Sex Ed 120% is a manga that many adults reading it will wish they had as teenagers, especially women and LGBTQ+ readers. It's educational, sex-positive and proudly progressive while also being a hilarious read with an instantly lovable cast of characters. Imagine the subject matter of O Maidens in Your Savage Season being reworked into a light comedy akin to Azumanga Daioh, and you have an idea of what Sex Ed 120% is like.
Naoko Tsuji, a sex-ed teacher at an all-girls school, carries serious Yukari-sensei energy in her hyperactivity and unorthodox teaching methods. Still, unlike Azumanga's English teacher, Tsuji's actually into her curriculum. She's rightfully called out for making inappropriate passes towards the school nurse Nakazawa, but Tsuji's generally a pretty great teacher aside from that problem. Her students include Matsuda, a fujoshi who connects everything back to Boys Love manga; Moriya, a lesbian with a girlfriend trying to come out of the closet; and Kashiwa, an animal nerd who's academically interested in the class but seems like she might be asexual.
Each chapter of Sex Ed 120% covers a different lesson plan, divided into mini-segments often presented in the 4-koma format (single page four-panel strips similar to newspaper comics). Lessons include the use of dental dams, the value of self-pleasure (the phrase Tsuji prefers to "masturbation," which has a negative meaning in the original Latin), standing up against homophobia and the amusing strangeness of animal genitalia.
There's righteousness to Tsuji's education mission. As she points out in her first lesson, fewer Japanese people are having sex than ever before, while those who are having sex are becoming sexually active younger on average. So, a lack of comprehensive sex education in high schools is a real problem, especially as young adults are likely to be misinformed about the reality of sex due to porn. At the same time, Sex Ed 120% never feels like a self-righteous read, always finding the humor and entertainment in every awkward situation. It's one of the best fusions of entertainment and educational value around.
Consider Sex Ed 120%'s 18+ rating and the Parental Advisory sticker on the cover as precautions for publishing any book about sex in a Puritanical society. Writer Kikiki Tataki and artist Hotomura specifically avoided graphic or exploitative content in respect to the combined seriousness of subject matter and lightness of approach. There's nothing objectionable for teenagers about Sex Ed 120%'s content unless you're offended by standard anatomical diagrams or abstract non-pornographic cartoon representations of sexual positions and elephant penises. High schoolers should read this book, which is both helpfully informative and far less problematic than many other manga deemed acceptable for teenagers.
Sex Ed 120% Vol. 1 is now available from Yen Press.
