After a late night with an 18+ game, Itsuki wakes up in an entirely different world. He has no interest in being a hero--until a towering, voluptuous goddess appears and assigns him an unexpected mission. To return to his own world, he must guide her devoted disciples in a very different kind of "education." Is this paradise...or a trial he's completely unprepared for?

Secret Rites with the Holy Maidens has story by and art by Bonjin Hirameki. English translation is done byMatthew Carolan. Lettering by Jamil Stewart. Published by Seven Seas Entertainment (October 20, 2026). Rated M.

Jean-Karlo Lemus
Rating:

Far be it for me to turn my nose up at some cheesecake, but Secret Rites with the Holy Maidens really takes a long, clunky road to bump some uglies. Protagonist Itsuki, indistinguishable from any number of Itsukis that have been transported to fantasy worlds, finds himself in a fantasy world at the behest of the Goddess of the Four Flowers to train a quartet of nuns in sex education. Because only the horniest of nuns—who has to remain a virgin, by the way—can properly take the Goddess' place now that her term is up, and it has to be a horny virgin, because the hornier you are, the more kids you have. That's the logic they're going with. At the very least, in-universe the contradiction is called out, and there are hints that this is meant to lead to a major twist of some sort. But it's not the most auspicious of set-ups.

Now, it would be one thing if this meant the quartet of nuns was meant to discover their own relationship with sexuality on their own terms—learn what they like, what turns them on, maybe even if they're not really turned on by anything or if they just prefer the company of other women. But it's all just a matter of each nun letting themselves get pawed at by Itsuki, whose understanding of sex comes from just watching a lot of porn and playing a lot of eroge. Even when he's given access to a divine library of sexual knowledge, it's just his porn stash from back home. So it's not even a matter of the nuns learning how to enjoy sex; it's just learning how to be groped at by a guy. Bonus points for the series actually treating foreplay as an integral part of sex; Itsuki is one of a handful of men who actually go down on women, bless him.

Alas, the sexual encounters are just not very sexy. Itsuki's first two encounters with Sister Lily (masturbation and cunnilingus) just come across as more mechanical than sexual. Itsuki plays with Lily's boobs, but it's not even because she actually enjoys it; it's because that's just “the thing to do,” according to his porn library. This feels less like the women learning how to have sex and more like Itsuki getting a chance to do stuff he heard his buddies talk about behind the bleachers. (“I hear if you squeeze both of a girl's boobs, she cums really fast!”)

There is some thought put into at least one of the encounters; Sister Lupina's idea of a goddess is as a maternal figure, so she asks Itsuki for breastfeeding roleplay. The scene still feels weird, more about Itsuki getting her to carry the scene out “the right way” than Lupina enjoying it how she wants, but there's a throughline I could appreciate, and one that would make the story far more interesting if it was actually pursued over Itsuki just being assigned fetishes to carry out by a disembodied voice. Even Itsuki finds himself mildly put off by the ordeal, considering how much work it is.

The problem here isn't the set-up. You can have a story about a guy who has to bone a few nuns into goddesshood. The issue is that the worldbuilding attempts here aren't very interesting. If you just want a story where people bump uglies, hey, we have that. But we also have a lot of fantasy porn that does a lot of great world-building and great characterization. In a lot of ways, Secret Rites is a lot like Itsuki: blindly fumbling at what “should” be sexy instead of actually taking a moment to consider what would be sexy. The scenes aren't sexy enough, the story isn't engaging enough, the characters aren't interesting enough. Maybe folks can enjoy a simple quickie—BONJIN's artwork is at least good enough for that. But Secret Rites gets a weak recommendation otherwise.

Bolts
Rating:

This story is interesting considering that its entire premise is a giant contradiction. I've read hundreds of stories at this point involving a young man being transported to a fantasy world for the sake of being a hero. Technically, this story is no different, but instead of defeating a demon king, Itsuki is asked if he could teach a select group of women what it means to feel sexual pleasure. That is pretty standard and boring on its face, but I do appreciate how self-aware the series is about how weird the setup is, considering that this training is tied into the women in question also being revered as goddesses or saints, which means there needs to be a certain level of purity involved.

I was half expecting a series to just brush that off, but it is a consistent conversation that the entire cast has throughout the course of this first volume to an almost distracting degree. There's definitely some bigger lore or implication that is being foreshadowed, and I wonder if the author finds this plot point as interesting as the characters treat it because that is almost treated as some genre-defining hook. However, that is not the main focus of the book. The main appeal is Itsuki going through each girl and helping them orgasm through sexual acts, whether it's being eaten out for the first time or doing some breastmilk play. It's incredibly tame, and there technically isn't any sex that takes place during the course of this first volume.

I respect the series for seemingly playing the long game, but the problem is that this just isn't that unique or interesting of a premise on its face to justify all of this buildup. I like some of the self-aware conversations that are being had in the book, but they ultimately don't amount to much, and the whole point is to slowly introduce the sexual themes to these girls, so I don't find myself being stimulated much, especially with the book's rather bland presentation. The story has to do a lot more than that in order to earn my recommendation personally. Maybe it'll be interesting when everyone finally has sex in volume five.