Therapy Game (Volume 1) by Meguru Hinohara (Review)

Title: セラピーゲーム(上) [Therapy Game 1]
Creator: Meguru Hinohara, 日ノ原巡
Type: Fiction, Sequential Art, Manga
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, LGBT
Publisher: SuBLime
Date published: June 9, 2020

A digital copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Shizuma only drank that night to forget his heartbreak. He didn’t intend to also forget Minato, the one-night stand who soothed his broken heart. And since Minato’s not one to be forgotten, he hatches a plan of seduction…and revenge.

Recently dumped and very straight, Shizuma tries to drink his sorrow away, only to wake up being spooned by a man! When he explains to Minato, his drunken fling, that he doesn’t remember a thing about their night together, Minato secretly vows to seduce him again—and then dump him as revenge! But even the best-laid plans can go awry when Cupid has his way.

⤖ My Review ⬻

What initially drew me to volume 1 of the Therapy Game manga was the art style on the cover. I also hadn’t read an LGBT manga in a while, so that was an incentive as well! Once I started reading, I found that I liked that you’re thrown right into the story (without any boring leadup or explanation of setting or anything like that). I also found that there was definite chemistry between the two main characters, which definitely made reading this manga more fun!

I will say, however, that I did not expect Therapy Game to be a very very adult series (if you know what I’m saying). I’m just glad that I wasn’t reading this where anyone could see my iPad screen, haha! For me, some of the more mature imagery was a bit of a shock, but for other readers, I know that it might be quite jarring (so I just wanted to share this information)! I think that this story could have done without the explicit content, but it didn’t really take away from the story either. It just comes down to personal taste, I guess. My final verdict is that while I enjoyed volume 1 of Therapy Game, I might pick up volume 2 and I might not.