There were also plenty of titles trading in pure unadulterated fanservice, although most of them were not quite as literal about this as this title.
SUPER HXEROES (Dokyu Hentai Eguzerosu), by Ryoma Kitada. First published in 2017 and first published in North America in 2021.
PLOT:
For some time now, the insectoid Kiseichuu have been ravaging the earth, trying to destroy humanity by sapping their lustful feelings. The only defense against them are the HXEROES team, a group of teens who can weaponize their youthful horniness into alien-busting attacks. Their leader is Retto Enjo, who is currently struggling to redefine his relationship to his prudish childhood best friend Hoshino Kirara. Then Hoshino discovers not only Retto's secret, but that her own power might exceed his own.
STORY:
Super Hxeroes is a little different than the ecchi series I've reviewed here in the past. This one actually had a good idea that was struggling to get out, one that could have given this manga some pathos alongside the titties, and it all has to do with Hoshino.
Retto is ostensibly our protagonist, but at least so far he share that role with Hoshino. It turns out that her militant misandry and prudishness is the result of childhood trauma. Admittedly, the trigger for that trauma isn't taken too seriously, as it basically comes down to a bug alien calling out her preteen self for being horny and her shutting that down in sheer shame. Still, there's a good story idea here, of a young woman who learns to accept and own her own body and desires through the process of using them to punch aliens into oblivion. It would be interesting! It would be different!
So of course that's not the direction this series goes in.
No, halfway through it basically settles into a harem, as Hoshino moves into a dorm with Retto and three other girls who are far more openly horny and far more one-note in character. They are there to do the things that girls in ecchi harems do: rub themselves on others, wear ridiculously ornate underwear, bathe frequently, make bad boob envy jokes, and find ways to cover themselves in suggestive liquids. The story never loses the story thread about Retto and Hoshino trying to mend their broken friendship, but it's clearly steering towards the inevitable romance as she becomes your standard tsundere. It's all tried and true material for this sort of manga, but it just left me feeling more frustrated than usual.
ART:
Kitada knows exactly what his priorities are for this series: to shove as much nudity in as physically possible. Every boob, buttcheek and thigh is thrust at the reader like a 3D movie, bright and shiny, and no opportunity is missed to glance at panties (even when the character is wearing shorts). He definitely pushes the line with how far he goes with the nudity and the censorship thereof - this book didn't earn a parental advisory label for nothing. I was almost ready to give him credit for not being a coward about nipples, but even then there's a double standard on display. While he ensures that every boob on display has enormous, lovingly drawn nipples, he goes out of his way to avoid drawing them on Retto.
There's a definite double standard on display here when it comes to horniness. Despite the fact that most of the HXeroes team are straight women, what gets them excited is material or actions made to appeal to men. They turn themselves on in two ways: rubbing up or otherwise exhibiting themselves for Retto or consuming erotic material made for straight men. If they wanted to be more accurate to the true teen girl experience, they would also need to mix in things like "really spicy fanfic" or very particular, typically unerotic bits of anatomy, just to name a few ideas. Of course, that would get in the way of shoving more boobs into the reader's face, so obviously we can't have that.
This means that the action ends up rather neglected. The fight scenes are surprising short and are so filled with exploding clothes and bursts of energy that they can be rather hard to parse. The character designs are pretty ho-hum as well, since most of them are little more than vehicles for sexy body parts. Even the panel layouts are pretty chaotic.
PRESENTATION:
The one unambiguous positive to this series is the translation (done by Katrina Leonodakis) and adaptation (by David Lumson). They lend the dialogue a bit of snap and the odd pop-culture reference that fits with the story's cheeky tone.
RATING:
This series is published by Seven Seas. This series is complete in Japan with 12 volumes available. 4 volumes have been released and are currently in print.
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