lousy and a waste of a possibly pure-hearted intent by the author.

Beyond that, the art is decent but frequently cartoonish in a gag manga-esque way rather than 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 stupid anyway. If that bonus chapter exists, please let me know.

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Overall	10
Story	10
Art	6
Character	10
Enjoyment	10

Overall	4
Story	0
Art	0
Character	0
Enjoyment	0

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