Holiday Review: SECRETLY I'VE BEEN SUFFERING ABOUT BEING SEXLESS

One of the most interesting josei manga I read this year was also another example of the sorts of confessional webmanga that have been making a splash on the American market.

SECRETLY I'VE BEEN SUFFERING ABOUT BEING SEXLESS (Jitsu wa Watashi Sexless de Nayademashita), by Togame.  First published in 2018 and first published in North America in 2019.

PLOT: 

Togame is a happily married woman...or would be, if her husband would just have sex with her once in a while.  She tries every tactic possible to entice her spouse, from costumes to special meals to diets, but he just shrugs her off and falls asleep.  Her frustration builds and builds until she's ready to consider cheating with another man, but can she go through with breaking her vows?

STORY:

Webmanga truly is the new frontier of the manga world.  One of its advantages is that it allows people to explore subjects that most commercial manga would balk at.  For example, My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness dealt with mental health and orientation, while The Bride Was A Boy dealt with gender.  Sexless is perhaps not as emotionally raw as the former nor as educational as the latter, but the way it explores relationships is no less relevant than those works.

Even for hetero cis women, sexuality can be a shameful, confusing thing to tackle.  That's how it is for our author, who finds herself struggling with a libido at total odds with her husband's and unsure of what to do and where to go for help.  The author pokes a lot of fun at her desperation and horniness, but the longer it went on the more I wondered why she never once considered therapy (whether for herself or together with her husband).  I guess that's just a side effect of being made in a country where mental health is still seen as something to sweep under the rug and seeking professional help still carries a heavy stigma.  Still, the solution turns out to be a fairly universal one: that relationships are a two-way street, and that honest communication can be the first step in mending them.

ART:

Togame's art is a bit more polished than some of the other webmanga we've gotten over here.  Her characters have pleasant, wide-eyed faces and cute (although not chibi) proportions.  Still, she brings a manic, goofy energy to the art which enhances the emotion of the story and makes this a very easy, breezy book to read.

Also, the cover design is top-notch.

RATING:

Sexless manages to take a very personal topic and make it both relatable and funny.  While this strictly isn't josei, it would absolutely appeal to anyone who wants good manga about women dealing with very real issues.

This book is published by Yen Press.  It is currently in print.

Want a chance to win a $25 RightStuf gift certificate?  Then tell us about your favorite manga of 2019 to enter our annual Holiday Review Giveaway!