Cheating Hearts

Introduction
Cheating Hearts is an original, full-colour English Ranma hentai manga, produced by Ranma Hentai Books, released in March of 2009.

Storyline and Contents


The Story:

Ranma's been having a lot of naughty fun recently for a guy who's supposed to be engaged, and now he's paying a steep psychological price for it. First come the hallucinations; every girl he sees appears stark naked and murmuring innuendos and sexual invitations. It would almost be fun if he didn't know full well how much trouble it could get him into. That girl didn't really offer to breastfeed him right at the dinner table with her family!

Clearly Ranma needs some release from a receptive source, and there are fortunately several of those around, presuming he can ask properly in the midst of hallucinating. Unfortunately his subconscious is not stopping at teasing him into a frenzy, no. Geez Ranma... aren't you a bit young to be having “performance issues”?

Now THIS is serious! Ranma rushes to Dr. Tofu for help, and gets an answer he doesn't like: This is what happens to basically good people who cheat on their fiancees with nearly every girl they know and keep it a secret. Confess Ranma; it's good for the soul (and your ding-dong)!

After some... horrible, scarring incident convinces Ranma he has no other options, he prepares to tell Akane how he's been cheating on her... only to find her in the middle of cheating on him (with her own sister yet)! What a mess! Two guilty people depressed about their past actions, cheating on each other and lying about it. There is but one solution Nabiki can recommend:

Sexual Healing!

Cast & Activities:

Featured Characters (those who have sex in this issue):

Shampoo

Ranma-Kun

Akane

Kasumi

Nabiki

Other characters (those not sexually active in this issue):

Dr. Tofu

Genma (Excepting the bonus art)

Character combinations:

Ranma-Kun + Shampoo (a brief dream)

Ranma-Kun + Kasumi (well... the intent is there)

Ranma-Kun + Akane... & Nabiki (who is... more directing than participating)

Sexual practices:

Much fan-service

Foreplay

Mild BDSM (handcuffs, leather dominatrix outfit, light whipping)

Cunnilingus (with yummy whipped cream!)

Coitus

Facial & internal cumshots

Background & Release
Cheating Hearts was released in March of 2009. It was sold and distributed online through Deep Star Books. It is NOT YET archived for viewing & download on the RHB Defenders site.

Production
Art by:

Pal Comix (Team 2)

Backgrounds by:

SHADE

Story by:

Deep Star

Reception
A selection of reviews can be found on this book's entry on the Original Projects page of the RHB main site.

You may also wish to peruse the full listing of reviews for this book's topic in the RHB's Forums.

Trivia
•The cover of Cheating Hearts is inspired by art from two films. The first is the zombie B-movie, THEY LIVE. The other is the Tom Cruise classic, Risky Business.

•Although the cover of Cheating Hearts features a car, none appear in the events of the story. This is similar to the cover of Black Rose of Furinkan Part 2, which displays a red motorcycle that also never appears in the story.

The omission of the vehicle was deliberate and meant to be a self-parody on the part of Deep Star, the author of both stories. He has since vowed not to feature anymore MIA vehicles on covers in the future. •On page 1, panel 3 Ranma rouses from his slumber to see Shampoo performing fellatio. His line "Talk about a wake-up call!" is a tribute to the H-Manga Super Taboo which features a similar situation.

•On page 12, Ranma uses the Giant Pencil to draw Kasumi's clothes on her naked body in an attempt to snap out of his daydream/hallucination.

This scene was a tribute to a similar event from Keeping it Clean. In that story, Kasumi uses a giant pencil to erase Akane from Ranma's dream. She then proceeds to draw herself having sex with Ranma instead.

When you compare the two scenes from each book, interestingly, the character holding the pencil and the motive for wielding it are reversed. In Keeping it Clean, Kasumi uses the Giant Pencil to daydream about having sex with Ranma, while in Cheating Hearts Ranma uses it in an attempt to stop his daydream about having sex with Kasumi.

•Ranma and Kasumi are the only two characters to have ever wielded the Giant Pencil.

•It has been speculated that the Giant Pencil may be somehow related to the Ye Old Writer's Box. We can confirm that they are just good friends. ^_^

•On page 13, Ranma witnesses Kasumi's clothes floating in mid-air and wonders if he's being haunted. On page 14, he then asks, "Who am I gonna call?"

This is a tribute to the film Ghostbusters. The catch-phrase remains one of the most iconic in all pop culture.

•On page 21, Doctor Tofu pays a house call to Ranma and asks him what the problem is. Ranma replies, "I see...naked people! All the time!" This is a paraphrase of the famous quote "I see dead people!" from the film "The Sixth Sense".

•There are two references to the classic game show [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cdej2n6unA&feature=player_profilepage#! FAMILY FEUD]. The first is on page 26 when Ranma utters, "Survey says". The other is on Page 16 when Ranma replies to Kasumi with, "GOOD ANSWER!".

The inspiration for the Family Feud tribute came from this video, which suggests that game shows can be improved with adult humor.

•On page 32, Nabiki handcuffs Ranma and Akane. The handcuffs represent a physical symbol of their arranged marriage, which was forced upon them by their parents.

•On page 33, Akane claims that she engages in S&M play every 15th of the month with Nabiki. The 15th was the release day for Cheating Hearts and most comics released on Deep Star Books.

•On page 37, Ranma, after being cured of his impotence, says to Akane, "I need SEX! NOW!" This is a tribute to the long running show "NIGHT COURT".

•On page 41, Ranma makes reference to the Christmas party where they were drugged. This is an homage to A Ranma Christmas Story.

•At the time Cheating Hearts was written, the RHB was on the verge of shutting down due to low sales attributed to piracy coupled with a weak global economy. It was decided that the RHB would create one final comic, Cheating Hearts, and shutter production indefinitely.

The RHB team had always intended to address the issue of Ranma's infidelity to Akane, but reserved that story for the final Ranma Hentai comic produced by the circle. Ironically, Cheating Hearts was not the final RHB comic after all.

A month after production ceased, Deep Star revitalized the RHB by introducing the Defenders system. The new daily release schedule quickly gained popularity, and it was decided that the RHB would continue producing comics.

Although in terms of release chronology Cheating Hearts is no longer the final comic produced by the RHB, it is still considered to be the penultimate RHB comic that takes place after all RHB comics that have been made to date and will ever be made.