Goddess Of The Glass Volume 1
Creative Staff
Story: Mizuki Asamori
Art: Mizuki Asamori
Translation/Adaptation: Leighann Harvey
What They Say
After a fateful encounter with the gorgeous and mature Honoka, chemistry-major Keita is unable to tell her how he feels before getting sucked into an unexpected relationship with Aya, a sweet but oblivious underclassman! Both girls are incredibly beautiful, and even though their personalities are so different, Keita discovers he really cares for them both… But it’s not okay to have two girls at once, right?! With vividly erotic depictions of a man unable to decide between two lovely and voluptuous ladies, Goddess of the Glass starts off a comedic campus love triangle with a bang… or several!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Having long enjoyed hentai manga releases, I’m certainly enjoying the general revival that has been coming out for the last year or two. While we used to see a lot of very distinct genres overall and some pretty dark and nasty things, the revival has given us a lot more in terms of short stories and comedic works which definitely make for a bit more accessibility for some fans. Such is the case with Goddess of the Glass, a first volume no less, that tells one story with a few particular characters and deals with a story that you’d see in any relationship based series out there. The main difference is that the characters actively engage in sex and we get a good bit of it. Sadly, it’s a censored book with the original pages, but the title has a lot of fun to it beyond that which works better than I would have expected.
Created by Mizuki Asamori, Goddess of the Glass revolves around our college age male named Keita, a chemistry major who is definitely coping with a difficult professor who wants extensive reports regularly on the experiments they do. It’s a rough college life to be sure but the kind that definitely fits with what he’s studying. There’s so much pressure that when some of his pages blow away out the window, he’s hugely thankful when a beautiful young woman named Honoka saves them for him, which keeps him from having to do an intense amount of work all over again. While he’s flustered, he does work quick on his feet and manages to ask her out on a date. It doesn’t quite go as one might expect though the two have a great time before hitting the train after much drinking. Drinking that has them passing out on the train and having to find a place at the end of the line to crash for the night. It’s the kind of fantasy that you want to believe in as they hook up and really have a great time together and you can see how Keita wants to get to know her more as they get back to their regular lives. Honoka doesn’t exactly play it off, but she doesn’t talk about it either and with his learning that it was her first time, you can understand her not being sure what to do next.
Unfortunately, before he can truly make a play to start dating her, he ends up coming across Aya, a girl he had helped previously with something for a school project. She’s intent on paying him back for the help but he just wants to get to Honoka. But politeness comes first and he does spend some time with her, though it ends up becoming a hugely sexual affair that he can’t seem to extricate himself from. It’s one of those kind of hard to believe moments, but the way he gets steamrolled by her is something that you can work with though since she has such a bright and outgoing personality that he has to consider it to be too bright. That’s not to say she’s a bad person or anything, but she’s intent on grabbing onto something she wants and holding onto it. And that something for now is Keita and he’s unable to tell her in time that he really doesn’t want a relationship with her.
Mostly because she quickly introduces him to her best friend, Honoka. Honoka tries to play along with it since she knows what Aya’s personality is like, but you can see how both she and Keita have a connection and want to bring it back together. But neither wants to hurt Aya either, so we get the usual kind of triangle here, though one where Keita and Honoka don’t hook up in this volume a second time, which was rather welcome to see. Keita’s dreaming of Honoka but he’s not actively cheating on her nor is Honoka betraying her friend. Keita’s just caught up in it all and the voracious sexual appetite that Aya has. He does come to care for her of course, but there are a number of times where he just doesn’t want to get involved further but she’s so forward with him that it blindsides him into sexual situations.
While the downside to the book is that the thing is censored when it comes to the genitalia, there’s still a whole lot to like here. They work around it well with some of the whited out areas generally being small and more of the focus is on the overall body movements and sexuality as well as expressions, which definitely works better for me here. Since this is focused more on being a relationship comedy with heapings of sex, I got a lot more enjoyment from that dynamic but loved that since we’re dealing with college age kids here living on their own, the sexual situations are more realistic. While you’re supposed to root for Honoka and Keita, and I do, I like that Keita is getting exposed to something out of his comfort zone and all that it entails. Aya’s definitely all about doing everything she can to please her partner and that kind of openness can definitely help some expand their worlds.
In Summary
With the whole book being all about the one story here, one that will continue on into the next, Goddess of the Glass hits a lot of good notes here throughout. I like the characters a good bit and I like the whole romantic triangle aspect that exists here. Bringing us a group of characters that are college age helps a lot and that it puts them into actual relationships with some issues to be had makes for a lot of fun to watch as it plays out. The three leads are all appealing, all have their own lives going on and have a good connection that really does work well. And it has some good sex scenes as well, from the first with Honoka and then the rest that are all about Aya – and a little bit of a fond memory with Honoka. We don’t get a forced threesome here – or even the thought of it – and instead get a lot of good and healthy sex. It’s a fun title that definitely leaves me wanting more.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 18+
Released By: Project-H Books
Release Date: July 10th, 2013
MSRP: $17.95