Introduction

Eromanga are not all about loveless sex and disgrace. In fact, romantic love is as much a pillar as disgrace in eromanga. According to the classic mind-body dualism, “Romantic stories are concerned with matters of the heart, and sexual stories the body.” Certainly, many stories focus on one and not the other. People can have sex without love, and love each other without sex. If there are sexless love stories, then there are also eromanga that are only about physical sex.

However, the line between mind and body is quite ambiguous. Hormones come into play. We communicate with others by nonverbal means, for example through chemical reactions that take a different route. The concentration of substances in our brain fluctuates. Do our feelings switch on subconsciously? Or, if our body is the hardware, does it drag along the heart as software? The more love we feel, the more sexual desire increases, and feelings of love can intensify when we have sex. The heart, invisible from the outside, expresses itself through the body in sex.

Can there be any material better suited to manga expression? Indeed, after Ishii Takashi, romantic love was getting more and more attention in the era of third-rate gekiga. It assumed an even more prominent place in bishōjo-style eromanga. That said, this does not mean that there is a defined category for “romance.” There is the love comedy format, and there is a group of works that can be classified as love stories or stories about romantic love, but romance is overflowing in other eromanga as well.

For example, in a previous chapter I introduced Tanuma Yūichirō's Season, which is a powerful work that follows the unfolding and fate of an innocent (in both the sense of ignorant and pure) romance that starts during puberty. I also introduced Tsukino Jōgi's ♭38℃: Loveberry Twins, which boldly explores the borderless connection between love and possession. Eromanga have spoken of many different kinds of love. If there is pure and tragic love, there are also reflections on love itself. If there are cases where opportunistic fantasies take priority, then there are also stories where the characters go through a painful journey of self-discovery.