Manga Review: Caged Slave

[Jason]

Title: Caged Slave
Author: Yuiko Takamura
Mangaka: An Kanae
Genre: Yaoi, Light Novel, Romance
Licensed by: Juné Manga (DMP)
Price: $8.95/US

Tsukasa broke the cardinal rule of being a secretary—don’t sleep with the boss. Unfortunately for him, his boss decided to seek a better position by getting engaged to the daughter of the company president. Now Tsukasa finds himself nursing a broken heart from the basement file room, where his vengeful ex-boyfriend has reassigned him. All seems dark until one drunken night at a hotel where Tsukasa has the best sex of his life with a nameless man who picks him up at the bar. Now that Tsukasa has something to look forward to each weekend, he should be happy, but anonymous sex without love starts to take its toll on his heart.

This is my first time reading one of Juné Manga’s light novels and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’d heard that they were poorly translated and awkwardly written. Caged Slave didn’t have many translation issues that I could see, though there were a few word choices I questioned, but I still wouldn’t call it a fine piece of literature. Takamura follows a lot of the standard romance novel elements—a mysterious love interest; a troubled, but not unintelligent main character; a number of convenient misunderstandings to further the plot; a vengeful, but not too bright villain; etc., but none of those elements really adds up to something interesting.

The sex scenes are fairly hot, if a little forceful at times (beware those who don’t like non-con, because this one skirts the edge at one point) and there are a number of them, starting on the fifth page of the first chapter. Unfortunately good sex scenes are not enough to carry a story and, in the end, the relationship between Tsukasa and his mystery man simply isn’t developed enough to make this a believable romance, plus Tsukasa is, frankly, kind of annoying and whiny.

Kanae’s art certainly captures the characters well. Her version of Kanae has a moping look on his face that fits his personality, but makes me wonder how he would succeed as a high-powered secretary if he really were that delicate. None of the art is necessary to the story and none of it was interesting enough to make me purchase the book on the strength of the art alone.

All in all, none of the elements add up to a full or complete, compelling story and I’d let this one pass in favor of other, better written erotica and romances.

Reviewer: Snow Wildsmith
Proofer/Editor: Lissa Pattillo