Warning! This review contains spoilers. Please don’t read our Destiny Lovers volume 2 review until you’ve read Destiny Lovers volume 1.
At the end of Destiny Lovers volume 1, the voluptuous seductress Mitsuko laid a cunning trap for the six virgins. She gave them good food, exercise, massages, and a relaxing environment, all to push their sex drives to the max. Then, at the pivotal moment, she turned up the air conditioner until the prison was colder than a meat locker, and entered the boys’ cell with the four other girls, saying how they needed skin-to-skin contact to stay warm and survive the night.
It’s a tense opening to the second volume, where we learn more about the girls who act as the seductresses/jailers. And see just how deep this outwardly sexy (but deadly) game of cat and mouse will go.
Female characters of Destiny Lovers
Volume 1 introduced us to the six virgin boys. This one tells us more about the girls.
Sayaka Ibu
The warden. She’s paired up with Kosuke, her childhood boyfriend, although no one but the two of them is aware of their previous relationship.
Mitsuko Uchikawa
A plus-sized seductress who may be the most cunning of all the girls. She’s paired with Irabu, the punk who, until very recently, had been impotent.
Sawa Yamamoto
A shy girl whose inexperience with men only increases her allure. She’s paired with Kiyoshi, the analytical white-collar worker whose germophobia has kept him a virgin.
Erina Kirishima
A sadist who loves dominating boys. She’s paired with the effeminate, submissive Shunta. Under different circumstances, a match made in heaven.
Aina Kashiwazaki
An experienced girl who, in some ways, is the most “normal” of all the girls. She’s paired with the good-looking, nameless boy. A match that may be more than she’s bargained for.
The story continues in Destiny Lovers volume 2
The night begins, and the boys are well aware of the danger. Giving in to the girls and giving up their virginity means certain death, something Sayaka confirms to Kosuke as they whisper under the covers. However, through perseverance, trickery, and a little luck, each boy manages to resist his personal praying mantis. Not that it matters. The girls will be back the following night.
They leave with a warning: don’t do anything stupid. We’re always watching. The boys know they’re in trouble. They barely survived the first night, and their hormones are redlining. Making it through a second night seems impossible. What are they going to do?
They’re going to masturbate. As ridiculous as it sounds, self-pleasure is the only thing that will save them, because it will release the pent-up sexual energy that threatens to cloud their minds and end their lives. There’s only one problem: masturbation is forbidden, and the girls are always watching. The boys have to come up with a way to masturbate without being caught, which has them working as a team to do it. They come up with some solutions that are worthy of Death Note. I won’t reveal what they are (that would ruin the fun of the volume), but I will say that the first plan involves eating food off of Mitsuko’s near-naked body. How does this help the boys masturbate in secret? You’ll have to find out for yourself. The art of Destiny Lovers is stunning. The girls are gorgeous, and they’re not cookie cutters of each other; each has a distinctive look that suits her personality. The guys are also very well-drawn, and their looks reflect their personalities as well, without sinking into caricature. The beautiful faces on display contrast with the sharp, dark, angular environments of the prison. It’s a claustrophobic place that never lets you forget what’s really at stake. Absolutely. Destiny Lovers volume 1 laid out the foundation of this chess match between the sexes, and volume 2 kicks the games into high gear. One of the best parts of this book is how fleshed-out and developed (no pun intended) the girls are. It would have been easy to make them evil, one-dimensional seductresses, but they aren’t. Each has her own individual personality, and they see themselves as soldiers in a fight to save humanity. The glimpse of the monster at the end of the first volume showed us that they have a real reason to fight. This volume also hints that the “Destiny Lovers” aren’t just Sayaka and Kosuke. Each pairing feels significant, and will likely develop over the next several volumes, probably in very unexpected ways. If you enjoyed our Destiny Lovers volume 2 review, why not check out our review of volume 1 or more of our Ecchi content. Destiny Lovers is available from Ghost Ship, Seven Seas Entertainment’s racier label. You can pick it up both digitally and physically.
The Art of Destiny lovers
Is Destiny Lovers volume 2 worth reading?
Now, if you’ve been doing the math, you may have noticed that something doesn’t add up. There are six boys, but only five girls. What does this mean? How will this imbalance be resolved? We don’t know yet. But it’s just another mystery that has me eagerly looking forward to volume 3.
