Sweat and Soap - Vol. 1 Ch. 1 - I will come and smell you

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Oct 15, 2018
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it feels creepy bc the author didnt give enough time to set up their relationship, plus its based on his smell fetish so we hardly got any input into how she felt till the end. its like this based on their quirks rather than their personality, its not bad tho
 
Dex-chan lover
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Kind of odd asking if she was scared but still gropping her while hearing the answer...
Thats way further than smelling either way lol
 
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I definitely agree with everybody saying he’s creepy. But what bothers me the most is that he constantly ignores how uncomfortable she is and puts her into compromising situations. She’s freaking out this whole chapter and he doesn’t care. He just drags her around and pushes her up against walls regardless of what she says.
What makes it worse is that she’s pretty much a fan of his work so the author plays it like she wants him, but it feels like coercion. The ending doesn’t actually make sense to me. She likes the soap more than she likes him.

So, I don’t think he’s better than that creep in the train. He’s worse. He dragged her into various locked rooms and backed her up against walls to sniff her at least ten times. The creep in the train did it once, in a public space. Both are scary. I just felt uncomfortable watching this poor woman be sexually harassed while the story played it as the sexy beginning of a romance.
 
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This feels like a complete story. I can't even think how you should continue this manga, (or if there was a need for it, from the romance-point of view). They met, and now they are together, and lived happily ever after, the end..

Though just my own opinion, I don't like how forceful the ML is. Of course he has to be, even a bit, since our FL is such a scaredy-cat, and a very passive person in that sense.. Otherwise there wouldn't be any progression between them. But I would've preferred things going on a slower pace, and making the guy a less of a creep.
 
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1) i find the lack of the S M U T tag disturbing
2) they fukin
3) that was just the first chapter
 
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Going from sniffing to sex in one chapter? wtf? I couldn't believe my eyes when those sex panels showed up lol I thought it was his dream or something... Just, wtf!, is the best description for this trashy story... ;/
 
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@Zephyr247 There are a few flaws with that whole statement. In the beginning, it was definitely something that could have been considered sexual harassment. Only thing is: it eventually turned into it being two consenting adults. Another thing, he wasn't doing it as part of some sexual fantasy, like the train perv. Not to mention, anyone...ANYONE...who's been ridiculed for something and suddenly having a person enjoying it, of course they're going to be uncomfortable. Take a flaw you hate and have someone enjoy it is obviously going to be frightening at first. That's the only sense of her being "uncomfortable" that I can see. It's worlds different from the "uncomfortable" she showed when it was the train perv.

Also we can definitely see a concern for her when he knew he crossed the line. I do agree on the compromising situations like the whole break room panel though, so this reply isn't completely negative. But to summarize, they're both consenting adults and the only way she's uncomfortable, is because he likes something about her body that she doesn't. Go push your agenda on something that ACTUALLY warrants it like the rampant r*pe fantasties and borderline p*dophilia in some of the manga out there.
 
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@Adisx1 You know, a lot of those r*pe fantasies you’re referring to start off with a woman being sexually harassed and assaulted, and suddenly halfway during the act and afterward, she “likes it.” This is actually the exact same trope. Stories like this that are supposed to be sexy and romantic and stories that are more explicit put their female protagonists into situations where they are assaulted, and excuse it after the fact by saying that the woman wanted it. Even if he apologizes, it doesn’t matter, because she “wants it.”

I have had actual conversations with people about real life situations like this, where I was told verbatim “It’s not r*pe If she likes it,” and they did not believe real women who went through things like this and who later came forward with r*pe allegations. It’s not two consenting adults because she (eventually) reluctantly says okay to a powerful man who is more famous than her, who has more money and status in her company than her, who she has idolized for a long time, and who refuses to listen to her when she says no. This scenario is a lot more like situations described by the MeToo movement. If she refuses, she has a whole lot to lose. That’s why this is coercion.

I put myself in her shoes and think about what I would do. It’s nice to have somebody appreciate my flaws. I’d prefer if they didn’t drag me into locked closets all the time and grope me while they did it. My agenda as you call it, is to not act like these stories are cute and normal. It doesn’t fix everything, but if I went through something like this and told my company that I did not like this and I want it to stop, it would be nice to not be told that this is romantic, or be bullied or fired for telling the truth about a powerful man. It would be nice to not be traumatized and have people tell me that I wanted it.

That’s it. That’s my essay.
 
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@Zephyr247 Yeah I still think you’re reading too deeply into this and trying to apply western logic onto an eastern work of fiction. First, for it to be coercion, there has to be threats or demands made. Not to mention, when she refused his advances, she literally lost nothing despite him being a “man of power”. Considering you can coerce a person so long as you have some kind of leverage. You don’t have to have status or power. I mean seriously, everything you’re implying isn’t even present in this situation. Would you still claim it’s sexual assault if the gender roles were reversed? Probably not.
 
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@Addisx1 His demand is that she let him sniff her. That’s it. And manga has an international audience. It’s kinda weird that you’re implying that this isn’t sexual assault because it’s Japanese. For all you know, I’m Japanese, and for all I know, you’re a part of a western audience. If you aren’t super knowledgeable about work and power dynamics in Japan, this is a weird angle to have. I’m looking at this as a case of workplace sexual harassment. That’s it.

Men have more power in most societies. If a woman did this to a man it would still be sexual assault, although the context would be different. I’m not misunderstanding anything or reading too deeply into this. I just take issue with you suggesting that I don’t know what I’m talking about. So there’s your clarification.
 
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@Zephyr247 yeah you're reading way too deeply into this Shoujo Manga, where its target audience is obviously those who are in the "know" of how manga is.
Imagine applying real life power dynamics and social interactions into a romcom manga.
It's goddamn fiction that's all it is, with just a sprinkle of real kirks and realism here and there and you got a fairy tail, who and why in the hell would someone read something as real as your statement says, when all of us here are just people who are suffocating from real life responsibilities and just want to read some feel-good romance comedy just to escape it.
 

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