Picture this. You’re an intern. You have a crush on your boss. You secretly pine after him, day after day. You slowly befriend him outside of work. One night you’re watching TV at your place together, and the show makes him tear up. Ooo, it’s your big opportunity! All you have to do is lean over and comfort him with a pat on the back or a hug, right?
Pfft. Wrong, weirdo. According to this manga, you should lick his face, obviously…
This is a book of six one-shots that the mangaka describes as ‘status and loser’ pairings…think bumbling underling admiring suave boss from afar sort of thing. There was some variety in the settings, roles, and ages of the characters, but the stories did all have one big thing in common; namely, that they were bad. The very dated-looking art aside, they all had an awkward flow and often culminated in moments that seemed random or out of character.
The first is a classic stepbrother pairing, the central happening of which is college-aged Kimikazu walking in on the high-school-aged Akito masturbating and calling out his name which makes things a little weird between them.
#2 was about two department store coworkers and was extra boring so I’m skipping to #3, which was about a doctor and his assistant who secretly is in love with him. This culminates in his assistant legit trying to rape his boss in his office when be thinks another doctor might be after him, which is definitely how you handle a workplace romance. Seriously, these people who try the workplace rape thing, what was their plan afterwards? Run off into the sunset happily ever after? It was the only true non-con scene in the book but rapist man doesn’t go through with it because the doctor tells him he loves him (only in yaoi, folks) so that eliminates the need for rape I guess.
#4 was a butler x CEO story with a sort of European ambiance even though it takes place in Japan. The butler eventually wins his master’s heart and they screw. I liked that the butler was the one who took charge as it was a nice role reversal.
#5 was about two high schoolers that were looking to change up their love life with BL manga inspiration, which was kind of amusing even though it was obviously pandering to the audience. Real gay dudes would probably read bara.
The last one is the one described on the back of the book so I guess it’s the main story, and it’s about a clumsy design intern named Yuya who’s in love with his boss Yoshihiro and tries creepy ways of getting close to him like spying on him walking his dog and moving to his neighborhood, and then borrowing his sister’s dog so that he can ‘accidentally’ run into him walking the dog too. Yuya slowly grows closer to Yoshihiro and gets him to come over to watch TV. He starts tearing up at one point, so Yuya leans over and does what any lovelorn guy would do, which is, lick his face.
I’ve seen worse art in these old June compilations that they hosed desperate fujos with in the 00s to make a buck, but it was still preeeeetty mediocre. It also feels totally soulless, as if the artist was trying to check scenario boxes and just copy whatever were popular. At least there’s a true, no-bullshit sex scene in every story, and even though the censoring is comically bad.
TL;DR Pretty sucky one-shot compilation with subpar art. There’s some variety in the story settings but it almost feels like the artist was just trying to check off scenario boxes and the plots are a mix of awkward, boring, or cringe, with a few ‘lol what?’ moments thrown in. There is a true no-bullshit sex scene in all six stories at least.