From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Futari Ecchi (ふたりエッチ, Futari Ecchi
?), also known by other names
Manga Sutra, Step Up Love Story
or Manga Love Story, is a manga series by Katsu Aki.
Futari Ecchi is a story about a newlywed couple in
their mid-twenties, both virgins when they married. The story
chronicles their sexual explorations. The manga combines
pornographic elements with factual and informative statistics. The
title Futari Ecchi ("two person ecchi") is a play on a slang term for masturbation,
hitori ecchi ("single person ecchi"). This bestselling
series is most famous for being a how-to guide combined into a
story.[1]
So far, forty tankōbon have been released.[2]
Two other volumes are set around the sexuality of women, called
Futari Ecchi for Ladies, and there is an art book entitled
Yura Yura.[2]
A four-episode anime OVA series was produced in
2002 and 2003.
As of June 17, 2007, the manga series has been licensed in North
America by Tokyopop, with
the first volume released on January 8, 2008.[3]
Four volumes were released, with a representative of Tokyopop
saying that the volumes were expensive to produce.[4] Also,
on July 2, 2007 at Anime
Expo, Media
Blasters announced that they had licensed the OVA series.[3]
In Germany, both the manga and the anime are called Manga
Love Story.[5][6]
Characters
Main
characters
- Makoto Onoda (小野田 真, Onoda
Makoto
?), voiced by Yūji Ueda (OVA) and Mitsuo Iwata (radio drama)
- The series' protagonist, a 25-year-old (26 by volume 7) foreign
cosmetics maker and elite salaryman. He was introduced to Yura through
an omiai. He
is very critical of his own sexual abilities, but that does not
hinder him from having sexual fantasies with any pretty girl in his
vicinity (ultimately, though, he stays faithful to Yura).
Nevertheless, after his marriage he attracts the attention of a lot
of female admirers. In addition to his inexperience, Makoto suffers
from premature ejaculation.[1]
- Yura Onoda (小野田 優良, Onoda
Yūra
?), voiced by Tomoko Kawakami (OVA) and Yumi Ichihara
(radio drama)
- Makoto's wife. Also 25 years old, Makoto is the first man she
has ever kissed or had sex with.[1]
She is loving, but extremely naïve on sexual matters and too shy to
try something new by herself (even through the series she is fully
determined to overcome her limitations and be a better lover to
Makoto), as well as insecure about her looks — she is unaware how
beautiful and charming she is. Beautiful and charming, she is also
the target of attention by many men (although their behavior is —
compared to the women who adore her husband — mostly passive
longing). She additionally has the knack of befriending most of the
women whom she should consider her rivals for Makoto's affections
(Makoto's colleague Makie Sugiyama is a notable exception). Yura
is, additionally, a big fan of undead-themed horror movies and when
gets enraged by/towards Makoto she refuses to talk and even look at
him.
Onoda
Family
- Mamoru Onoda (小野田 守, Onoda
Mamoru
?)
- Makoto's father. A 52-year-old company officer. He is overly
sensitive about his sex life, and far too protective of his
youngest child, Jun.
- Akiko Onoda (小野田 明子, Onoda
Akiko
?)
- Makoto's mother. A 54-year-old housewife. Akiko proves to be
more liberal (and encouraging) than her husband is when it comes to
the topic of her sex life.
- Akira Onoda (小野田 明, Onoda
Akira
?)
- Makoto's older brother. A 29-year-old lawyer. He is very nosy and frequently pesters
Makoto about his sex life and fancies himself as Makoto's tutor on
the topic of pleasuring the wife. In order to appease his own sex
drive, he frequently visits brothels.
- Sanae Onoda (小野田 早苗, Onoda
Sanae
?)
- Makoto's sister-in-law and Akira's 27-year-old wife. She is
annoyed at Akira's habit of patronizing brothels.
- Jun Onoda (小野田 淳, Onoda
Jun
?)
- Makoto's 17-year-old sister(currenetly 19). Initially she has a
rather romantic look on a relationship, and her quest for true love
lets her drift through a number of affairs before she finally finds
happiness with her first boyfriend, Yosuke. Her experiences and
introduction into the sexual world are followed throughout the
series.
- Kyouko Omiya (大宮 杏子, Ōmiya
Kyōko
?)
- Makoto's second cousin and an obstetrician and gynecologist. At the request of Makoto's
mother, she moved in next door to the Onodas to encourage them to
reproduce. A very dominant personality, she was still a virgin at
age thirty and worries that she may be "running out of time". When
she finally does get hooked up with Koichiro Matsuzaki, her new
worry is that she may not be good enough for him.
Kawada
family
- Hideki Kawada (河田 秀樹, Kawada
Hideki
?)
- Yura's father. A 49-year-old camera operator. He has a liking for
cats and dogs, and raises a large number of them. He is also a fan
of the Hanshin
Tigers. While not as active as his daughters, he still enjoys a
fulfilling sexual relationship with his wife Chiharu.
- Chiharu Kawada (河田 千春, Kawada
Chiharu
?)
- Yura's mother. A 47-year-old with a youthful appearance and a
tender personality. Like her husband, she is a cat/dog aficcionate.
She frequently suffers from lumbago.
- Rika Kawada (河田 梨香, Kawada
Rika
?), voiced by Naoko Takano (OVA) and Fumie Kusachi
(Radio drama)
- Yura's 20-year-old sister who works as an editor. Sexually
experienced and rather promiscuous (to the point where, early in
the series, she keeps a boyfriend and three "sex friends" — in
addition to miscellaneous flings), she constantly teases and goads
both Makoto and Yura into improving their "night life". She is
actually in love with her "number-one boyfriend", Taku Yamada, but
is too proud to admit this too often, even to herself.
- Sakura Kawada (河田 さくら, Kawada
Sakura
?)
- Yura's and Rika's 81-year-old grandmother. Her husband died
very long ago while having sex with another woman.
Makoto's work
colleagues
Makie Sugiyama, Mai Nagao, and
Ikuyo Tonegawa
- They form a trio of single women who are still looking for "Mr.
Right". Makie is the most aggressive of the three; always targeting
married men — she does not want to get "tied down" — she constantly
tries to seduce Makoto, with little to no success.
Inagaki and Okahama
- A duo of two male colleagues who are rarely called by name.
While Inagaki is rather easy-going and collected, buck-toothed
Okahama is an obnoxious lecher who constantly pesters his female
colleagues to go to bed with him (of course, this does nothing to
endear himself to them).
- Miyuki Kikuchi (菊池 みゆき, Kikuchi
Miyuki
?)
- A secretary at Makoto's office. She had a long-standing crush
on Makoto while he had been working as her home tutor, but never
told him (at least not in a way which was easily understandable;
she tends to lapse into intellectual jargon when being nervous
around men). She still longs for him in secret, but maintains a
rather distant front. In turn, she is the object of affection by
her lesbian co-worker Arisa, much to her annoyance.
- Arisa Miya
- Works as an accountant in Makoto's firm. Arisa is a rather
fluffy-headed joy de vivre persona with a great degree of
optimism. She is also a lesbian. Ever since she has heard that her
co-worker Miyuki is seemingly not interested in men, she
incessantly flirts with her, hoping to win her affection. They have
become sort-of friends, but Miyuki's repeated rebuffs have done
little to dampen Arisa's hopes.
- Koichiro Matsuzaki
- Originally appearing as a macho man trying to seduce any women he comes
across, handsome Matsuzaki found his true match with Makoto's
cousin Kyoko. While she rules him in everyday life, he is the more
dominant in bed; but he also cares much for Kyoko and has resisted
the temptation to conduct any more affairs.
- Misaki Manaka
- The firm's first new receptionist. She (both physically and
emotionally) suffers from an overly large breast size — a trait
shared by her mother and her younger sister Kotone — and is
therefore quite self-conscious and shy. Because of Makoto's kind
treatment towards her, she had for a time hopelessly fallen in love
with him, even though she knew that he was married; but finally she
finds a new love in Muroi. She has made friends with Yura (despite
her affections for her husband) and Miyuki, and is also close to
her fellow receptionist Suzuka.
- Suzuka Takahashi
- The firm's second receptionist, who joins the firm some time
after her friend Misaki. Like Misaki, she is rather self-conscious
about her bust size—which is (in stark contrast to her friend's)
very small. She is also very affectionate and prone to hugging
people she likes (including Makoto) when emotionally upset.
- Kurumi Maki
- The new head of Makoto's department is a very stern and
(outwardly) unforgiving woman. It is revealed, however, that she is
actually emotionally and sexually frustrated since her fiancé had
left her ten years ago to further his own career; she vents this by
lashing out at others. She is still interested in finding someone
for a relationship, though she never shows this.
- Yoshiyuki Muroi
- An executive from a partner firm, who has fallen in love with
Misaki. With his help, she has finally managed to get over her
unhappy affection for Makoto.
- Nao Komatsu
- A young new employee at Makoto's firm who is a care-free,
optimistic joy de vivre. Her resemblance to a lost
childhood crush of Makoto has almost led him into his first
extra-marital affair, which he however held back from due to his
feelings for Yura. Still, Nao retains some feelings for him.
- Marimo Ishiguro
- Nao Komatsu's friend and colleague. A fashionable young woman,
she spends most of her free time making herself up.
Neighbors
Mika and Takeshi Yabuki
- A couple who met Makoto and Yura while they still lived in
their old apartment. Mika has suffered from a sexless year, which
caused her emotional frustration and insecurity, thinking that she
was no longer attractive to her husband. In fact, Takeshi's refusal
came from a medical problem, which was solved after Makoto was able
to give a hint. Ever since the Yabukis have restrengthened their
relationship, and Mika has even managed to get pregnant. Just
before the Onodas move into their new apartment, the Yabukis moved
out to a larger domicile to raise their growing family.
- Narumi Ogata
- This dreamy-looking young woman is the first of the neighbors
Makoto and Yura meet in their new apartment. She is the lover of a
business executive who visits her regularly. While she is rather
absent-minded and behaving strangely (which includes openly talking
about sexual matters or answering the door in her underwear), she
is also very friendly.
- Shoko Shiina
- An author of erotic novels, Shoko is the token lolita of the
series; while she is in her early twenties, she looks like a 10 to
12-year-old, and even dresses and acts the part. She has come to be
friends with Rika, who shares her sexual experiences with Shoko for
new inspirations, but Shoko is quite knowledgeable about sexual
matters herself.
- Ken Shiina
- Shoko's husband, Ken, is a stay-at-home since Shoko is rather
busy writing one piece after another. Tall and hulking, he is often
mistaken for a yakuza at first
glance, but he is actually a kind gentleman.
- Rui Tsutsumi
- A sixteen-year-old student at an all-girls school who lives
with her divorced father and has yet to experience her "first
time", she has taken the mother/wife figure role for her insecure
father and therefore was annoyed that he was getting close to Mrs.
Ichijo for a time, but she has come to accept her as a surrogate
mother. Rui models her image of romance and love on the Onodas and
falls in love with her teacher Keisuke Watanabe, who has recently
moved into the same apartment building.
- Hisao Tsutsumi
- Rui's father is a very nervous and depressed person, especially
since his divorce. With a lack of intimate company he has taken to
peeking in on his daughter (mostly in improper situations) and had
a very bad outlook on life. Recently, however, he has become close
to Mrs. Ichijo and eventually marries her.
- Kaho Ichijo
- A piano teacher in her late twenties, she represents the
stereotype of a Japanese noblewoman: beautiful, dignified and
quiet. Her most distinctive habit is obscuring her mouth with a
handkerchief when she feels bashful. She is a divorced wife and
suffers from a weak constitution, which also makes her highly
susceptible to alcohol. She has (more or less accidentally)
harassed Makoto on several occasions, but she eventually marries
her neighbor Hisao Tsutsumi. To him, she later reveals that her
divorce was caused by her own extreme lecherousness, which made her
husband have an affair with a less "stormy" woman and which also
made her bashful in her relations with other people from that point
on.
- Kiyomi Mizuhara
- For some time after her introduction, Mizuhara represents the
frustrated housewife in the series, mostly because her husband
Masatoshi, who works at a commercial agency, rarely helped with the
house chores, and when they did have sex he did not care much for
her satisfaction; Mizuhara therefore had taken to vent her
displeasure by collecting and spreading bad gossip. Some time
later, however, their marital life has improved considerably. She
has two little daughters at ages four and five.
- Keisuke Watanabe
- The new tenant at the apartment complex. A teacher at a girls'
school, he is quite shy and also a parasite single — two factors he is
very conscious about when dealing with women. He eventually falls
in love with his student Rui Tsutsumi, who lives in the same
complex.
- Atsushi ("Akkun") and Momo
Kubota
- They are a young married couple who have recently moved into
the apartment complex. They are very devoted to each other and are
not afraid to show affection in public (which was, until recently
at least, considered a social taboo in Japan; this fact was hinted
at in previous issues of the series).
- Sachiko Minami
- A 26-year-old single mother who lives with her 11-year-old son
Kazuhiko in the apartment complex. She is first featured in the
first volume of the special Futari Ecchi For Ladies, but
in the mainstream series she has only a small cameo in volume
34.
Other
characters
- Taku Yamada
- Rika's "number-one boyfriend", who is a rather self-centered
sexist. And just like Rika, he is not very concerned about having
more than one relationship, although he does react jealously when
he finds her involved with other men. In the OVA, he is voiced by
Kappei
Yamaguchi.
- Yosuke Inoue
- Jun's first and current boyfriend; also her former classmate
and now fellow student. Jun had her first time with him, but due to
their then differing views of a relationship they broke apart for a
couple of years before finding each other again. They have since
moved together and are exploring (and deepening) their feelings for
each other.
- Shiori Tetawaki
- A young porn star and a former classmate of
Makoto. She actually had a long-standing crush on Makoto, but he
has been too oblivious to realize it. She has a few cameos in the
series; her movies are a favorite of Makoto's when he feels the
need to masturbate.
- Kotone Manaka
- Misaki's younger sister (and like her, endowed with overly
large breasts) and one of Rui Tsutsumi's best friends. Aggressively
flirtatious, she has even tried to seduce Makoto (her sister's love
interest at that time) on one occasion.
- Shiho Shouji
- The second of Rui Tsutsumi's best friends. With her shyness,
she rather sets a strong contrast to her two friends. She quiets
with Makie.
Style and
theme
There are many scenes in the series that look like they are
actually happening but are then revealed to be the sexual fantasies of Makoto or another
character. This means there are many scenes of Makoto having sex
with other characters, while in truth he only has sex with
Yura.
One of the fetishes explored in the series is cosplay.
Though most of the first volumes focus on Makoto and Yura's
relationship, the later chapters deviate to other characters'
love/sex lives and their development on it to cover more events to
teach the readers with (about sex).
See also
References
- ^ a
b
c
Katsu, Aki (January 2008). Manga Sutra --
Futari H Volume 1. TokyoPop. ISBN
978-1-4278-0536-2.
- ^ a
b
"ふたりエッチ オフィシャルコーナー" (in
Japanese). Young
Animal. http://www.younganimal.com/futarih/comics/index.html. Retrieved
2008-08-05.
- ^ a
b
"Amazon.com: Manga Sutra -- Futari H Volume 1:
Books: Katsu Aki". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/dp/1427805369/. Retrieved
2008-08-05.
- ^
http://manga.about.com/b/2009/10/04/tokyopop-announces-ratman-movie-manga-and-new-yaoi.htm
- ^ "Amazon.de: Manga Love Story
1: Katsu Aki". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.de/dp/3551772711/. Retrieved
2008-08-05.
- ^ "Step Up Love Story - Manga
Love Story 1". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.de/dp/B000NVLHTO. Retrieved
2008-08-05.
External
links
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