I'll Be Your Slave

If I had to pick my most favorite type of relationship to see portrayed in yaoi manga, it would have to be the Messed-Up Relationship. I love to see extreme power imbalances and illogical devotion. The more screwed up the relationship, it seems, the better I liked it. When I saw the cover of I'll Be Your Slave, with the devoted businessman cradling the loafer-clad foot of a beautiful boy, the image combined with the title seemed to promise that I'd be treated with a happily twisted relationship, even if the book was published by Juné Manga, who usually don't publish titles with much unusual content.

I guess I should have considered the publisher before I bought the book, because I'll Be Your Slave barely even tried to live up to my expectations. The premise of the book is what one would expect from such a title, and the book's back-cover description doesn't lie. The businessman from the front cover, Moriya, is a top advertising executive, and he chooses the beautiful high schooler Ouno, the pretty boy whose shoe he's holding, to be the perfect face for his new ad campaign. Ouno's frail beauty earns him the devotion of everyone working on the campaign, but special attention from Moriya, who caters to Ouno's every desire both on and off the photoshoot set. Moriya does everything Ouno asks without hesitation, even when he asks for sex, but beautiful and cold Ouno never shows much passion, appreciation, or even interest in all that Moriya does for him. Moriya, of course, falls into wondering if Ouno cares for him as much as he cares for Ouno. Toss in a rival advertising exec looking to lure Ouno away from Moriya's arms, and you have a pretty formulaic yaoi story.

Formula isn't what makes I'll Be Your Slave bad. Bad characterization and lack of consistency, as well as a lack of anything that might help the reader to care about the characters, make this manga bad. Ouno barely has any personality at all, and spends most of the manga staring emptily, vapidly, out a window or off into the distance. If Ouno were cold, imposing, bitchy or demanding, he'd be a fantastic "ice princess" character, but he only manages to be a pretty sheet of blank paper with no redeeming qualities. Or, in fact, any qualities whatsoever. Add in the tendency of the characters to burst into tears and run away from situations -- in an awkward, body-twisted pose not seen outside of intensive yoga classes -- and you have a manga that induces more forehead-smacks than face-fanning.

Mangaka Miki Araya has a few nice nude sex scenes scattered throughout the volume, but as pretty as they are, sex is not enough to save a pointless plot and flat, lifeless characters. I'll Be Your Slave looks promising, but in the end -- actually, from the beginning! -- it fails to deliver the kind of deliciously co-dependent yaoi relationship it promises.