I'm looking for a manga with very intense, but very subtle and sophisticated eroticism - the kind of thing that gets you incredibly hot under the collar WITHOUT actually resorting to anything explicit (e.g. smut) or traditionally titillating (e.g. panty-shots). It's erotic and arousing, but not in an obvious/clichéd way. It's the smart kind of arousing. Imagine a very intellectual and very sexy, sophisticated librarian in silk stockings, who is a perpetual tease but never puts out - a manga like THAT. Yeah.

I am NOT looking for ecchi, hentai or smut! Any of those genres will be immediately disregarded. Actually, I'd prefer it if the manga didn't have any sex in it at all - or even if there is sex, it should only be non-explicit and very brief. I'm all about the eroticism pervading the atmosphere of the manga, like a heady perfume... It should mess with your head and make you all giddy, but without the sexual content to back it up. The eroticism should be an ensorcelment, not a reality. (Or, at most, only an implied or briefly conjured reality.)

Some examples of manga that I found subtly but very powerfully erotic:

Hakuji - I think I literally broke out in a sweat, it affected me so powerfully. Desire distilled into its purest form... Even before a single touch ever takes place.

Adekan - too sexy for its shirt, dammit. Just the way the lithe guy moves is sexy, as if he's flirting with the whole universe with every breath he takes. The entire atmosphere of the manga is suffused with this touch-a-touch-a-touch-me feeling. Even if no actual touching takes place.

Detective Bluecat - the sex is very rare and never explicit, but by GOD, just the way the characters LOOK at each other is pure sex. @_@;

Vassalord - all that blood-sucking and panting and writhing without even a hint of sex? Uh... *DED*

Yama Fu-Tang - No words. THERE. ARE. NO. WORDS.

More like theeeeeeeese? Pleeeeeeeeeease!

Remember that I accept ANY genre EXCEPT ecchi, hentai or smut.

Last edited by tartufo at 10:01 am, Apr 10 2010

hmm well maybe

Spice and Wolf--atleast in the anime, the chick and the dude are always teasing eachother through dialogue mostly especially the girl. It happens more in the second season.

Bakemonogatari--again only watched the anime so can't vouch for the manga itself. Senjougahara is definetly a tease and there is this one episode where this atmosphere is just full on really. However she is not in all the episodes though and the focus isn't on romance.

am not fully sure about these

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Angel Beats--best anime of the 2010 spring season

Not sure, maybe...

Dance Till Tomorrow
Mysterious Girlfriend X
Apollo’s Song

Thank you both!

I don't think I've ever felt such a thing from any of the manga I read...I'm not into that kind of stuff. But judging by the dictionary definition at the top of you post, I can only think of two.

Let Dai - I dropped this one on the 3rd volume, so I may be wrong
Wild Adapter - Never read it, but according to what I've heard from people who do- yeah, this should fit.
Maybe you've already read them, they're pretty well-known. But that's all I've got.

Edit-
Well, I dunno whether you can interpret it that way, but Yami ni Naku Oni had some sort of weird vibe between this guy and his childhood best friend - turned enemy. But only the first volume was scanned, and Storm in Heaven has dropped it, so I'm not sure you'll be interested.

Last edited by cyclamen at 11:05 pm, Apr 11 2010

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Hmm- another unique request (albeit a slightly disgusting one?) courtesy of tartufo!
So, I just had to reply- even though I haven't got anything that sounds like your examples.

Glory Age - I'm not even 50% sure about this one, but maybe.

Roureville - I thought this looked kind of unique so I read the first volume - but bleh, it's just another BL about a twenty-something guy who acts like he's fifty, hitting on a teenager who behaves like he's ten...so I dropped it. You have being forewarned- it's nothing special.

Horror Collector - I hear this is 'border-line yaoi but not quite'- so it's the one I'm most sure about, despite never even having read the series synopsis.

Yami no Kodou - Once again, not sure.

Isn't Cantarella sort of like that? I've only read 2 or 3 volumes, but it struck me that way. I bet you've already read it though.

Mirage of Blaze (The manga, not the novel) - I haven't read it and never will, but according to my friend, this starts off pretty subtly- but apparently things don't stay that way ^^

In the end, it turns out I could only think of shounen-ai manga (what the heck- I'm not even a BL fan ). But I think that must be because straight romance doesn't have to be subtle- it's there all the way and no-one complains.

Last edited by calstine at 8:19 am, Apr 12 2010

Probably
Model
Alive! or Blue Heaven
Nananan Kiriko -if she draws smth related to sex it's mostly those atmospheric shots.
longing face expressions - Fujiwara Kaoru and maybe Sahara Mizu

Have you already checked Basilisk?

You should be charged for typed characters, really