Houkago Play

Yonkoma manga about unnamed couples, at least one of whom will have a passion for video games. The first volume features an unnamed high school student and his likewise unnamed girlfriend, both of whom share a passion for playing video games...and each other, though they both have trouble admitting it. This alternates between the two of them playing video games and discussing them at length, and trying their best to express their feelings for each other.

Given that the second volume has just begun being scanlated, we won't know much about it for a while, other than it stars a guy who looks like a shark and loves portable games, and his girlfriend who is more into manga than video games.

So far, there are three completed volumes. However, only the first volume has been completely scanlated, with work being done on the second.

The complete series hasn't been released in English, but you can read the entire first and second volumes and parts of the third here.


 * Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Occurs fairly frequently, but most especially during the end of Chapter 12.
 * Catgirl: Subverted. The girl tries to pander to the guy's inner otaku with a pair of cat ears and glasses. The guy is unimpressed. She takes this quite harshly.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: The girl spills some milk on her stockings, and she makes him clean it off of her feet. Considering the amount of attention her feet get...
 * Erotic Eating: Aside from the above, in one panel the girl shows off her ability to tie a cherry stem in a neat knot. Two at once, in fact.
 * Foot Focus: She is very fond of using her feet to torture him, whether it be via kicking him, using his head as an ottoman, and even rubbing them over his face, neck, and shoulders at one point. Not to mention the milk scene, or the strip entirely devoted to her removing her shoes...
 * Almost every eyecatch in each chapter's beginning features the girl's feet and the joystick's cord. Just do the math.
 * It's revealed that she's aware of her feet and legs being her most notable feature, as she takes the time to go home and change into her high-heeled shoes, so as to accent her legs for her boyfriend's viewing delight.
 * Gamer Chick
 * The Glasses Gotta Go: See Catgirl above.
 * Hey, It's That Voice! The main characters are voiced by Shizuka Ito and Terashima Takuma on the Drama CD.
 * Intimate Healing: To an extent. When he accidentally cuts himself with a fruit knife, her method of first aid is to bury her face into his hand and lick all the blood clean.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: The guy.
 * Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: "The Mysterious ***geon", "Met*l Gear"
 * Meganekko: Subverted, see above.
 * Minimalist Cast: In the first volume, there was the girl, the boy, the unseen store owner, and the voice of the boy's friend on a cell phone. It seems that all the other volumes will go in this direction as well.
 * Moment Killer: His cell phone. Also, any time the guy refuses to close his eyes before a kiss, the girl considers it a Moment Killer as well.
 * No Name Given: The author simply refers to them as "the boy" and "the girl" in the afterword.
 * For the figurine for the girl, she's reffered to as Girlfriend, and other sources back this up, even calling the boy Boyfriend.
 * Otaku Surrogate
 * Out of Focus: The second volume stars a completely different couple, while the original pair only appear in two or three chapters.
 * The third volume focuses on yet another couple, though the others do show up from time to time.
 * Running Gag: The girl kicking the guy in the head when she gets mad. Also, "Go buy Met*l Gear!" in one chapter.
 * Shout-Out: To the South Park episode "Guitar Queer-o", of all things - aside from all the video game references.
 * M*t*l G**r
 * The soundtrack they were talking about is Live a Live.
 * The girlfriend thinks the game No More Heroes is sexually harassing her.
 * Sniper Elite
 * Sleep Cute
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
 * The Verse: Most, if not all, of the creator's work shares the same world with the same characters. Evident in the Out of Focus above.
 * Tiny Guy, Huge Girl
 * Tsundere: The girl. (incredibly so.)
 * Two Gamers on a Couch: The Japanese, male-and-female version.
 * Will They or Won't They?:
 * Yonkoma
 * Yonkoma