Stomp, Kick, Love

Kaho is a busy salarywoman with little time for romance or outside interests, but she finds solace in a small bar and a young man named Akira who becomes her drinking partner on a Friday night. Handsome and flirty, she enjoys these moments of friendship, but one night things go further and the two end up in bed together. Waking up shocked at her own actions, Kaho tries to put some distance between herself and Akira, but fate keeps throwing them together...

It's really quite disconcerting reading a book like this in the post MeToo era; the idea that a drunken midnight tryst doesn't turn into a lawsuit seems quite unnerving, but Kaho it seems finds herself mostly at fault for opening herself to Akira's advances. She stops going to the bar and tries to forget the event, but every time she thinks she's put distance between them, he pops back up, either in the street, in his job as a chiropractor or just back at the bar when she dares to return.

In fairness, Akira doesn't help himself when it comes to first impressions. He's casually vain, suggestive and dismissive of Kaho's concerns, making him a hard character to see as a romantic lead. He does have his moments - he's clearly skilled and well respected in his job, he does show signs of empathy from time to time, but it's easy to see why Kaho is repulsed by the idea of dating him. It's not as if he doesn't open himself up to other women either, taking some time with another man's girlfriend to pass the time, ending up in a street fight. It's clearly a common occurrence too, Akira being just too attractive to resist and constantly drawing admiration from the opposite sex. In this he reminds me of Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones' Diary, which doesn't speak much of him as a leading romantic interest.

We do get a scene with an even slimier character than Akira though, a pushy guy in a mall who won't leave Kaho alone, but he just comes off as a less professional pest than our leading man, so it's still hardly redeeming to see a character be only slightly slicker than other scumbags.

Admirably Kaho understands that the incident wasn't one sided and admirably takes responsibility for her part in the evening's events. She genuinely seems to dislike Akira (probably rightly) and has no intention of seeing him again, so it's unfortunate and slightly comedic that she can't seem to escape him. 

All this would doom the book to being uncomfortable to read as a woman being harassed by a man after a one night stand if she didn't find herself so conflicted; she both hates Akira and throws out mixed signals to him, inviting his advances and then rebuffing them as if he's disgusting. This isn't a healthy way to act so it's hard to feel sorry for her either.

This seems to be a loose adaptation of the artist's earlier one shot, Neratte Shita kedo Nani ka? wherein two colleagues at work have no chemistry but end up in bed together, so this would appear to be a lengthier take on the same theme. It could improve, though it needs to give a bit more depth to Akira so that there's something to grasp hold of other than a free spirit and willing sleeping partner. 

This seems like a more suitable read for women, given that most men would happily just punch Akira out for being a douchebag or move on from Kaho who states she isn't interested. It feels out of touch with Western sensibilities, harking back to a time when a series like Moonlighting would play with the will-they/won't they approach that was popular at the time. 

There's a lot of mixed emotions and introspection on Kaho's part that I think resonates more with a female audience, where there might be a more intimate understanding of the deeper and more complex set of contradictory instincts at play with Kaho, and the ability to see something in Akira that men just find baffling.

In all, it's nice to see a romantic manga outside of high school, with no super powers or supernatural elements, just two lost souls trying to find a place. Whether or not that place is with each other just happens to be highly questionable.