Slow down, friend. The following content is incredibly perverted.

This manga is 18+, not safe for work, and is really rather sexual.

Should you be pure of heart, avert thine eyes.

That said, this manga is hilarious.



If Sir Mix-a-Lot was a Japanese high school girl…

You know, Baby Got Back is indeed a horribly lewd, incredibly funny song, but it has a genuinely sincere and good message behind (snrk) it. “It’s your body, own it; don’t let anyone tell you your big butt means you’re fat and undesirable”. Hell it’s not even overly body positive by saying “don’t listen to people who say you’re fat!” when you’re actually, well, fat, since Sir Mix-a-Lot encourages healthy exercise:

You can do side bends or sit-ups,

But please don’t lose that butt.

-Sir Mix-a-Lot, 1992



It’s a good song. This is a good manga.

Is My Hobby Weird? (私のシュミってヘンですか？, Watashi no Shumi tte Hen Desu ka?) is a borderline-H manga by artist Comaku (狛句) that is technically, technically pornography, but hear me out.

I don’t review actual porn. At least, that’s what I tell myself. Is My Hobby Weird? has sex in it. It’s a yuri manga so it’s lesbian sex. That said, I agree with one site’s clarification that this series merely has “moderate amount of sex”, not lots of it. In fact, most pages in this small series are dedicated to character interaction and character development. I am not kidding. In fact, the scenes of sex are often pretty short-lived, and the majority of sexual acts work to serve the narrative and plot development. I know. Try to take me seriously. One chapter doesn’t even have any sex at all. The scenes are just a tiny bit graphic, though, so keep that in mind.

Anyway, this is one of my favorite manga around. I seriously love this thing. Certainly it’s a rather arousing work, but as a manga/story I ate up every single chapter. Is My Hobby Weird? has a message about the value of honesty, and honestly honesty is probably my most valued virtue. It is a terribly perverted manga featuring a couple of perverts who become increasingly perverted, and in doing so fall in love. Thus, it’s one of the more unique romances I’ve seen in fiction. It doesn’t work off of porn logic and instead feels mostly believable, the characters are likable, in a short amount of time they actually grow as people, and on top of it all this manga is so damn ridiculously funny. Almost purely off of absurdity rather than actual jokes, it’s funny as Hell. I think I’d recommend it to anyone, so long as you were 18 years of age or older. It’s hard not to love.



We’ve got an incredibly simple plot here: Fujiyama Maiko is a lesbian who fuckin’ loves butts. She walks to school every morning looking up skirts as she walks upstairs, able to avoid getting in trouble because she’s a girl, and thus nobody is suspicious of her.

She is especially fond of really large butts. Should she have the pleasure of spotting one, she goes to spend some alone time in the nearby public restroom so as to not go to school in a terribly aroused state. I won’t be showing that page.

Anyway, there is one girl Maiko has her eyes on who, in her opinion, has the best butt.

The manga truly begins when, after spotting her one morning on the train, Maiko is left in confusion when she can’t seem to find the girl going up the Stairway to Heaven. While she’s pondering, the other girl suddenly confronts her with a surprising accusation.

Now this could go one of two ways: blackmail hentai scenario, or she’s pissed that some degenerate’s been molesting her with her eyes for several days. Is My Hobby Weird? takes a third option, however.

Oh my.



Oh my.



After this girl, Tsuzuki Risa, frankly confesses that she is more than okay with Maiko’s staring, Maiko confesses that she loves this girl’s butt, and would love to continue staring. Truly, they are soulmates.

Surprisingly, Risa offers that they act on these desires right now, ascending the nearby stairwell and requesting Maiko take her fill.

After this, Maiko notes that Risa is visibly aroused, and we get the first full erotic scene in the manga (in that restroom I mentioned earlier). I was laughing my ass off during the whole thing.



There’s this kinda…unfettered boldness to both Maiko and Risa prior to the scene and throughout it. Risa’s like “yo, check out my butt” and bends over and Maiko’s like “can I bury my face in it?”, “Sure!” (with a nice small detail of her taking her glasses off first). Just recalling it makes me giggle. Honestly, you don’t even see that kind of thing in the vast majority of H manga. Is My Hobby Weird? therefore establishes itself as unique at once, in a really incredible way. The scene ends in three pages, also, meaning out of the 24 pages in chapter 1, 21 were “establishing characters”/”buildup”, and three were (if you’ll pardon the term) “climax”. This makes it obvious that although this ran in a pornographic magazine and is sold as a pornographic work, it is, objectively speaking, hardly porn. That is why I’ve identified this as a borderline-H manga. Do you understand me now?

Chapter 1 basically ends with Maiko and Risa becoming friends. After this, they regularly visit the public restroom after a “viewing session”, where Maiko, uh, “pleasures” Risa while taking care of herself. Their acts become more extreme over time, starting with actually doing one another (more on this in just a bit), then exchanging undergarments, then some exhibitionism, then basically phone sex, and later voyeurism. Escalation is common to pornography but here rather than “escalation” it feels like…the two of them are getting closer? There’s also more focus on “thought” and “mentality” rather than the physical aspect of their relationship, in spite of the premise. And that brings me to the “doing one another” thing I just mentioned.

Chapter 2 begins with our heroines finishing up another session, but Risa is clearly a bit bothered by something. The next day, Maiko eventually notices that something is the matter with her and asks her what’s wrong (hilariously, she noticed because while checking out her panties on the staircase, she saw that Rise wasn’t really wet). Risa then reveals that she’s bothered because they’ve been doing this for a little while now and Risa is only ever on the receiving end. They actually, actually converse about this and have a heart-to-heart as Maiko explains that “giving” is practically the same as “receiving” to her (since she gets off on looking, and Risa gets off on being looked at), but Risa insists that it isn’t so simple.

So here we’re addressing body image concerns, and feeling good about yourself, and wanting to show one’s appreciation for being appreciated. Like, are you kidding me here? I know it’s ultimately a silly manga, but this is really nice stuff and an honestly good message. I told you it was like Baby Got Back.

The rest of the series addresses all its paraphilia and perversions “seriously” in the sense that every action and reaction seems realistic, although honestly I can’t stop laughing while I read this manga. The series also addresses Maiko and Risa’s unusual relationship, as they kind of started off as “sex friends” and over time become more obviously fond of one another. There’s a bit of an element of unpredictability as well, and what drama exists as a result of the “sex friends” dilemma is resolved sweetly and satisfactorily. And the ending? It’s a hopeful look to the future while confirming what the manga’s been about from the start: that being honest with oneself is of immense value, that sex can be more than simple and carnal, and that there’s nothing wrong with being a pervert.

So there you have it. I hope you can understand my adoration of this manga, why it’s a favorite of mine, and why I’d highly recommend reading it. It’s ceaselessly funny, yet it’s still got heart. It is simply one of the best.

I should also mention that the tankoubon of Is My Hobby Weird? comes with an extra story titled Secret Honey’s Absolute Territory. It’s less funny and more lewd and the premise is more common to pornography, but I should say that this seems to be more unusual for Comaku so far, since another work of hers, I Want to be Your Kind of Girl, is more in the vein of the main storyline of Is My Hobby Weird? and Secret Honey’s Absolute Territory isn’t void of laughs or anything. Comaku is shaping up to be an interesting and bizarre artist who employs a lot of humor and values sexuality without overly indulging in it, thus sharing her perspective on that value without letting readers lose sight of it. I’ll be honest: I’m impressed.

If you are over the age of 18, you may look into purchasing Is My Hobby Weird? from:

J-List (this link worked once upon a time)

amazon

getchu

toranoana

melonbooks (guide)



These ask if you’re 18 or older. Select はい, the answer on the left, to proceed.



I may be misunderstanding, but I read in [this post] from Comaku’s tumblr that she had released or was planning on releasing the series in ebook format. If you know anything about that, please let me know! While I have purchased this physically, not everyone would be so unabashed as I, so an ebook option would be splendid. By the way: [Comaku’s twitter]



And with that, I’m adding a butts tag to the site (which will include, so far, Keijo!!!!!!!! and Takuan and Batsu’s Daily Demon Diary). There ain’t enough butt-focused titles in manga, so I’m taking note. Right, I neglected to mention that the focus of this series, in the first place, appeals to me. Tits may be life, but ass is hometown. That’s all from me. Consider buying this manga! It comes with nice-lookin’ color pages! Next time, a series that’s fairly perverted, but not like this one. You’ll see what I mean. Thanks for reading! Later.

