“Studio of Longing” by Haruyosi Hiro

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Studio of Longing by Haruyosi Hiro

Japanese Title:
憧憬のアトリエ
Doukei no Atelier

“Will you imagine I’m a woman and touch me?”

Touched after seeing Masafumi Tsurumi’s painting, “Prostitute in Agony,” in the hallway of their art high school, Kei Higuchi seeks out the other boy to get to know him and pick his brain. While Tsurumi is struggling to paint his vision for his graduation project of the same theme, Higuchi is willing to do anything in his power to assist, hopeful to see Tsurumi’s art at its peak. But Tsurumi is a virgin high school boy—how in the world is he supposed to understand and express the feelings of a proustite as she’s in the throes of passion, being sexually dominated and overcome by pleasure? Thus, when Tsurumi drags Higuchi to the nurse’s office, Higuchi should have seen it coming when Tsurumi requests, “touch me like you’d touch a woman.”

Thus starts their mutually beneficial relationship. By fooling around together, Tsurumi gets to feel what it’s like to be dominated by a man—constantly asking Higuchi to go further and further with him—and perhaps they’ll both find some further inspiration for their upcoming graduation projects while also experiencing real sexual pleasure for the first time.

As Higuchi finds himself catching feelings, though, he’s not sure what to do. Tsurumi is very free-spirited (and honestly rather dumb) and entirely focused on his painting, so he doesn’t seem like the the type to involve his emotions in this kind of situationship. Meanwhile, Tsurumi is secretly finding himself yearning for Higuchi less as an object of inspiration and more as simply an object of desire—at what point does his LARP as a female prostitute end, and his real sexual appetite as a young man begin?

This manga is the epitome of 両片思い—ryoukataomoi, or “mutual pining”—where both characters involved are feeling more and more strongly for each other, but the stronger their feelings become, the more insecure they feel about the possibility of it being reciprocated. By the end they can barely keep their hands off each other, but they’re sure even if their lust is obviously mutual, their feelings for each other definitely aren’t. Thus starts the push and pull of two young men as they’re rocketing toward adulthood in a variety of different ways—socially, intellectually, sexually, and emotionally.

I’ve actually been obsessed with Haruyosi Hiro these last few months—not necessarily because of this title, but because of their November release Naisho no Stalker-san. When I was gushing about how much I loved it to a coworker over lunch, she informed me we’d actually be getting one of Haruyosi Hiro’s other books on the site. I was pretty new to the author at the time so I hadn’t read any of their other work, so I obviously had to check out Studio of Longing right away.

When I’d checked it on Chill Chill, the ero content was listed as “minimal,” which surprised me because Naisho no Stalker-san is absolutely filthy. But I’m honestly not sure what happened there, because now that I’ve read this manga, it’s incredibly horny. Haruyosi Hiro did not back down from the task of portraying two 18 year old guys having their sexual awakening together. However, one thing about Haruyoshi’s work is that it’s more… err… ‘erotic’ than it is ‘pornographic.’ Their foreplay scenes are always incredibly long and drawn out, and there’s more focus on the characters emotions and the sensations they’re feeling rather than the act itself. Nonetheless, I absolutely would not label Studio of Longing as “minimal” when it comes to sexual content. If you’re someone who like really hot and heavy ero scenes that are incredibly detailed and sensual, this and Haruyosi’s other work are absolutely 100% for you.

As for the art, you can tell this is one of their earlier works because their art has changed quite a bit since (especially when looking at the first chapter), but that doesn’t actually mean anything when it comes to Haruyosi Hiro because their art is still stunning. It’s their debut work, and it’s already gorgeous. One of the things that really sets Haruyosi Hiro apart is their heavy and expressive use of screentone and hatching. There are often a variety of tones and shading styles on every page, sometimes in a gradient, sometimes with spots of white-out to add emphasis. The line work is clean and soft, and the proportions of the characters are just stunning. Haruyosi Hiro is a powerhouse when it comes to drawing beautiful bodies and poses and expressions (which also adds to the eroticism of their sex scenes).

Overall an absolutely beautiful manga. If you’re a fan of slightly slow-burn dumb boys experimenting with each other, with beautiful art, immaculate ero scenes, and a surprisingly satisfying emotional climax at the end, this is for you.

I’m hoping we can continue to bring more and more of Haruyosi Hiro’s content to an English-speaking audience, because it truly is all so incredibly good (even though some of their uke characters are quite beefy for my personal tastes). Either way, I’m super looking forward to anything they put out in the future, because if this was their debut, I’m sure we can only expect a plethora of good things going forward.