Pleasure Dome

Kitty Media pushes the yaoi envelope one more time with their release of Pleasure Dome by Megumu Minami, a rich pageant of perverted pleasure painted over fantasy-historical settings. From the intrigue of a semi-medieval court, through the ages to Britain's invasion of India, into the memory of the Christian missionaries of Japan, and the starched collars of late-19th-Century England, Pleasure Dome paints portraits of unrequited love with the colors of kink, bondage, domination and torture. Ropes, whips, toys and sexual domination take the stage in each story, making this a manga not for the faint of heart.

Five separate stories are presented under the Pleasure Dome, each different, yet following similar themes. Love blossoming under the pressure of adversity, blooming between adversaries on different sides of a conflict, is the major theme of each story. Of course, each tale is developed in the framework of hardcore, kinky sex scenes. Megumu Minami's imagination for torture and bondage situations is incredible and often shocking. Sexual torture and orgies , bondage, insertion of foreign objects, and even the threat of bestiality all appear at one time or another. However, the heavy kink is balanced out by the beauty of the characters and their relationships that develop. In most of the stories, both uke and seme are warriors of some kind, be it an Indian prince, a knight-assassin, or a devout Japanese Christian. The book is full of manly, adult men pitted against one another, who come to respect the other's strength despite starting out as enemies. Sexy kink developing into real, passionate love is the true heart of this book.

The artist's attention to detail and patterning really enforces the lush pageantry and decadent feeling of the bondage and sexual scenes that truly live up to the name Pleasure Dome. In the title story, "Pleasure Dome," a rich lord's perverted pleasure dome is conveyed in expensive fabrics and patterns and and overall feeling of wasted decadence as the wicked lord uses and uses up his human toys. In contrast, the beautiful flowers and details of the Indian prince's court in "Desire on Fire" accentuates the elegance of traditional Indian style, while the prince draws a British army commander into this heady world and into the promise of his love. When a Japanese Christian is captured by Japanese government interrogators, the detail is paid in the traditional Japanese rope bondage and use of toys pleasure in an attempt to get the devout Christian to renounce his God. Sexual slavery and surprises contrast the starched collars of 19-century Britain in "Cantarella," as three men are drawn into a weird web of sex, love and the question of inheritance. Finally, the last and sweetest of the stories is "L'amour I Belong to You," where a gentleman and his self-appointed butler switch places to avoid an arranged marriage, and end up falling for one another. Perhaps all of the little historical details aren't accurate in these tales, but only historical sticklers will truly care. What matters are the characters, the relationships, and of course, the kinky sex scenes.

Lush beauty and perverted sex counts for quite a lot, but a few things keep Pleasure Dome from being a perfect experience. In several situations, the different plots become muddied and confused due to confusing dialog and an uncertainty as to who is speaking. This may be a problem with Kitty's translation, or it may be a failing of the original writing; it's not obvious which is at fault. Still, the confusion isn't so daunting that the reader cannot understand the overall story. Reading through a second time -- still a joy with all of this delightfully perverted artwork -- clears up a lot of the confusion.

Kitty Media's yaoi manga tend to have very little in the way of extras, and Pleasure Dome is no different. The book is pretty average, with regular paper and ink quality that you'd expect in any normal $9.99 manga. The cover design keeps with the lush and ornate style of the book, but Kitty's chosen font for speech text is a blocky bold print that doesn't seem to gel with the artwork. Additionally, on some pages, text in speech bubbles is printed very close to the binding, making it hard to read without opening the book very wide and possibly bending the cover. Kitty's presentation is neither wonderful nor terrible, which is par for the course with this publisher.

Pleasure Dome is a lot more shocking than most yaoi manga on the market today, and certainly not for everyone. But fans of love between enemies and intimate yet tasteful portrayals of sexual kinks will find a lot to enjoy here. Try Pleasure Dome for something different, beautiful, and delicious with a thrilling twist of perversion.