Sweet Poolside

Story : 4/10

Well, there really isn't any story in here. A guy who has never had a single hair on his body shaves for a very hairy girl. That's it.

Art: 8/10

I may be biased because this mangaka is one of my favorite ones out there, but I really love his art. It's very smooth and clean and so well done. The body proportions are realistic and the facial expressions are on point. Needless to say, I love it.

Character: 5/10

The manga is just 8 chapters long so there really isn't any development at all and we don't get to know the characters that well. Also, as known from the mangaka, the characters have ... weird tendencies or are just not normal. You will understand what I mean if you check out some of his other works (Aku no Hana, Marie..).

Enjoyment: 6/10

I read this during my lunch break to pass time, so I can't really say that I enjoyed it to the point where it made me skip a few spoons of my food to see what's going to happen.

Overall: 5.75 = 5

It's a very fast read (15 minutes or less) and it leaves you like (Um.. what did I actually read? no.. WHY did I read this?).
Enjoy reading about a guy shaving for a girl.

P.-s; I've made a promise to myself to read all of his works so this was the beginning of executing that.

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 that you won't be disappointed.
Story itself revolves around two characters that have something special to them that others don't.
''Girl has a body that grows hair unnaturally and boy that doesn't grow body hair at all''
And what really kicked me in was that boy actually decides to help her shave even though he has no experience in it what so ever.
A bond that is growing between these two characters is a main the reason why i loved this masterpiece.

In my opinion this manga shows that doesn't matter what your appearances are you'll still find ''that'' someone that will help overcome the obstacles.

Overall i give this manga 10/10 definitely worth reading.
(Can't really say much about the story itself because this wasn't a long manga only 8 chapters so it would mainly only be spoilers)

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.

It's crazy to think about how it all started for Shuuzou Oshimi. Before works of deep psychological content like Aku no Hana, Chi no Wadachi and even his most recent manga, Okaeri Alice. Shuuzou Oshimi did some pretty .. curious manga. It serves, on the one hand, to see the evolution of his art, themes chosen to approach and characters, and if it were to put a current work and a work like Sweet Poolside side by side, it would be difficult to believe that it came from a master of psychological horror.

Speaking of an aspect that has changed a lot, his choice of themes, in manga like Sweet Poolside and another called Avant Guarde Yumeko, both have addressed many futile themes. In Yumeko's case, clearly in a tone of joke and satire, Poolside has a bit of that joke in the middle, however, it is still a proposal applied in a standard way, without satires. And what is your proposal? Well, there are two protagonists, a boy named Ota, who is in his adolescent phase but does not grow any hair on his body, resulting in becoming a joke of his colleagues giving him nicknames and wanting to touch him. The other protagonist is a girl named Gotou, who is the opposite of Ota in this aspect of ... hair; Gotou has hair on various parts of her body. Aware of this, both abhor the existence or non-existence of hair on their bodies and soon their paths cross, with this, Gotou convinces Ota to shave her body, advancing more and more in phase. A futile topic, with nothing to be properly explored, you can’t charge or expect anything from reading, very weak. Most curious not only of Sweet Poolside, but like the manga of the time, they tended to have a strange sexualization in the face of these futile themes like hair removal and it is something that made me very uncomfortable. In the final chapters it tries to build a kind of cliché drama but with a theme like this it is impossible to take itself seriously. But a positive point, although small, was the comedy of Sweet Poolside, it was a side of Oshimi that I had never seen before and I could have a good laugh.

Another aspect that has had a great change is the art, certainly the work that can be noticed the biggest change is in Aku no Hana where there is clearly an exchange of drawing strokes and use of them, but here we have the standard art of Oshimi from years ago. No gibberish, no details, no style that helps in setting the manga. A lighter art, but without the charm of today, and without its own characteristics. As it did not address psychological and heavy topics as today, I do not see art as terrible, but it is very weak even individually.

The characters are a mixture of irritants and some without grace, the protagonists do not aspire to charisma, Ota followed the pattern of Oshimi in the sexualized time of his manga, a boy discovering himself and the like, but not in a profound way as nowadays, but in a very average way and still with these themes that do not help. Gotou gets involved in a decision to share her love with the boy who shaves him and a boy he talks to during swimming lessons who seem to have some contact, but she is a very weak character. There are other characters that help in the plot, but more to ridicule Ota and rub in our face the motivation for his anger with his body, like Sakashita who constantly wants to touch Ota, Nakayama who is a complete sucker and leaves Ota naked and shows publicly his absence of hair and his parents who are not so supportive, constantly mocking his son. There is also Ninomiya, Gotou's love interest, but he has the same pattern of dialogue so he is boring.

This manga is to show how Shuuzou started with low quality but evolved into a great manga, the manga is horrible, but I was happy to read and see the evolution that my favorite mangaka had.

Short review for this short manga.

---------------------- No spoiler in this one !----------------

Look, if you like slightly ecchi and embarrassing moments with humor, this one is for you!
But if it's not your cup of tea, skip it.

By the same author of Aku No Hana and Inside Mari, you will find similar themes and atmosphere with every page. Though the art isn't as good and mature, it's ok. Not good but not bad either. Though I did notice some anatomical errors on some pages.

I enjoyed it since I like this type of comedy. But I totally understand why some other reviewers graded it so low.

Overall enjoyment : 7-8