Slum Sex Savage [Daraku] (2021) is a gorgeous piece of world building written and drawn by Penguin Frontier. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because they’re the creator behind the poignant schoolboy gei komi title, Smile, and the emotional monologue, Loveless. Keep in mind that Slum Sex Savage is nothing like those titles – so tread carefully.
I call this artbook an exercise in worldbuilding because that’s the design. Slum Sex Savage is what we in gaming/animation screenwriting call, a pitch-bible. It contains informative text with immersive art that’s explicit and handsomely rendered; it’s drawn so beautifully that the violent nuances get lost as your brain focuses solely on the muscles and sex.
SPOILER REVIEW UNDER THE CUT
The first card is called 00 and explains how all these men ended up in the stratosphere on CAPSULE, an ark that feels like a prison with no guards. The Earth is fucked due to war, most humans are on Mars, and only certain men got saved if capable of working.
Card 01 explains the this post-apocalyptic capitalist culture contains three levels: upper, middle, and lower. The wealthy live upper, the middle is where all the wage-earners reside, and the lower has exploited workers, NEETs, and criminals. The color illustrations accompanying this card are exquisite and very sexy.
02 explains that sex is the primary past-time on CAPSULE and explains that in the middle level, sex is so common that there’s a famous hook-up spot where it just occurs out in the open. The art depicts the rather impersonal yet sultry scene, and if this is sex on mid-level, I can only imagine what occurs on the lower level (yikes).
Card 03 explains CAPSULE’S top & bottom dynamic; more like predator and prey with bottoms in short supply (if you don’t count the top-on-top rapes – muscle heads be like that sometimes). The illustration on this card is devastatingly hot if you’re a ‘forced love’ junkie like me.
According to card 04, there’s a rise in sex on CAPSULE due to high-stress levels. I can only imagine. The population must be shrinking without women, and the workload, increasing. What’s a post-catastrophic man to do, accept center gangbangs or arrange gang rapes? The art here depicts these two extremes, with the second image featuring a man in a clean white shirt getting wolf packed by a bunch of construction workers (one of them is even wearing his hard hat). He’s not bruised and seems to be enjoying it–unlike the poor bastard getting group-balled by a bunch of ruffians in the illustration before it.
05 explains that the lack of law enforcement means that any rise in the collective sex drive will lead to an explosion in sex crimes. There’s no underworld trafficking because there are no laws against kidnapping a middle or upper-grade bottom and putting him in your orgy-house to service gangsters and other low lives.
This rape culture is so normalized that it’s now a part of everyday life – one of those ugly incidents that happen to a man at least once (or maybe multiple times) in his life. The illustrations for this card are fucking excellent. The grime, the sweat, the sperm: *chefs kiss*
The upper level has its version of organized ‘strange’ that’s detailed in card 06. It’s a cleaner scene that’s also profit-driven. Less violence and more affable clientele have led to so many whores that the prices have decreased. It’s a win-win for everyone.
07 focuses on one business offering fresh sperm from the source in a ramen-shop setting.
I shit you not; this is the stuff that separates the talented Penguin Frontier from the rest of us horny bastards writing or drawing sex for a living.
The second illustration accompanying 07 felt out of place. The blow-job princess in a scummy bathroom with a couple of blue-collar grunts didn’t belong here unless this is the middle-level version of a whore’s stall? The third illustration makes sense, as it features a whore tricking a client on a mattress with a flimsy curtain separating them from another couple doing the same.
Finally, card 08 addresses the declining populace; the only new residents are criminals sent to CAPSULE by the humanities colony off world – and that demographic will likely grow, making CAPSULE an actual prison.
For now, though, bright spots exist; the illustration displays a pair that feel like a couple–or at least that’s what you think if you ignore the discarded condoms, sheet-less futon, jackets on the pegs, and booze bottles in the corner.
I’ve managed to score the printed version of this from a reseller, but the digital version is available in English at Gumroad. I highly recommend it if you’re in MAS or MAS-like scenarios. 100% uncensored art with lots of muscle and delectable details. Totally worth the 10$ download price – and please support the artist!
Penguin Frontier:
[Daraku] Slum Sex Savage
Guns, Guys, & Yaoi 2.0 