Moe Maniax: a hentai manga you can get on Amazon

The Hentai Review header

Editor’s note: if it wasn’t already very obvious, most links in this article are extremely NSFW. Unless you work at Rice.

Did you know you can get hentai manga on Amazon? I didn’t — though I probably shouldn’t be surprised, given that you can get pretty much everything on Amazon these days.

Yes, love it or loathe it, Amazon is a fixture in online shopping — and it’s secured that position by building itself into a one-stop shop for pretty much everything you can possibly imagine, and then some. And a big part of that success comes from the online equivalent of encouraging window shopping and impulse purchases.

The other day, I was purchasing some non-hentai manga and light novel volumes to fill out my collection — as an aside, you can expect some coverage of the various series in question very soon — and I noticed an unexpected sight in my recommendations: hentai. Not just ecchi series — proper, full-on, 18+ only hentai.

Moe Maniax hentai manga

I was overcome with curiosity and the novelty of it all, so I found myself ordering a copy of the first hentai manga book that came up: Moe Maniax (aka MoeMani) by Aya Hinase, localised and published by Project H, an imprint of Digital Manga, Inc. And now it’s in my disgusting, sweaty, perverted Editor hands, I thought I’d share my thoughts — so you, too, can decide whether or not it’s worth ruining your Amazon recommendations forever by purchasing hentai manga from the world’s favourite online storefront.

Moe Maniax was first published in 2011 and localised in 2014. It’s a collection of short hentai manga stories by the aforementioned Aya Hinase, and in the grand scheme of things it’s some of the author’s tamer work — more recent Aya Hinase works seem to have a bit of a fascination with “machine sex”, but Moe Maniax is pretty vanilla for the most part, with a particular emphasis on cosplay fantasies in several of its chapters.

The short stories in the book are not directly related to one another, though the latter parts of the volume do feature some pleasing connections with one another, and the whole thing opens with a series of three chapters all based around the “Triangle Guild”. These chapters form the basis of the synopsis found on both the Amazon store page and the book’s blurb, so let’s look at those first.

The concept behind “Triangle Guild” is that protagonist Daisuke is a charming and charismatic guy when playing an MMO with his online friends — he even goes so far as to have online virtual sex with them on occasion, with one girl in particular especially smitten with him. However, as these things tend to go, Daisuke is actually a bit of a shy loner in reality, meaning he’s a tad uneasy when his guildmates suggest a real-life meetup.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but they all get absolutely hammered and Daisuke ends up having sex with the “little sister” of the group — who actually comes across as a rather serious, stern individual when she is sober in reality. This is then followed by an encounter with the more assertive “big sister” of the group, and then some endearing, entertaining sexual rivalry between the pair of them in the third and final chapter of the set.

Moe Maniax hentai manga

While this is a series of hentai manga chapters, and as such the emphasis is obviously on the sex scenes, Aya Hinase has put some effort into making the characters likeable and relatable. The way the story explores the difference between our online persona and the front we put up to “real world” society is interesting, too — the question of which one of these is our “real” self is just as relevant in 2021 as it was ten years ago on Moe Maniax’s first publication. Perhaps even more so, given the explosion in social media over the last decade.

The sex scenes are vibrant, energetic and full of a sense of dramatic movement, which is nice to see — though some readers will likely be disappointed that Project-H’s localisation does not uncensor the original Japanese artwork, which means there are some gaping white gaps where genitalia should be. A shame, to be sure — but it by no means compromises the overall energy of the book as a whole, and the whole thing is both eminently readable and highly erotic.

The other stories in the volume are self-contained, though as previously mentioned some of them do feature guest appearances from each other’s characters — the core couple of “Cosplay Sister” stumble across the central pairing of “The Cosplay Lady Next Door” as part of their sexual shenanigans, for example, and everyone ends up having a thoroughly lovely time as a result. It gives the volume as a whole a nice sense of coherence, even if the narratives aren’t directly connected to one another.

Moe Maniax hentai manga

As with most manga tankoubon and light novels (hentai or otherwise), Moe Maniax concludes with an author afterword, rather charmingly represented as a comic strip in its own right. In this, a heavily stylised Aya Hinase dressed as a ninja expresses delight over the fact that Moe Maniax is a book of “firsts” — their first convenience store magazine, their first series, their first B6-format book.

Hinase describes the creative process behind Moe Maniax as being one of “trial and error, trying to find the pattern, from forming the story, to hiding certain bits; every single time felt like an experiment. It was tough, but enjoyable.” It’s fun to read how Triangle Guild was originally intended to be a one-shot story, for example, but Hinase ended up wanting to explore the theme of “different personalities online and offline” in more detail — and it’s oddly heartwarming that they phrase this desire as making them “all too aware of [their] own weaknesses”.

All in all, I certainly don’t regret making that impulse purchase of Moe Maniax on Amazon. While it’s a shame that the artwork maintains the original Japanese “whiteout” in the explicit scenes, sometimes these things are unavoidable under licensing agreements — so in those circumstances it’s always more fun to just enjoy what we do have rather than waste time complaining. And Moe Maniax is certainly enjoyable, with a distinctive, recognisable style about it, along with some fun characters, entertaining short stories and super-hot sex scenes.

Thumbs up, then — and I suspect this won’t be the last hentai manga I get Prime shipping on!

Join The Discussion

Rice Digital Discord
Rice Digital Twitter
Rice Digital Facebook

Or write us a letter for the Rice Digital Friday Letters Page by clicking here!

Disclosure: Some links in this article may be affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on them. This is at no additional cost to you and helps support Rice Digital!

Pete Davison
Spread the love!

Related post

This will close in 0 seconds