A quick review of Sweat and Soap AKA Ase to Sekken
Creator: Kintetsu Yamada
Publisher: Kodansha
Website: https://kodanshacomics.com/series/sweat-and-soap
Another mature office workplace romance story/comedy but this time the guy likes to sniff the girl. We’re at a company that makes soap and this fellow is in charge of formulating the soap when he smells something he likes; a woman.
From a genre that panders to every imaginable fetish and produces many a creepy trope this kind of thing comes as little surprise and I suppose this one is actually pretty tame compared with some but can still be fairly creepy especially in the beginning. Now if the woman consents to being sniffed this is OK in my book, but you wouldn’t just walk up to a woman you fancied and just sniff her would you?
Well Nitori would.
If you can get past the first few chapters without being utterly revolted by Nitori’s initial behaviour, it actually makes for a pretty snugly heart felt romance that works quite well and isn’t quite as creepy as the first few chapters make out.
If this story were set in the UK the plot would be substantially different, it would be creepy guy harasses female co-worker and gets arrested, not a 20 volume thriller as you might imagine but you get the idea.
I’m just glad his character improved later on. Despite not liking the initial premise I kept reading it because premise of the story improved and the character development ended up on the likeable side, and although it’s a fun story and a nice if not steamy at times romance, you don’t really forget how it started which is unfortunate. But hey if you’ve been around this genre for any length of time you’ll sort of know what to expect but I’ve seen this done better and without the creepy aspects as well as done much worse. You’ll love Sweat and Soap and you’ll also hate it. It will leave you crippled with ambivalence.
Review by ukmangaxl.com