The President's Time

Mutsuki Nagasawa's father has left his son as the president of Biei Cosmetics and a strange request at his death bed: to become the evilest boss to walk the face of the earth. Thus begins Tamaki Kirishima's President's Time, a ridiculous comedy about two salarymen in love. Crack of all the jokes is Mutsuki who is supposed to become the evil president, yet the worst offence that he can commit is to walk a red light, and he is pampered by his men to the point of being completely helpless when he gets separated from them. It is on one of these trips when he encounters Makoto Torii, a handsome young man who takes Mutsuki in when he randomly faints near his house. Mutsuki becomes obsessed with the man and finds out later on that Torii actually works at his company - there is a conflict though: Torii doesn't want Mutsuki to become evil, yet Mutsuki risks losing the company lest he follow his father's wishes.

If the premise makes you giggle, this might be a manga for you - it makes me groan, and not with pleasure. Good news (or the bad, in my case) is that the whole manga is exactly what it sounds like - crazy comedy with silly characters and a completely unbelievable plot. The love story doesn't make it a whole lot better - there's nothing about these characters that would make me particularly like them, and their emotions seem sudden and forced. Expressionless Torii comes across aloof and Mutsuki is nervous and jittery, often blushing and can't make up his mind between the man he's fallen in love with and his father's wishes. Plot trots on predictably - there's never any question what side Mutsuki will choose and hurdles he has to jump through just seem a bore. I'm not against humor in BL, in fact some of my favorite characters and books come loaded with it - just that this particular brand of juvenile humor really isn't my cup of tea. Question of whether Mutsuki scribble some graffiti on some posters just isn't enough of an enticement for me to keep reading.

I dislike the art in The President's Time to a point of distraction. Although on the plus side the men are manly, on the negative side is everything else. Faces are oddly flat and expressionless, poses awkward, suits hideous, and character designs uninteresting and at times plan ugly. There are only few sex scenes of which in half the sex is only implied, but there are some explicit panels here and there to properly earn the mature rating. The main attraction point of this manga is definitely in the characters, the comedy and the plot (or the lack of it). There's nothing wrong with 801's release - it's nicely packaged in a colorful dust jacket and a color page and though there is no extras to speak of, there are short translator's notes in the back explaining some of the Japanese references, and a yonkoma about Torii's brothers on the back slip of the dust jacket as well as a hidden extra page on the back cover under the jacket.

The President's Time can only be recommended to people who like crackpot comedy. If you can't stomach over-the-top wacky characters and unbelievable plot-lines, this one is definitely not one for you. Even average writing can be rescued with other merits, but since the art is below average and smut content low nothing saves this one.