Reviews - Sweat and Soap, Vol. 9

215 reviews for:

Sweat and Soap, Vol. 9

Kintetsu Yamada

4.41 AVERAGE

ashlikes's review

4.0

emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

velatrix's review

4.0

emotional relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

milliebird's review

5.0

emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

lmorphis's review

5.0

challenging emotional hopeful relaxing sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

slaurie's review

5.0

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

chandlersaurus's review

4.5

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This one made me a little sad. Still love it so much though!

exemzordies's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I'd say to prepare yourself for this volume to be a downer, and it finishes with that unresolved on a cliffhanger - you might prefer to read it with the next volume ready so you don't have to carry so much weight after. It's also perhaps the best storytelling the series has seen so far, depending on what parts of it you like best.

From here I'll go into plot spoilers, so come back after you read it.

So by the simple nature of the setup and Asako's character, mental health and bullying have been recurring themes, but up until now they were a counterpoint to fluffy wholesome antics. While this was a possible direction it could take - it isn't a shocking twist regarding the story's structure - I was thinking this series might just stay light and fluffy with the darkness just being enough to highlight how bright and sunny the series is overall.
I'm impressed Sweat and Soap pulled off this turnabout in tone from fluffy romance into really digging into anxiety and mental health, with such skill.
This series' treatment of anxiety has always struck a chord with me, but the way this mental health episode is depicted here really feels genuine.

Content Warnings