I had some warning that Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru gets rather racy at times. So developments this week didn’t come as a total shock to me. That said, well – that was pretty raunchy to be sure. In a sense it’s kind of refreshing to see a series that’s pretty open about teenage sexuality, so kudos there. The teasing gag honestly stopped being funny for me weeks ago (which is a bit problematical as it’s been repeated pretty much every episode). But at least here it showed some “progress”, if you want to call it that.
Things start off innocently enough (in relative terms) with a trip to a manga cafe. This is teasing in the “Groundhog Day” sense, as it more or less recycles all the earlier examples. The booth is too small, Marin is too close, Wakana gets worked up. Rinse, repeat. We segue into the otaku weeds when the reading material leads to a discussion of slice of life (among other things). The series in question is once of those titles that basically tells the entire plot, so even though this was a manga I’m assuming it’s adapted from a LN. It’s called SUCCIDK for short (tell me that doesn’t read just wrong) and concerns a succubus trying to get an insomniac teenage LN author to go to sleep so she can drain his precious bodily fluids (and kill him, presumably).
The cosplay here is Rizu-kyun, the succubus in question. Marin would love to cosplay her but thinks she’s not pixie enough to pull off the half-twintails and overall cute look. Gojou-kun assures her she’s wrong, she swoons, and the decision is made to give it a punt. Since the art is beyond basic he has to wing it, but that’s good training for a costumer designer so no harm done there. Marin finds a “studio” she can rent for only ¥5900 which looks sufficiently like the protagonist’s room to serve, and the stage is set. And boy, is it ever.
Love hotels are certainly a big part of Japanese life. The rooms are strongly soundproofed but let’s chalk that part up to dramatic license – the rest is pretty accurate. There’s really nothing stopping teens from using them (we saw middle schoolers do so in Tsuki ga Kirei, in fact), and the overall picture painted here is pretty accurate. Again, it’s kind of absurd to imagine that Marin could drag Gojou to a love hotel room (I’ll take her at her word that she didn’t know when she booked it, but – really?) and imagine he isn’t about to pop like a defective balloon. But at least things moved to the next level.
Let me just state for the record that I would have had no problem with Wakana and Marin doing whatever they wanted to in that room (as long as they were careful). They paid for it, they both know what it’s for (if Gojou wasn’t sure, he had the porno for research), and they’re clearly into each other. I would have no moral or narrative issues with that, so what we did see doesn’t especially bother me. In fact it’s kind of frustrating that we fell back on that old “phone ringing just as they’re about to kiss” saw – the episode would have been a lot more interesting if we’d seen what would have happened if the phone hadn’t interrupted.
So what would have happened? They would have kissed, certainly – after that I suspect one of them (probably Wakana) would have hit the eject button and bailed out. But either way the dynamic of this relationship is certainly changed now – that genie can’t be stuffed back into the pants bottle. In a perfect world, I’d like to see this make Marin display a little more self-awareness when it comes to the situations she creates with herself and Wakana – she felt the change (literally) in that love hotel. Again, if she decides she’s ready to take that step I would have no issues with that. But if she’s not and she remains as oblivious to the impact she has on Gojou as she has been, that would strike me as a bit of character regression.
sonicsenryaku
March 21, 2022 at 2:02 amAaaahhhh, to be a teenager again. I actually recall a similar situation happening to me around Wakana’s age with a girl who in terms of physical attractiveness was “waaaaaay out of my league,” as the cool kids would say. There was no love hotel mind you; but it was a similar sexually compromising situation, and one that I always look back to fondly, which actually leads me to the point I want to make about this series: the strength it has in being able to communicate the rhythm and mood of interactions between two teens their age who harbor an attraction for each other. From the naturalness of Wakana and Marin’s shopping excursions in ep 3 and 10; the home and beach dates in ep 7 and 8 respectively, and their overall banter, the strongest aspect of this series is absolutely the way it communicates the underlying romantic rapport of these interpersonal vignettes between Marin and Wakana. The whole section love hotel scene where Wakana and Marin are a pubic hair away from doing the deed so effectively and naturally captures what it’s like when one arousing situation leads to another and your actions get carried away by emotions and impulse, illustrating those situational beats in through a relatable perspective and conveying legit sexual tension. Again, it’s not necessarily being deep about it, but demonstrating an understanding of interpersonal beats and how to portray the rhythm of it all in a convincing manner is a writing strength; it’s the small things sometimes that matter. The author just seems to have a grasp of how to materialize the social affects necessary to sell romantically charming interactions. If there’s anything I think the series does absolutely well, it’s that
And yea, I was initially about to wave my finger at Marin when she said she didn’t know she reserved a love hotel, but then I looked at the website she was browsing and in that moment, I believed her ability to make that mistake based on her naturally impulsive nature. The site looks like an imitation of one of them third-party rental property providers sites that connect you to the establishment indirectly. Marin said she hit the insta-reserve button without reading anything else once she saw the price, which makes sense considering how sites like Amazon have the 1-click buy option. I imagine the description for the location of the room she reserved was further below the price, but instead of being meticulous, she saw the price and instantly made the decision to purchase it without nary a thought as indicated by the text thread between Wakana and her. You can even see the “I think I fucked up” look on her face when they’re in front of building, noting the moment she realizes she booked a love hotel, which makes her story check out later on when she explains herself to Wakana. There doesn’t seem to be any indication that she would be lying nor would that track with what we know about her so far so I took what she said at face value.
Polly
March 21, 2022 at 3:18 amI don’t think Wakana likes Marin romantically… yet. It’s pure physical desire from his end.
I’m not sure Marin would’ve gone in for the kiss, either. Her feelings for Wakana are the one thing she’s quite reserved about.
I’m still a-shippin’, though.
sonicsenryaku
March 21, 2022 at 7:54 amI don’t know if I’d say that; we can see Marin leaning in for the kiss just as much as Wakana was attempting. The intent of that whole hotel scenario was to illustrate how a sexually charged situation set with the right kind of mood can throw away all awareness and reason, leaving nothing but emotional impulse to take control. It isn’t until the trance is broken that Marin realizes how close she was to probably committing to doing whatever would have went down, and she expresses embarrassment of that fact
I’m with you that they aren’t fully romantic yet, but not because his attraction to her is purely physical. Wakana has expressed how much he respects and admires Marin; unfortunately, this most likely leads him to somewhat idolizing her as being someone he can’t compare to despite knowing her long enough to realize that she ain’t perfect. Because of that, I don’t think he’s considered what their bond means to him personally, which is typically the psychology that defines a romantic attraction. So as long as he continues to idolize her in his head and denigrate himself as a person who isn’t worthy of being her partner, his emotions won’t evolve to that of healthy romance in spite of their present charming interactions. This actually plays into Wakana feelings of sexual attraction to her, as those are things he also deems as being dirty and shameful cuz 1. people tend to think having sexual thoughts of a person is shameful but 2. moreso tied to Wakana’s perception of self, he probably thinks he doesn’t deserve to think about Marin that way or that someone as awesome as she is shouldn’t be “defiled” in that way. Either way, being a 15 year old hormonally changing teen whose first friend is an insanely attractive girl is always going to be problematic for the loins :)…..godspeed to anyone dealing with that in their adolescent lives at the moment; it’s a hard line to walk sometimes without advice and experience
Nellie
March 21, 2022 at 3:55 amBwahaha, I don’t think the later half of the love hotel scene was nearly as charged with sexual tension in the manga as it is here- it was just super awkward. The anime turned it up a couple of notches- why do I get the feeling the staff enjoyed themselves here?
I ain’t complaning, though.
Guardian Enzo
March 21, 2022 at 8:20 amThey know what sells. That’s been clear from the first episode.
Marty
March 21, 2022 at 8:18 amMy only real issue with this episode is the the phone bailout. Teenagers are gone do teenager stuff, that’s whatever. But had the series had the balls to go through with it, it would’ve been something brave and maybe special rather than follow the same basic “will they, won’t they” energy.