Yumika Wakamiya and Shinsuke Edo
Amai Seikatsu (甘い生活, "Sweet Life") is a long-running manga from Hikaru Yuzuki. The original series was published in Business Jump from 1990 through 2011. A sequel series, Amai Seikatsu: 2nd Season, began later in 2011, published in Grand Jump, and continues to this day. The series is an ecchi romantic sex comedy and very Not Safe for Work.The story follows Shinsuke Edo, a college student who is working in the material storage section of Pixy, a major company in manufacturing women's underwear. After a chance meeting with the company chairman shows Edo's love of underwear, Edo is promoted to working in a conceptual advisor role, and eventually a designer. The promotion also allows Edo to meet Yumika Wakamiya, a beautiful secretary of the chairman. She quickly becomes enamored with Edo, but Edo happens to have almost no sex drive. In fact, he doesn't even know basic sexual terms or concepts. Hijinks and hilarity ensue.
Amai Seikatsu provides examples of the following tropes:
- Beware the Nice Ones: God help you if you threaten or hurt Wakamiya when Edo's around. If you make her cry, you might not live to talk about it.
- Covert Pervert: So covert Edo himself isn't aware of it. It's eventually concluded that Edo's "magic" touch and his brilliance in designing underwear comes from him really loving women's bodies. However, due to his upbringing, he can't actively think perverted thoughts about them.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite his usual demeanor, Edo is an extremely skilled practitioner of aikido and can take out men many times bigger than him.
- Dirty Old Man: The chairman unashamedly loves being around young, beautiful women.
- Distaff Counterpart: There are two women who are treated as a female version of Edo.
- First is Chinami Katsura, who shares Edo's love of underwear, though not his passion for making it.
- The second is Tomoe Hino, the chairman's granddaughter. She starts developing the same "magic touch" and underwear-making abilities as Edo, except hers works on men. She also shares his lack of understanding about sex.
- Dope Slap: Frequently, though it's rarely an actual slap and usually a chop, fist, or blunt object. Edo and Kouno are the most frequent recipients.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Poor Edo is molested constantly, and it's treated as a Running Gag.
It was a different time, after all. - Drives Like Crazy: Yumika should not be allowed behind the wheel of a car.
- Dude, He's, Like, in a Coma: Edo's "magic hands" still work while he's asleep or otherwise unconscious. Most women (pretty much everyone except Yumika, and even she has her weak moments) have no problem taking advantage of him at those times.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first time multiple women wear underwear designed by Edo, it fit perfectly, but didn't cause pleasure for them like it did for Yumika. Later on Edo-designed pieces would have the same effect on all women.
- Fiction 500: The Nissyo Group, which Pixy is a part of.
- Head Desk: Yumika's usual reaction when she regrets something she's said.
- Historical In-Joke: The cursed corset was originally designed for Catherine de' Medici
. - Innocently Insensitive: Edo does this a lot. To his credit, he does feel really bad when it's explained what he said or did was wrong.
- Interrupted Intimacy: A Running Gag taken to absurd levels. Eventually Yumika starts lampshading it.
- Maternally Challenged: Edo grew up with four older sisters and a strict mother. While Edo is a very good person, he has zero understanding of women as emotional or sexual beings.
- Of Corsets Sexy: A cursed corset that slowly kills the wearer, but it does shrink her waist down to improve her figure.
- Old Maid: A Berserk Button for Yumika is mentioning her age. She begins the story at 25, and grows older as it progresses.
- Parental Abandonment: Edo's father "left" shortly after he was born. The first time it's mentioned it's stated that he died, while next time it's phrased like he abandoned the family. Regardless, Edo grew up without a father figure (which probably explains a lot).
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Many, though the most prominent would probably be Kouno.
- Shipper on Deck: Most characters, even love rivals, try to help Edo and Yumika's relationship.
- Shout-Out:
- Kouno compares an extremely long line at a store as being like the release of Dragon Quest.
- The title page for chapter 264 has Yumika dressed as Wonder Woman and Edo as Ralph Hinkley.
- Their First Time: Both Edo and Yumika are virgins at the start of the story. A lot of focus is given on them finally having sex, whether it's with each other or not.
- Wrong Turn at Albuquerque: Inverted. While trying to navigate Los Angeles, Yumika and Kouno end up in the Death Valley desert. Yumika's defense is she hasn't had a chance to make a U-turn.
