Elf Who Likes to be Humiliated is an erotic, comedy manhwa (aka pornhwa) created by Sa-Yook Siljang. I checked for the lewd and stayed for the plot. The running gag is having a good hearted protagonist think of twisted ways to punish an elf as the elf does a reverse uno card, “Jokes on you, I’m into this stuff”.
Theorad, the Lord of Deharem Family was compelled to buy a peculiar red-eyed elf as a sex slave for reasons he couldn’t understand himself. While it was common practice for aristocrats to purchase slaves for their recreative leisures, Theorad had no intention of complying with the norms and has treated the elf well.
It was only after hearing the implications of taking in an elf for a slave that it dawned onto him that his slave was anything but an ordinary elf. The perverted elf orchestrated ways to be punished and humiliated but the good natured Lord refused to treat the slave inhumanely.
When Theorad’s curiosity got the best of him, he learned that the elf could at anytime be unbound to the slave’s seal on a whim and was contemplating of killing him if he fails to satisfy her perverse desires. So begins the game between Theorad’s quest to rid himself off the elf while tending to the elf’s ever demanding requests.
Let’s get somethings straight here, there’s good erotic manhwa and then there’s bad erotic manhwa. The bad ones are what you can see in straight up hentai elements. The good ones have an underlying plot but there’s erotic elements on it. How to tell the difference? if you remove the sex scenes, would you still be invested in the drama and the characters in it?
Figure out the main selling point, is it a story that happens to have sex scenes, or is it just about sex scenes that happens to have a story? Because the former can still exist even if erotic parts are implied.
Is this any good?
Here you will know little spoiler :
The initial running gag of the show was Theorad’s struggles in trying to stay alive long enough so that he could find a way to get rid of the elf in his household. And this is by coming up different ways to humiliate the elf just enough to satisfy her perversion. This happens for the first few chapters until more about the elf’s mysterious origins get are unfold on top of Theorad’s struggles trying to avoid the kingdom’s politics.
It was not an accident that Theorad met the elf during his encounter with a slave merchant. Their whole meeting was orchestrated but the motives of the red-eyed elf remains a mystery to Theorad.
At some point, the story evolves into a harem building when Theorad’s fiance, church’s inquisitor and the princess get involved while keeping up with the comic skit as the elf tries to get humiliated whenever possible.
Is there even any character development in all of this? yes, it turns out each character has their own distinct motivation and goals. The elf starts to realize things she never learn even after existing for hundreds of years, Theorad’s finance decides to assert her claim on Theorad and strives to be the best she can be for her man, and the military oriented princess continues her schemes to bring change for the kingdom she serves and destroy the royal family that betrayed her. All these while Theorad tries to remain being true to himself as a good natured fellow despite being caught up with all the drama surrounding him and the elf.
But alas! it’s still a pornhwa so majority of the best moments where side characters display active agency in the story get downplayed by the erotic elements, grounding the reader once again that this is still an erotic manhwa they’re reading.
At the very least, I just love the cute plan and simple coloring and art style here. It’s decent for an average erotic manhwa art but nothing that great and it’s still ongoing~