Honey Senior, Darling Junior, Vol. 1-2
written by Chifumi Ochi
Paperback
ISBN: 978-1600091384
The first three stories in this anthology revolve around Hikaru, who is a senior in high school, and Tsuyoshi, his cheerful and sexually aggressive kohai (junior classmate). They are a great couple whose only real angst is along the lines of “Does he return my feelings?” and “We haven't been able to have sex lately!” There are also three other tales: one about Chikato and Yo-o, friends who become more when Yo-o suffers a permanent leg injury; one about the lively Sako, who likes everything, and the reticent Niwa, who wants to be more important to Sako than mere like; and one about Ushio, whose love for his cousin Kei is almost more than he can bear.
The first three stories are the sexiest, but all of the stories have a gently romantic feel, touched with humor, which will put readers in mind of Hinako Takanaga's work on Challengers and Little Butterfly. Chikato and Yo-o's confession scene alone is worth the price of the volume, but Ushio and Kei's is a close second. Previous translation problems that NetComics titles suffered from are nowhere in sight and this volume is a smooth read. Additionally, NetComics has chosen fonts that are clear even as they switch between dialogue and thoughts, but that are also easy on the eyes.
In her author note, Ochi explains how Honey Senior, Darling Junior, Vol. 1 is a reprint of a previous work entitled Love Is Everywhere. This is evident in her art, which has a 1990s feel to it. But her sweet-faced boys' eager smiles transcend decades and keep the manga feeling nostalgic rather than dated. She does have a tendency toward noselessness in her drawings, which, along with the “cones of light” style of censorship, is unintentionally amusing. But, even with her obvious love of screen tone, Ochi's layouts have a cleanness to them that keeps the pages from feeling cluttered.
Unfortunately, Honey Senior, Darling Junior, Vol. 2 is not as enjoyable as volume one. It is also a collection of short stories, but the stories in there are completely separate from those in the first release. Almost all of the stories had non-con situations in them and the two stories that weren't non-con didn't actually have sex in them, which somehow made it even worse. Readers who liked the first volume but don’t want to read rape scenes can safely skip volume two without losing anything.
