[Ero Manga Review] Kegareboshi by Satou Kuuki

Satou Kuuki (@Twitter, @Pixiv) should be a familiar name for those into Corruption and NTR who care to keep tabs on artists' names. Known for his distinctive art style and penchant for turning innocent and delicate maidens into devilishly sexy and cruel sluts, complete with figure-hugging clothes with a nylon or latex-like sheen. He posts standalone art frequently and has done art for a couple of eroge (one of which was covered in an earlier post about translated mind control games), but what he's most known for is his ero-manga, having published both independently and in magazines.

What we're here to talk about today is one of his doujinshi (independent works), a 4-part series published between Comikets 99 and 102 called Kegareboshi, which can be translated in a number of ways such as "Dirty Star", "Disgraced Star", or, my personal pick, "Corrupted Star". J18 and HMarket recently released the first chapter of the series (Kegareboshi: Ao) under the title "Falling Star: Azure", a less literal but catchier name that still gets the idea across. Nice job. Since it remains to be seen whether they follow through with the release of the rest of the series, for the purpose of this review I will be sourcing images and terminology from an existing fan translation by biribiri, referencing the original Japanese text wheneer necessary.

Kegareboshi is about Asaba Ibuki and Shirosaki Koharu, members of a rookie idol group called StellaResta, who are steadily rising in popularity under the guidance of manager Matsunami Wataru. As StellaResta's first anniversary approaches and they prepare for their first solo live event, things take an unexpected turn as Ibuki finds herself blackmailed by big fish producer Kurozuka Atsuya, who composed some music for the duo in the past and has since been looking to get his hands on her voluptuous body. Kurozuka found evidence that Koharu and Wataru are romantically involved, something that, if leaked to the press, could destroy both of their careers and skin the idol group along with their small agency, Seven Arts. To protect StellaResta, Ibuki decides to endure Kurozuka's depraved requests. But there is more to the situation than it meets the eye and soon Ibuki will find herself drowning in a world of corruption, betrayal, and pleasure that exists in the underbelly of the entertainment industry.

This is probably a premise you heard before, as it's the way idol corruption stories usually develop, with Satou Kuuki himself having penned similar scenarios before in his Idom@ster doujins. But it's precisely that experience with the genre as well as the even more polished artwork that makes Kegareboshi stand out, and each chapter adds a new twist or shifts the perspective to another character, making the story of StellaResta's downfall retain the reader's interest even if it's well-trodden ground for those familiar with this kind of story. There's also the fact that for a series of four chapters with a total page count of 134, it's quite ambitious. Not only it uses original characters instead of relying on an existing IP as most Idol doujinshi do, but it also develops their personalities through their corruption arcs, adding backstories and motivations as necessary. It's not without its faults though, as while I certainly appreciate a doujinka with loftier goals than just making a one-off 20 pages book for Comiket, it also raises the bar the content has to meet and, I assume, some stuff may just shift in the creative process of a series with a biannual release schedule.

To explain what I mean, let's talk about the books individually. I'll do a mini-review for each one, containing spoilers. If you want to avoid spoilers or just want to get to my overall thoughts on the series as a whole, feel free to skip to Conclusion.

Kegareboshi Ao ~Nerawareta Shinjin Idol, Asaba Ibuki~

Corrupted Star Blue ~Targeted Rookie Idol, Asaba Ibuki~

Since this is the first chapter of the series, I already talked about the basic premise above. Four months before the live concert, a journalist contacts Ibuki and shows a preview of the story they're going to run about Koharu and Wataru, which makes her angrily demand to see whoever their supposed "source" is. But that was all misdirection, as she ends up drinking bottled water that was settled on the meeting table to collect herself without knowing it was spiked.

During her rape by Kurozuka, he uses his sexual skills to discover all of Ibuki's weak points and also some of his manipulator skills to dig into her feisty personality and push her buttons: specifically her fierce desire to protect the other members of Seven Arts, her feelings of friendship towards Koharu and her hidden romantic feelings for Wataru, who she thinks of as her savior, having rescued her from depression after she let go of her swimming career due to dropping performance (implied to be due to her growing breasts getting in the way, but more on that on the third chapter) by scouting her for Seven Arts.

Fittingly for the former swimmer, the second part (after a month's time skip) is basically just sex with Ibuki in a great-looking school swimsuit. They're also using condoms a few sizes too small, as Kurozuka forced Ibuki to buy them and she got it wrong, so he keeps teasing her with the possibility of them ripping and she ending up getting a creampie, which makes her more excited against her own will. Good stuff. It's noteworthy that during the whole book Kurozuka never uses cheap tricks like aphrodisiacs or anything, it's all sexual technique and some emotional manipulation. His threats are always somewhat veiled and he always acts like he's trying to seduce Ibuki, complimenting her, talking about pleasing her, and about their compatibility. And while consciously Ibuki finds it all disgusting, her body is indeed sexually compatible with his, and at least subconsciously she does enjoy being validated as a woman. But it doesn't go beyond that, just the seeds of her eventual downfall. Her will is not bent by the end of this chapter. And this is also not the usual behavior for Kurozuka, as we'll see in the following chapters. In a way, this is the preliminaries for her real training.

As I said, there's always some sort of twist, and this one is that the videos of Ibuki's training are being watched by none other than Koharu, who was fully trained by Kurozuka at some point in the past and is getting off of seeing her friend get the same treatment.

This is a pretty solid start and leaves on a great cliffhanger. The sex scenes are really good especially for breasts people out there, as Ibuki's most defining asset is her giant, soft pair of tits. A lot of attention is given to them bouncing and getting squeezed.

Kegareboshi Aka ~Yume to Joyoku ni Yureru Idol, Shirosaki Koharu~

Corrupted Star Red ~Idol Swayed by Dreams and Lust, Shirosaki Koharu~

This chapter is not only Koharu's perspective (and previous training), but it also lays the foundation for the main story, recontextualizing the first one and laying the groundwork for the finale. Because of that, I'll give a more in-depth beat by beat description because I feel it's necessary for the discussion of the series.

And while the first one was the standard blackmail rape plot, this one starts to ramp up with the corruption proper. It's also much more hardcore in nature.

First, let's start with Nanajima Midori. She was an idol that was big years ago and was the big source of inspiration for Koharu to want to become one. However, she failed all the auditions in middle school and by High School, was almost losing hope. That's when she met Wataru and became a member of Seven Arts Productions along with Ibuki. She was taken aback by Ibuki's beauty and insecure about being left behind again, but soon they became friends because of Ibuki's honest and hard-working nature. She also connected with Wataru through their shared love of idols stemming from admiring Midori, and over time she grew infatuated with him. Against her better judgment, she took advantage of Wataru's inebriated status after a business meeting in a hotel and embraced (implicitly kissed, but it isn't shown) him, without knowing there were paparazzi around. That's the origin of the video Kurozuka used to blackmail Ibuki, except we now learn he used it as leverage against Koharu herself first.

Kurozuka is much more aggressive and cruel with Koharu as well, while with Ibuki he had merely pressured her (albeit still not leaving her any real choice) and kept talking trying to seduce her, with Koharu he insults her constantly and threatens to end her career. Ultimately, Koharu goes along to protect Wataru and Ibuki, a stark juxtaposition to the Koharu we see in the previous chapter deriving pleasure in watching Ibuki get raped. The feeling of their sex is much more of a proper Choukyou/Sexual Training work than the NTR of Ibuki's chapter, which is more to my liking.

He also introduces her to the seedy underground club for influential men in the industry that will be the main setting of the series moving forward, which he compares to a boundary between heaven and hell. I'll let the panels speak for themselves.

That thing was too small to be called a dress. Too small, too thin, too tight, and too glossy.
It was more like a small strap of nylon.

Kurozuka is very well respected in this place, and the reverence the other patrons treat him, as well as the envious gazes of the so-called "bottom feeders" have an immediate effect on Koharu, as it is a form of validation and admiration. The gazes are on her like they were on Midori. It also doesn't escape Kurozuka that she is a Midori admirer, something he picked up from seeing the way she carries herself on stage. His lofty promises of taking her to the same heights Midori went make Koharu waver, which does bring into question what being an idol really means. Is it capturing gazes? Is it being admired and envied? For Koharu the only thing certain is that being an Idol means "being like Nanajima Midori".

Anyway, Koharu refuses his help saying the three of them (meaning StellaResta and Wataru) will get there with their own strength and not Kurozuka's, denying him a kiss like Ibuki before (or after, since this is a prequel chapter). Of course, such resistance only makes Kurozuka desire her more. He fucks her on stage and then stops calling her. And that experience has a deep impact on Koharu, the feeling of climaxing while everyone's gaze was fixated on her. She starts chasing that high and starts getting into more and more extreme masturbation methods, and sexual desire starts occupying a bigger and bigger space in her thoughts, but nothing she tries quite matches the day she got fucked on stage. 

She ends up crawling back to Kurozuka, but this time, instead of tasting Heaven she's put through Hell. Koharu is blindfolded and forced to do a masturbation show in front of an audience by a sadistic young girl who bites her, teases her with a vibrator and all that but always stops short of letting her climax, which just drives Koharu more and more towards the deep end. When she's completely exhausted, the blonde girl removes Koharu's blindfold while asking her "papa" what he's going to do. Kurozuka shoves her dick right in front of Koharu's face and the sight and scent makes her com instantly. To deliver the final blow, the blonde introduces herself as Nanajima Arisa, Midori's daughter with Kurozuka. This completely breaks Koharu's spirit and what follows is a debauched sex scene where father and daughter fuck the rookie idol's brains out. She declares her love for Kurozuka (or rather, "Atsuya-sama") while French-kissing him. That transitions into a scene sometime later where a visibly aroused Koharu approaches Wataru. We don't get to see their conversation but we do see Koharu enter Kurozuka's car later, dressed much more provocatively, and tell him Wataru refused her and told her she should "treasure herself more". A completely fallen bitch, she makes fun of him for being spineless.

While Ibuki is more my type, Aka is definitely my favorite chapter of the series. Not only do we get a complete and satisfying moral degeneration arc, but upon re-reading it's also THE centerpiece of the series that sets all the themes and plot threads that get a proper payoff in the final chapter. But first, we have the third chapter to get to, where the focus returns to Ibuki's training.

Arisa is a fan-favorite of many due to her appearance and the first impression she makes as a huge sadist.
Her very existence breaking the holy pedestal that was Midori is a great bonus.

Kegareboshi Murasaki -Jo- ~Asaba Ibuki no Kenshin~

Corrupted Star Purple -Beginning- ~Asaba Ibuki's Determination~

This is the chapter I have the most mixed feelings on. While the final chapter is the most divisive to the majority of readers, this is the one I'm not sure about, and the reason is that not only do I find it weaker than both previous ones (in addition to being the shortest chapter in the series, with a measly 24 pages of story content to Ao's 33 and Aka's 40), it also feels a bit like filler, especially now that the series is over and I can look at it with the whole as context. But one thing at a time. I'll not go as in-depth in recounting the events of this chapter, and focus more on discussing my impressions and opinions.

It's been some time since Kegareboshi Ao, and Ibuki's training has continued. Arisa is now a part of Seven Arts, having entered it to become an idol (of course, her heritage is hidden). We also see that she and Koharu are helping keep Ibuki's training a secret with all sorts of cover-up stories like an "urgent recording session" that conveniently popped up.

Ibuki got a lot more docile and used to sex since we last saw her, which prompts Kurozuka to take her to a special event. An underground sports meet-style event (complete with buruma) for idols with "special circumstances" like Ibuki and the girls from the club from the last chapter, including one kept harlot participating under orders of her owner so we're reminded of the concept. And one of the girls is none other than Arisa, pretending to be terrified, and telling Ibuki she is also being blackmailed with the footage of Koharu and Wataru. This fires up the same protective instinct that got Ibuki into this mess in the first place, and she decides to shield Arisa from the danger.

Of course, Arisa takes all the opportunities she can to put Ibuki on the spot and make her fail the events of the sports meet. A fun concept this chapter centers around is that the uniforms they're wearing get transparent when wet, and most activites involve water, lotion or fluids. So the losers are often exposed and, if they can't bear the shame, they can get a spare, but there's a catch: each spare uniform is smaller than the last, meaning they get tighter and tighter the more a girl loses.

All the activities are perversions of traditional school sports meet activities, the highlight for me being fishing condoms out of a bowl of semen with their mouths. As the event progresses we cut back and forth to Kurozuka having sex with Koharu as they watch the event, who is wearing one of such uniforms, only hers is tiny and see-through, showing she took part in one such event, according to her, "back when she was rebellious". And of course, Arisa can barely contain her laugh seeing Ibuki lose again and again in an attempt to "protect" her. Before the last event, Kurozuka and Koharu leave to "get ready"

The last event is a race where the girl crawls on all fours while her male partner fucks her, with the floor being full of an aphrodisiac oil. The last to cross the finish line gets a creampie. Ibuki starts very badly, but gets a second wind from remembering how Wataru saved her, and she manages to win. Now that the risk of a creampie is gone, she stops holding it in and starts howling and cumming like crazy.

And our end of chapter twist comes in the form of Koharu contacting Ibuki through the gymnasium's speaker system, inviting her to the VIP room to claim her "prize", and a shot of a captured Wataru being teased by Koharu and Arisa.

Like I said before, this chapter almost feels like filler. Everything that is shown about Ibuki's past had already been established in the previous two, we just got visual reinforcement of it. The implication that Kurozuka is putting Ibuki through a similar training through Koharu was already in the first chapter. So on and so forth. Ibuki doesn't start enjoying sex more, doesn't think about how hopeless the situation is, and doesn't have any kind of self-reflection that pushes her further down her path of corruption and despair. Even the whole protection thing fizzles out as Arisa is conveniently absent of the last event (as she was preparing the grand finale with Koharu, but still) and, in the next chapter, they do not interact directly, so that feels wasted. In the next chapter, Ibuki does starts out in a level of despair that retroactively means these events had a big impact on her, but nothing is shown here. It's like this chapter was just going through the motions, and it ends up being a weak link - and when your chain has only four of them, one weak link is enough to cause issues.

If the writing and progression are disappointing from a moral degeneration and even NTR standpoint, the art certainly isn't. This chapter looks as gorgeous as the previous ones and a lot of creativity is on display in the events of the underground sports meet. In fact, depending on your tastes everything that didn't sit well with me may be irrelevant in comparison to all the hot stuff going on. With me, I just couldn't ignore how disconnected the entire thing it felt from the rest of the series, especially since, with the announcement that the fourth chapter would be the last coming with the release of this one, each page felt like a ticking clock to me. 

It's almost like Satou Kuuki had an idea for a pervy sports event and just found a way to make it fit into Kegareboshi. But that's just my tinfoil hat theory. Like I said before, stuff changes doing a biannual series and you sort of just have to make it work.

Koharu has few appearances in this chapter but doesn't disappoint, showing off the sweet lewdness of an experienced kept harlot instead of the desperate lust she had in Aka.

Kegareboshi Kuro

Corrupted Star Black

I like that the last chapter has a simpler title. No subtitles, nothing. Just everything melts into darkness. A dark star. A black hole. 

Like I said this chapter is controversial, chiefly because, as most readers agree, it needed to be longer. The sex scenes that are in it are great, the usual quality I've come to expect from the series, but they're few in number. The focus is on wrapping up the story and that's good, but this is still porn. Totally on board with the sentiment. I don't think it ruins the chapter and I personally don't feel entitled to demand longer books for independently published stuff on Comiket even from big-name artists, but at the end of the day it did need more sex especially to showcase the "fully corrupted" status of the girls in the end, Ibuki in particular since this is, ostensibly, her "fall" chapter.

A complaint more common on Western forums and comment sections is that this chapter goes much harder on the NTR than the previous ones. While NTR has been a constant presence in the series and I find it foolish to try and deceive myself by tuning it out and "focusing only on the idol corruption", a lot of readers did do just that. And then when the end of a NTR series by a notorious NTR author is full of NTR, these people were shocked. 

I don't really have a problem with NTR in Satou Kuuki's works, because I think he finds just the right balance between showing the victim's despair but also the bad guy's thoughts and method and the corruption process of the girls (very rarely NTR in Satou's work doesn't come via sexual training or brainwashing), so whether people lean more towards Netorare or Netori, there's enough of both. I am more of a Netori person but I can tolerate Netorare well enough as long as it's not fully consensual from the start nor it's too focused on being a pity party for the cuck. I have no interest in that. Until now, while the girls' love for Wataru was a constant presence, it was something used to showcase their gradual degeneration, and Kurozuka's side was extensively shown (to the point I struggle to imagine people reading it and not seeing him as the de facto protagonist), and even now that Wataru gets to narrate the final chapter, the girls' fall is still in the forefront, the tone feels more mean-spirited towards him than trying to garner sympathy (something some Netorare fans are into, but not all), and as I think will be clear his presence is central to tie up loose ends in both the girls' arcs and the thematic thread of "what is an Idol" that was raised in Aka.

Oh, and one more thing. Last chapter was named "Purple - Beginning", but there's no "Purple - End". This is because the mangaka changed his mind and decided "Black" fit better as a title. He also considered doing a Kegareboshi Midori (a prequel about Nanajima Midori, obviously) at one point but ultimately decided to drop it, though some elements also worked their way into this chapter.

Now that all the elephants in the room have been properly addressed, let's raise the curtains for the finale.

We start on a flashback establishing that Wataru's admiration for Nanajima Midori and the beautiful radiance of Idols led him from being an aimless youth to working as a producer and forming StellaResta. We also see that Koharu's wish to be an idol, which Wataru sees as almost holy, is what kept him from getting involved with her despite the feelings actually being mutual. We also get to see the conversation that was skipped in Aka, where Wataru told Koharu to "treasure herself more". It turns out that she didn't try to seduce him, as implied. She confessed her love and said that she wanted to be together even if she couldn't be an idol anymore. It was a veiled but desperate cry for help, for a way to flee from the entertainment industry. But Wataru couldn't see that and instead tried to convince her that she should value herself more because she's going to shine brightest as an idol. This was the moment Koharu broke completely. Her last hope, the man she loved, wouldn't save her from it. So she just let herself go and accepted the pleasure Kurozuka was offering.

Back to the present, Koharu and Arisa are sexually teasing a bound and shackled Wataru while he's forced to see the sex tape Koharu filmed that very night she abandoned him in her heart, where she explains the context I talked about above and then gets fucked by Kurozuka, becoming his woman. The text in this part makes extensive use of Furigana (the small letters above the main text, usually to indicate reading) to give a double meaning to a lot of what's said, and the fan translation struggles with that a bit. Long story short, Koharu sees "being Kurozuka Atsuya's lover" as equivalent to "being a true Idol", in part due to learning the truth about Nanajima Midori. This is a great display of how much she has changed from the early characterization shown in the flashbacks, and her sadistic treatment of Wataru whom she used to love adds even more to it.

To make things worse, that's when Ibuki shows up accompanied by Kurozuka. She's wearing a matching outfit to Koharu and Arisa's which was established to be something Kurozuka's women wear. And nipple piercings, which is nice. Ibuki falls in despair seeing Wataru there, thinking he is the same as Kurozuka and the other men in the underworld of the idol industry, a beast that gets turned on by idols (as it just looks like he's having some perverted play with Koharu and Arisa, and since he's gagged, he can't defend himself in any way). She then jumps on his dick deciding that if everyone's scum, she wants to be with him, confessing her love while crying. But she soon gets frustrated that even though he's "the same" (a corrupt pervert), doing it with him doesn't feel the same. It's the age-old trope that his dick can't compare to Kurozuka, but at least Satou Kuuki didn't do the thing where the cucked guy has a meme-tier micro penis, it's small but at least it can get hard, that's more than can be said about a lot of Netorare victims out there in hentai.

Plus, her range of expressions showing the cool and serious girl's outburst of emotions and despair is fucking perfect.

Thematically, this is the turning point. Yes, I'm aware of how silly that sounds right after a sentence discussing dicks. Kurozuka says that Wataru is the same as him and everyone else there. Because everyone there is enraptured by the radiance of idols. They are driven by the desire to create, nurture, and control the greatest, most radiant of them all. And the women who accept being controlled by them are who idols are. Therefore, being an idol and being her producer's slave is the same thing. After hammering about how idols are a shining existence, now we get laid out what being a producer is really is about: control, and power. People so in love with those shining existences that they want to put a leash on them. The idea that a desire that is actually selfish and even perverse in nature is what ultimately drove all the characters, even if they were unaware of it, makes a second read with that in mind pretty interesting. Little things like, the first time Nanajima Midori shows up she's surrounded by sparks. Wataru never actually saying what feeling Midori stirred in him that compelled him to pursue a career in show biz.

The similar shading in the panels focusing on Koharu and Ibuki's eyes when they lose hope in Wataru is a nice touch.

When Kurozuka tempts Ibuki to become his woman and for the first time get fucked raw, she succumbs. Smiling, she thanks Wataru for bringing her into such a corrupted world and inserts Kurozuka's dick herself. From there on the main sex scene starts, with Ibuki surrendering herself completely and abandoning her feelings for Wataru. A nice touch is that during this scene she has heart-eyes, but they're in the shape of broken hearts, and as she fully transitions into not caring about Wataru at all, the hearts in her speech bubbles also become more cracked. 

While fucking Ibuki in front of him, Kurozuka and Koharu offer Wataru a proposal: he's going to open an entertainment agency under his control and the three girls are going to transfer there. He can come with them and become their manager, and even become, outwardly (among the people in the know) their "boyfriend". Basically, he'll be a scapegoat if anything goes wrong, but he gets to fulfill his own desires. Koharu and Arisa also take note that he has been hard all the time they've been tormenting him and even seeing Kurozuka fuck Ibuki and tease that he has the potential to be their little masochist toy.

Then the sex scene continues, as I said it feels shorter than it should, and we fast forward to Kurozuka announcing to the underground gentlemen that he's opening a legit entertaining agency called Venus Pride, as well as an underground label called Crying Venus, and that the former StellaResta is signed to the later as AbisStella. Here come the elements from the abandoned Midori side story we never got, the video of the announcement is mailed to a guy living as a shut-in who was Midori's manager but refused Kurozuka's proposal and couldn't "keep up with their dream", and that someone else must have took his place and seen through hell.

Then it ends with the girls walking on stage wearing provocative outfits and lustful smiles, completely reborn as true idols.

I don't have a problem with how Kegareboshi ends. I find the corruption arc super well executed and hot, the stronger Netorare angle in the last chapter doesn't bother me because I'm way too interested in the whole idea that the love of idols actually stems from desire and control that part of the chapter works. Do I think that is actually true? No, not really, though that is certainly something that crosses the minds of a lot of people. But it makes for a really good cornerstone for a story about idols, and while I've seen people accuse it of having something thrown in at the last minute, upon reading again I don't think it is. I think it's what the series built up to.

Also, the art is so damn good I don't care who is cucking and who is getting cucked, I just want to see more of the girls. This in part is why I'm a bit frustrated by the end lacking a proper group scene and by the third chapter wasting so much time on one-off characters when I feel a lot of things that were fast-tracked this last chapter could use breathing room. But then again, hindsight is 20/20.

During the writing of this review, it was also confirmed that there's going to be a bonus chapter released later this month on Comiket 103. It's unknown how long it'll be, but given the history of Satou Kuuki's bonus/omake chapters, I advise keeping expectations in check. The one preview Satou Kuuki posted on his Twitter shows that he heard the complaints about the lack of group sex, at the very least. But this piece of information has no bearing on my thoughts and opinions on the series as it exists now.

At the very least, the bonus chapter will fix the biggest crime of the main series: the lack of a double paizuri scene.

Conclusion

For what it is, a 4 chapter series that can't fill a Tankobon on its own (incidentally, during the writing of this review Satou Kuuki announced a Tankobon that includes Kegareboshi and other doujin he released on Comiket in the past few years), Kegareboshi more than surpasses expectations, and a lot of problems I have with it comes from actually having followed the series as it released and experienced the long pauses between chapters, as I'll say I enjoyed the third chapter, which I find the weakest, a lot more reading in one go for this review.

The art is gorgeous and easily my favorite work Satou Kuuki ever put out, and honestly, it can carry the series on its own if you're not into the themes.

Speaking of which, being able to at least tolerate Netorare is required, but I'll say that to me at least it never jumped as the main thing about the series. Corruption (both of the sexual and non-sexual variety) and power are the major themes here, the Netorare is part of that.

Koharu is definitely the highlight as a character because we get the fuller picture of her corruption arc, and because there's a lot more time to showcase how drastic her change is compared to Ibuki, even though Ibuki is more my type and I think she gets the better actual sex scenes. Arisa, being introduced halfway through the series doesn't get a lot to do but plays a good supporting role and is such a delightful sadistic brat.

I think the answer to what the shortcoming of the series is will depend on the person. To me, it's the "filler" third chapter leading to a rushed conclusion with interesting but underdeveloped themes, but to others, that chapter is hot as hell and the issue is the last chapter is too much talk and too little sex. To others, it's the perceived shift in focus from corruption to NTR (which I don't agree exists, to me both are there and feed into each other all the way through). Either way, pretty much everyone agrees there is "something" the series lacks, I've yet to see anyone argue it's a near-flawless piece of hentai. Maybe it's just that it did need more than 4 chapters to fully develop and thus every reader is left with their own personal hangup at the end. I do think Satou Kuuki sticking with a 4-chapter plan despite admitting having ideas for one or two more (and also due to a growing desire to move on to other projects) did ultimately hurt the series a bit, but not enough to knock it down.

It is definitely worth a read, especially to fans of corruption of the moral degeneration variety, NTR (I'd say both Netori and Netorare have things to like here), and BDSM. 

Score: 8.5/10

EDIT: I've also made a post talking in more detail about the extra chapter that has since come out and how I think it reflects on the main series. Check it out here!