Nohara Suzuki is one of the most talented volleyball players in Japan and is the country’s volleyball representative. Takaya Yano is one of the most talented judo fighters in Japan and is the country’s judo representative. Each are at the top of their respective crafts, but their intense focus in one area left them lacking in another: love. Both have struggled with that, and after Nohara recently gets dumped by her boyfriend, she’s at a loss. But when she overhears Takaya talking about his lack of romance, this leads to her talking to him. They then share their lack of experiences.
…Then before you know it, they’re in a love hotel!
Practice Makes Perfect stars two talented athletes that are virgins. They establish consistently throughout this first volume they know little about love. And you can tell as they try to treat their current experience in learning about love like sports — practice an excessive amount of times, head to the same love hotel, and self-practice at home with a pillow (or for Nohara, a teddy bear) like they’re expecting to win gold. What they both want is to take this relationship experiment and apply it to their love life moving forward, but as you can probably guess, they both start liking the other instead!
And all in all, it’s fine, and these two are clumsy enough that it can be somewhat sweet to see them try and figure this all out. It’s just that they’re kinda boring. Nohara less so than Takaya, as every time he speaks it feels there’s little excitement coming out of his mouth, but they both feel too robotic. There are very few side characters to interrupt their development in this volume, but in this case it might’ve been best to have one for each so the two could open up. Or at least save us from the following stretch where each chapter lets us see:
- Nohara and Suzuki aiming to practice some element of love (kissing, hugging, etc) at a love hotel.
- The two practicing their sport (maybe two or three pages).
- The two practicing at home.
They did eventually go on a date and it ends with Nohara exhibiting her top-tier volleyball skills and Takaya’s judo intensity, but the volume gets to be a bit sluggish at times. Also not helping is the art, which is more or less static. Even when the two make (or try to make) love in the sheets, it’s pretty plain. Don’t even think about actually seeing the two do actual sporting events, that’s not what you’re reading this for — you’re here to see if they can end their times as virgins on this Earth! Also, while overall it reads fine, there were parts I was reading where some words or sentences could’ve used some refinement…unless Takaya really does speak as dryly as he does in Japanese.
Overall though, Practice Makes Perfect is a lot sweeter than its premise indicates. It’s not totally funny but it’s amusing at times (oh, let’s watch this porno to understand if we’re doing it right!), and they both are earnest enough to want to find love. Now whether it gets steamier in later volumes, who knows, but for it’s first volume it wasn’t too bad a read.