An angle of approach I often find myself taking when going into fanservice-focused anime and manga works is to ask "Why didn't you just make porn?" It is a valid question, seeing the salacious setups some of these stories are predicated on, yet which still stop just short of presenting purely puerile penetration. Sure, sometimes the narratives around all this saucy content can seem just complex enough to merit being marketed as above-board 'general' entertainment content, but most of the time nobody is fooling anybody, and there are plenty of outlandish near-H works that would have been better off selling themselves as unabashed wank material. However, in the case of The Witches of Adamas, I really do think they may have something here.

Not that The Witches of Adamas is exceptionally heavy on depth or plot or anything, make no mistake. But the outlandish presentation of its content is able to get off- I mean get by on the ridiculous nature of its nominally nutty gimmick. Sure, the book opens with a full-color spread of a smorgasm-bord of thirsty nurses stripping down to seduce our hapless hero Satou, but then the story flashes back to a proper start by showing him agonizingly getting his rocks off only to result in one of those literal rich rocks. All the situations that follow thus straddle the line between titillation and comedy as precariously as Satou himself is regularly straddled by the 'witches' who are after his riches.

The focus on fanservice as a vehicle for comedy (of both the physical style as well as the dialogue, courtesy of a suitably absurd localization on display here) lets The Witches of Adamas successfully deploy the kind of content that would only be a distraction in less dedicated works. Is the running gag about Satou's friend Nekomori having her top yanked off unbelievably ridiculous? Absolutely, but it's still a downright reserved recurrence compared to some of the other sexed-up insanity that ends up on display throughout this volume. On a similar note, the very concept of women jumping Satou's bones on a chapter-by-chapter basis like some kind of titty-monster-of-the-week could theoretically swing closer to non-consensual content than some might prefer…except the very nature of the premise this one is advertised on means those reading it are probably going to take that level of aggression as part and parcel to the fantasy. It's a story that has Satou engaging in a life-or-death footjob duel with a tiny dominatrix in a fast-food restroom, before her explosive climax is match-cut with a can of soda blasting in Nekomori's face. You probably already know if you're here for that brand of comely comedy.

The Witches of Adamas' conceptual commitment to Satou needing to always stop short of finishing really is what gives it an edge. It does play to the particularly layered fetishes this series is built on, yes, but it also guarantees a level of conflict in the episodic storytelling so that we readers are always engaging with some level of page-turning energy, no matter how much sweatily-rendered smut is in our faces. Even the moment-to-moment fanservice is integral to incidental humor, like Satou's visionary struggles against the imagery inside his school (which I'm sure is definitely college) rendering as pornographic visions against the unstoppable sexual desires of his desperately-strained teenage mind. To be fair, like so much of Satou's unreleased sexual frustration, there are allusions to slightly more detailed plot points building up, such as the true motivations of finger-happy flute-player Miyoshi, or the further agendas that people with Adamas Syndrome might find themselves utilized for. But for now that's all just enough to keep the energy coming through as we follow Satou along those various diamond-denying dick-duels. The Witches of Adamas is all about not coming, so for now we only have the faintest clue of where it's going.

A series that starts out at a horniness level on the 'comical' end of the scale means the art is going to facilitate that, but again, the inherent humor helps it all sheathe together more comfortably. Nurse Shinonome's proportions and presentation are outrageous, but the characters actually reacting as such takes it a long way. Nekomori, like basically all the girls, is regularly drawn in comically contorted pin-up poses from fraught angles, but when that even includes her throwing herself taint-first at that gaggle of nurses diving into Satou's diamond mines, well, how can it be anything other than over-the-top comedy? Don't worry, if you're here for this particular kind of sincere artistic expression, you'll likely leave satisfied (or not, depending on how well you're playing along at home with Satou's predickament). But even if that's not your driving motivation for going through the book, it still feels like it wants you to laugh with it at the unabashedly horny angles everything is presented from all the time here.

Few stories are for everyone, and that goes to exponential levels for this kind of content. But what works about The Witches of Adamas is that it doesn't feel solely crafted entirely to be cracked open to crank one out. It's a book that recognizes the inherent humor in a porny setup like this and prioritizes that first, with the stimulation from those punchlines a still extremely apparent second. Basically, you probably already know from checking the synopsis of this thing if it might appeal to your sense of humor or…other interests, so you can rest assured that the execution of those appeals is about as spot-on as one could hope for.