An Older Wife's Supple Cage (Adult Content)

I honestly wasn't sure what I was going to get when I began reading An Older Wife's Supple Cage except that the cover implied some level of infidelity on the part of the protagonist. Netorare? What exactly was I getting myself into?

We jump straight into the action with a scene of husband and wife, Takumi and Haruka, having sex but it immediately becomes clear that something is wrong with Takumi, that being that he feels like he's insufficient for Haruka. We soon learn their history, that Takumi saw Haruka visiting the office from another company one day and became immediately infatuated with her. He then makes the VERY bold move, due to the fact that he might never see her again, to walk up to her, declare his love right then and there and ask whether she would go out with him! Amazingly, she agrees and, within months, they are soon married. However, Takumi feels like she's better at everything than he is. She earns more money, is more capable at the household chores and, most importantly to Takumi, he doesn't feel like he's satisfying her sexually. It's around this time that he's introduced to his supervisor's wife, Miho, who considers the story of how he and Haruka met to be very romantic. After confessing his problems to her, Miho has the idea that she could give him some help by teaching him how best to have sex. Takumi initially declines but, after an incident with Haruka, he acquiesces and begins to meet Miho in order to "learn" about having sex.

I admit that I was initially conflicted about the character of Takumi. He was genuinely concerned about how his place in his relationship with Haruka and whether he was worthy of her which I think is a relatable dilemma that most people have faced at some point in their life. However, this does not give him the right to cheat on Haruka and so I felt torn, understanding how he got to where he was but still condemning his actions. However, I will say that things begin to rapidly change about halfway through the story and I found myself quite surprised at how it ultimately concluded, going in a direction that I never saw coming. I really wasn't expecting to find myself satisfied by the ending but it managed to achieve this, much to my ultimate enjoyment. I do feel like the charade of the sex lessons falls apart too quickly, rapidly devolving into two people trying to pleasure each other but that's a minor quibble at best.

As for the other characters, Haruka is quite endearing which makes the fact that Takumi is cheating on her hit even harder. She's a loving wife who is only doing her best for her husband and seems genuinely charming. However, there's a very interesting revelation later on that explains her apparent lack of enthusiasm for having sex with Takumi and she ended up having a bigger impact on my emotions than I was expecting. Meanwhile, Miho serves her role well as the seductive temptress who decides to take advantage of Takumi's weakness for her own pleasure. She's clearly manipulative but it's quite easy to see how her looks and personality manage to take hold of Takumi. The other characters are relatively minor but there is some charming banter between them and Takumi about his declaration of love and how public it was.

The artwork is also great with some very appealing character designs for Takumi, Haruka and Miho alongside detailed backgrounds, great use of effects such as sparkles and speed lines, some very lovely sequences where the backgrounds fade to nothing while the borders between panels are removed, allowing the images to flow into each other. If I had a criticism with the presentation, it's that the paneling could perhaps have been a bit more dynamic for the sex scenes to emphasise their movements, but it ends up being a lovely looking title regardless. Also, for those wondering, there are some internal shots, a strength of the format, as well.

I can't say that I was hooked from the very first page but I ended up becoming very impressed by the direction of the storytelling, the charm of the cast and its presentation so that, by the end of its fifty pages, it's ultimately become an easy recommendation from me for those looking for a new MILF/netorare title as well as anyone looking for a new doujinshi title to read.