Love On The Job

Huh? Nobody has written a review for this manga yet? Err... Oh well, here we go. Story: I bet you can already read the synopsis, so let's skip the the chase here: Yeah, it sounds typical, alright - typical for a romantic comedy and typical for a hentai. Whatever, I was talking about the premise of the story, where it goes from there is the pleasant part. In fact, "pleasant" is the right word to use here, because while this story doesn't break any new mold, it hits so many right notes that you can't help but be won over by it. The premise creates every chance forboth leading characters to commit adultery, which is a cliche in hentai in and of itself. The author refused to go this way and subverted a lot of cliches in this genre. She skirted many dangerous lines, but managed to keep the alpha couple stay faithful. I know a lot of people were turned off by Virgin Na Kankei because of its cheating angle. Thankfully, it doesn't happen here. I think there are a few moments in this story where the author played up some self-aware humor. I can't be sure, maybe it's just the way she tackled those situations that evokes that feeling from a genre savvy dude like me. Hmm... Oh, talking about the humor, I love the humor in this manga. This is not a rapid-fire comedy, but the jokes caught me off guard every time. Some of them are quite raunchy, too - not necessarily a bad thing. Other time, the jokes have the cute factor that made me smile already, pushing it a bit more and the smile turns into a laugh. The drama is both a good a bad thing. They are tense, don't get me wrong, especially tense at the 2nd half of volume 2 and throughout the volume 3. Err... yes, you heard that right, the author keeps the tension going till the very last chapter where the leading couple is at the risk of losing their jobs (I won't spoil you the reason, though). That's the good part, the bad part is its resolution. The author took the easy way out of the drama. It feels like the author has let this drama gone out of her control and the only way to wrap it up is the convenient way. Well, I can understand the author, her strength is not drama and she doesn't want to test her limit. I bet if she were stretching this drama any longer, she would be writing a soap opera. There are other flaws here beside that: The villain in this story - a smooth motherfucker named Saiga - got off scot-free. You would hate him by the time you read volume 3 already, and all he got for retribution is a Falcon Punch (I bet you'd yell that when you read that scene). And then there is the beta couple, they won't get the clear-cut conclusion like the alpha couple. They didn't get a lot of developments to begin with. Fortunately, this is the beta couple I'm talking about and not the alpha couple. The final flaw is it's short, that's it. Art: I have low expectations for female authors, but not for Harumi Chihiro. The characters look nice and have quite a range of expressions (the face of the drunk Minori is priceless!). I wouldn't say they are "wide", per say, but for this story, they are "adequate". And the erotic drawing is err... *ahem* arousing... which I guess is a good thing. Talking about erotic, there is space for some fetishism here. They are pretty safe, actually: there is bathroom fetish and kimono fetish, and that's it. Conclusion: I only rate mangas on those 2 merits. It's a fine read, has some good laughs, pumps you up a lil' bit and gives you something to fap to as an extra. It ends quickly, which is a shame. But for the little time you'd spend to read it, the manga is worth every minute of it.