Kawaii Joushi wo Komarasetai
I want to annoy the pretty boss.

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The first section of this review will be spoiler free.

I’m on a kind of streak of reading romance manga this year.
THE REVIEW FOR THIS MANGA IS PART 3 OF IT.
PART 1: Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san
PART 2: Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de

SPOILER FREE TERRITORY
Kawaii Joushi wo Komarasetai (translated as “I want to annoy the pretty boss”) is a 4-koma romance manga by Roku Tachibana, who is also kinda famous for making ero-manga (you know, the extra-spicy ones).

As for the story: Shun Aoki, a 23-year-old starts working in a new company and shortly after finds itself in love with his boss, a 31-year-old ... Ira Megumi. The thing is, while the handsome Aoki already had plenty of girlfriends, Megumi, despite her age, is completely inexperienced on anything related to romantic relationships. From chapter 1, the story develops around this concept and how they, but especially Megumi, can learn to grow and change.

As I’ve said in earlier reviews, I found it very curious how japanese authors usually don’t write romance off high school settings. It may be because romance manga readers are usually high schoolers, at least in Japan.

But this is an office romcom, which is way more relatable to any working adult, so I went to check it out. And was honestly surprised. I’ll use this first section to recommend it to anyone who wants to dive in completely blind, although it doesn’t make any difference because the story itself is pretty simple.

If you like romance stories with some character development, cute art and character design and a sprinkle of comedy on top, I would recommend this to you, specially if you’re tired of all the high school tropes and want to see topics more related to adult relationships, like sex, financial life, living together, etc. Give this a try, and if you’re into more down to earth romance about these topics, I think you will enjoy AT LEAST some aspects of it.



SPOILER TERRITORY
There’s not much to say in regards of some big surprises, but maybe some people would like to discover the paths the story takes by themselves.

The strong point of this manga is how Megumi learns to be in a relationship, from accepting being in love to understanding how to communicate her feelings and desires to her partner. Aoki’s, although a charismatic fella, doesn’t have the same development as his girlfriend, but that is simply because he’s already way more experienced than her in that regard.

The dynamic between the two only gets better as the story progresses, from Megumi first questioning herself if she even wants to be in a relationship, to her accepting there is nothing wrong or immoral about sex, to finally deciding that she wants to live together with Aoki, even if it may cause problems to her on the company she worked so hard to climb up the ranks.

Speaking of which, a big part of the comedy also resides in the fact that they are dating in secret, being, well, a boss and her subordinate and all that. One very good aspect of Megumi’s development is that she is very workaholic and didn’t have any interest in romance or almost anything besides work prior to meeting Aoki, really. Seeing her change so much as to accept exposing her relationship even if it may jeopardize her professional life shows how much she changed as a person by the end of the story.

Although small, the cast of characters are good enough and some are really unique.

As for the art, I find it very good, but I also think that the 4-koma format harms the author’s potential, because sometimes they make a detailed illustration that needs to fix a tiny box on the panel, and that makes it kinda hard to appreciate the tiny details, which is not absurdly top-tier, of course, but good enough to make you want to see the care they put on the clothes, character designs and scenarios.

In conclusion, a solid romcom manga, with an interesting setting, good characters, good pacing, good art and the right dose of comedy. Recommended to anyone who likes romance manga and especially to the ones tired of all the High School tropes of 90% the genre has.

This manga is a light hearted 4-koma about a young couple. The synopsis is clear. Ira Meguma, a 31 year old will wake up, after a party where she finished drunk, on her bed with a boy, Aoki Shun, her "junior" colleague that is still in his twenties. There is not any mentions of sex, I dont believe they did it, despite being a seinen, it's not enough "mature" to freely talk about sex.

The story is not that deep but enought interesting to keep you reading if you like the characvters and romance. It's basically MCs's daily lives at work and not only. They try ... to live and to deepen their relationship.

Both will begin secretly to date right after that even if it's hidden from their job. MC is not the cliche shounen MC. He has actually already dated with a bunch of girls (fun fact we dont know if he's still virgin the manga is voluntarily blurry about that). He's quite straight forward and does not hide his feelings. Thing that tends to fluster Megumi. He's not a player or a womanizer at all, in fact, it's quite the opposite, he has a great "resistance" against other girls than Megumi. He only see her.

Megumi is the shy type. She never dated a boy before because she's just a workaholic (and she tends to be quite alcoolic too btw). She is easily flustered by MC's frankness. She's very cute especially when she's drunk.

The point of view is based on 50/50. They're both Main characters equally.

The art was decent.

To conclude, it's definitely a manga to read if you like cuteness and romance.

My initial love for this manga was high. If you had asked me to rate it when I was 20-ish chapters in, I would probably give it a 7 or 8. But, I've reached this point and have changed me outlook. Some slight spoilers. Do not read past this point if you have yet to reach chapter 47.









...




Ok, assuming you've come this far, I still won't be spoiling anything, just that this chapter was what made me drop this manga. Up till this point the male lead was pretty solid and the female lead was an idiot, but still lovely. This chapter shits on all of what we know of the male lead's character and what improvements the female lead has made.

It was very hard dealing with her being so inexperienced and unsure of herself, but he works with her and we see her character grow to the point where she accepts that she likes him and wants to be with him. During this whole time, he's mature, calm, etc. and handles her inexperience well.

Then this arc happens where his co-worker (which he doesn't even like) goads him into going to a dating mixer with him and he agrees? Why? The way he agrees goes against everything his character has been so far. A friend who's read ahead tells me it's just going to spawn some more drama, and I can't handle more drama after the previous mess it was to get her to like him.

It's a shame because there was some potential here and I like the art, the character designs are pretty cute and well drawn, and I like a few of the side characters, but the main relationship is a patience tester, and I've run out.