By Thea Srinivasan

There are several difficult jobs that someone can take on.  What’s even rarer is finding a boss who is understanding, but also someone who can guide a worker in the right direction and is great to work with. But when your boss continually wants to kiss you, it can cause a lot of trouble, and it’s probably a good idea that you find another job immediately. The following review is for the second volume of the series. If you have not read the first volume, please read the first volume before reading this review as it will contain spoilers.

The second volume of the series left me with a list of disappointments.  We see Tamaki, our leading lady, finally bring her crush and her boss into the same room. From there, jealousy ensues, and the rest of the story discusses Tamaki’s romantic development with her boss and the aftermath of her and Natsu.

The development of Tamaki’s character was a smooth in a few areas, but too abrupt in other areas.  She becomes friendlier with her boss, but she ends up learning how to move away from her crush and even trying to figure out how to overcome her traumatic childhood. On the other end of the spectrum,  she ends up focusing more on herself and forgets about taking care of her brother. I was hoping Kagetora would also change, but the only major development I see is him accepting responsibility for something. He continues to be a loose cannon playboy whose sole focus is Tamaki. There doesn’t seem to be any changes in his emotions. However, there is some change between him and Tamaki’s brother. But even then, I was disappointed at the lack of substance the two could have created. Instead, it was just built around their love over Tamaki.

The sex innuendos haven’t stopped for Tamaki, but she thankfully isn’t in as many situations as she had been in the previous volume. Instead, we get a new feature of seeing Kagetora with rippling muscles and his half-naked body. I’m pretty sure this would entice several readers to continue reading this series. But with the added fan service and cotton candy buildup, the romantic troupes pounded their way through the second half of the volume and ended up crying because of how pathetic Tamaki becomes towards the final three chapters. I felt miserable when I ended up seeing Tamaki turn into a pile of goo because of her interactions with Kagetora. The only thing that saved me this volume was the constant, comedic presence of Kagetora’s bodyguard. Although he is a monotonous character, the situations he ends up in makes me chuckle and thank the creator for not destroying him.

Finally, I wish the creator made a third volume for the series. All of the events were rushed, and it didn’t give the characters an opportunity to grow at a steady pace. It goes back to my original comment that the change in Kagetora and Tamaki were either too abrupt or had no change at all. Some people may say that two volumes are enough, and that is something I agree with.  Had the creator extended the series for two or three more chapters, they probably would have allowed Taishi and Kagetora to evolve more, or we may have had more time to understand Natsu’s emotional changes.  This would have tied the story together and made the events more cohesive.

Overall, the second volume wasn’t worth reading. The creator made some bad decisions, and I still haven’t seen an improvement in the artwork. As much Kagetora’s abs danced around my brain, I’d rather see Taishi’s otaku moments than Kagetora’s bland attitude. This story is for the person who wanted to climb Mount Everest but realized they needed a lot of time and preparation to make their dream a reality.

Score: 2/5

SP Baby vol. 2
Viz Media