Futari Ecchi

 is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsu Aki. It has been serialized in "Young Animal" since 1997, with the chapters later combined into tankōbon volumes by Hakusensha, of which to date there are seventy-nine. The series follows a newlywed couple in their mid-twenties, both virgins when they married, and chronicles their sexual explorations. The manga combines erotic elements with factual and informative statistics. Its title "Futari Ecchi" ("two person ecchi") is a play on a slang term for masturbation, "hitori ecchi" ("single person ecchi"). The series has 29.5 million copies in print and is most famous for being a how-to guide combined with a story.
Two spin-off manga have been released, "Futari Ecchi for Ladies" focusing on the sexuality of women and "Futari Ecchi Gaiden: Akira, The Evangelist of Sex" focusing on Akira. There are also two sex manuals and an art book. The series was adapted into a three episode live-action television drama that aired on WOWOW in 2000. A four-volume original video animation (OVA) series was produced from 2002 and 2004. In 2011, a twelve-episode live-action web series was streamed on Ustream. Also in 2011, a live-action theatrical film series began. Four films have been released. A second three episode OVA series was released in 2014 by Production Reed.
In 2007, the manga series was licensed in North America by Tokyopop as "Manga Sutra", only four volumes were released, comprising eight Japanese volumes. Also in 2007, Media Blasters licensed and released the OVAs on DVD as "Step Up Love Story".
Style and theme.
There are many scenes in the series that look like they are actually happening but are then revealed to be the sexual fantasies of Makoto or another character. This means there are many scenes of Makoto having sex with other characters, while in truth he only has sex with Yura.
One of the fetishes explored in the series is cosplay.
Though most of the early chapters focus on Makoto and Yura's relationship, it later deviates to other characters' love/sex lives, covering more events to teach the readers with.
Media.
Manga.
Written and illustrated by Katsu Aki, "Futari Ecchi" has been serialized biweekly in "Young Animal" since January 1997. The chapters are later combined into tankōbon volumes by Hakusensha, of which to date there are seventy-three. In December 2002, a side story called began serialization in "Silky", running for twelve chapters until its conclusion in October 2004. It focused on the women in the series, the individual chapters were collected and published into two "tankōbon" volumes by Hakusensha. Another side story titled began in "Young Animal" on June 23, 2017 and ended on November 24, 2017. It commemorates the series' 20th anniversary and is written by Monkey Chop and supervised by Katsu. It was compiled into one volume. There are also two sex manuals and an art book, entitled "Yura Yura".
Tokyopop licensed "Futari Ecchi" for an English-language release in North America under the name "Manga Sutra - Futari H" in 2007, with two volumes of the original Japanese release combined into a single volume. However, before the release of the first volume, which was published in January 2008, several major retailers had announced they would not carry the title due to its content. A representative of Tokyopop also said that the volumes were expensive to produce. They planned to release the first 10 Japanese tankōbon in five volumes, but only four were released, the fourth published in January 2009. Tokyopop ceased all manga publications in 2011. The manga has also received domestic releases in Germany (as "Manga Love Story"), France, Poland, Spain, Brazil, Italy and Taiwan, by Carlsen Comics, Pika Édition, Waneko, Mangaline Comics, Editora JBC, Dynit and Ching Win Publishing respectively.
Radio drama.
From January 5 to March 30, 1997 a radio drama was broadcast on Nippon Cultural Broadcasting. The roughly 30 minute program aired on Tuesdays at 1:00am and was later released on two CDs, by Bandai Music, as .
Original video animations.
Beginning in 2002, a four-volume original video animation series was produced by Chaos Project. It is split into two stages; the first two episodes, released on July 16 and September 7, 2002, make up one, and the last two, released on November 27, 2003 and January 22, 2004, make up the second.
On July 2, 2007, Media Blasters announced that they had licensed the OVA series at Anime Expo. They first released it as "Step Up Love Story" on two DVDs, each containing two episodes, on November 27, 2007 and January 29, 2008. On December 30, 2008 it was released in a box set, which was re-released on July 10, 2012 as part of their Anime Works Classic line.
A new three episode OVA, telling an original story, was released on October 10, 2014 by Production Reed.
Live-action.
A three-part live-action mini-series adaptation of "Futari Ecchi" aired on the Pay-per-view channel WOWOW in 2000. They were titled , and , and all directed by Gen Yamakawa.
The June 2011 issue of "Young Animal Arashi" announced "Futari Ecchi" would be receiving both a live-action film adaptation and a live-action web series.
The web series was streamed on Ustream and stars Nana Nanaumi and Shinnosuke Fukushima as Yura and Makoto with Takaso Kase as Akira Onoda and Sasa Handa as Sanae Onoda. It premiered in July 2011 and had fifteen 12-minute episodes created. The entire series was released in DVD and Blu-ray box sets on September 16, 2011, with three additional episodes and a bonus DVD with a making-of feature.
The film stars Yūri Morishita and Riki Miura as Yura and Makoto, was directed by Kazuhiro Yokoyama and written by Juri Sanemura. The first film was released on June 18, 2011 and received a DVD release on September 2. At an event for the DVD release, a sequel called was announced to begin filming in October. Hikaru Okada replaces Miura as Makoto in the sequel, which hit theaters on December 17, 2011.
Just like previously, a third film was announced at the second's DVD release party. The third and fourth films, titled and were both released on May 12, 2012. They were released on DVD on June 15 and August 3 respectively.
Reception.
The "Futari Ecchi" manga has 29.5 million collected volumes in print; 27 million in Japan, including digital copies, and 2.5 million overseas.