The Spring 2023 Manga Guide

We Can't Do Just Plain Love

What's It About? 

Devoted office worker Sakura Yuino has been transferred to work under a new supervisor: the handsome, gentlemanly Tatsuki Kiritani. From the outside, the two of them seem very put-together — but they're both hiding troublesome personal issues. Sakura has a scent fetish, and Tatsuki can't be around women without… getting aroused.

To help him out, dedicated subordinate Sakura proposes "special training" to help Tatsuki get over his issues with women (bonus: she can indulge her scent kink). What could possibly go wrong?

We Can't Do Just Plain Love has story and art by Mafuyu Fukita, with English translation by Renta! and Christine Dashiell. This volume was retouched and lettered by Vibrraant Publishing Studio. Tokyopop will release its first volume both digitally and physically on March 24.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

I've been saying for years that those of us who were little girls growing up on Card Captor Sakura are now grown women with disposable incomes who would like some manga aimed specifically at us. Tokyopop has jumped on that bandwagon (alongside Viz and Seven Seas) to bring us a physical release of racy romance manga previously only available serialized on Renta!: We Can't Do Just Plain Love. I definitely applaud the effort, even if this isn't my favorite in the genre (or on Renta!).

The most obvious comparison here is with Sweat and Soap, but where that manga featuring a protagonist with a scent fetish was, at its heart, about a healthy and loving relationship, this one is really more in it for the unbridled genre romance. There's very little that could be termed “healthy” in Yuino and Kiritani's relationship at this point, which is the point. Both of them feel like they can't have “regular” romantic relationships, Yuino because of her scent fetish (although an early comment also implies that she may be aromantic), and Kiritani because he's got an overly excitable penis. Any contact, eye or otherwise, gives him an erection, and he's decided to steer clear of ladies to the point where he's basically rendered himself phobic. But he's also got a scent that Yuino loves, so she suggests that they embark upon a physical relationship to “cure” him.

If that's not a blatant plot device, I don't know what is, and I admire the way the creator just goes for it. It's also interesting to get to know Kiritani better and to realize that his issue may be more a case of a possessive personality than trauma; once he and Yuino are sleeping together, he begins to think of her as “his” in an exclusive sense. Yuino has clearly gotten herself in over her head with this guy, but now she can't get out of their relationship – nor does she really want to. He makes her uncomfortable sometimes, but she likes it, even if she doesn't understand why.

This isn't as well done as I'd like, either in just being purely smut or in having an underlying plot. It wouldn't be my first choice to grab a second volume of, either. But the art is nice (apart from Yuino's impressive thigh gap) and it's just different enough to be interesting. And hey, I'd rather read a whole volume at once, so hopefully more of Renta!'s titles will follow this one into physical release.

Christopher Farris

Rating:

Being a somewhat kinky spicy romance between two adults in office attire means I would expect We Can't Do Just Plain Love to be so far up my alley that I need to put up signs letting it know what the parking hours are. And as it turns out, I would be right! Admittedly, it's rather hard to be a let-down when you're this simple and direct. And that sure seems to be the strategy leading lady Yuino takes in making clear to her supervisor Kiritani how willing she is to "work under" him, as it were. The pretense of hormonally driven scent fetishes and awkward complexes to be helped over are honestly as light as the story beats that pace out watching these two get down to bone town, and what else should it be?

Admittedly We Can't Do Just Plain Love does have layers beyond the sheets and blankets that Kiritani and Yuino are rolling around in. At times it can almost seem contradictory, particularly as Kiritani embodies an aspirationally attainable guy who's both an awkwardly adorable doofus and also incredible in the sack. But then we also catch Yuino making a point of coming over and cleaning Kiritani's house for him just because she likes getting a big old whiff of him at the same time she's running this love-life-coach plan and we're like "Wait, whose fantasy is this supposed to be anyway?" Indeed, part of the appeal of We Can't Do Just Plain Love seems to be that its adults-only escapism really seems to swing both ways, both characters pursuing each other at decisive, though just respectful enough points to make their working relationship look aspirationally easy.

Do know that means you are indeed getting plenty of straight-up porn filling out the pages of this book. Some of the art and anatomy therein can feel awkward, but the real driving success of these scenes is how they still portray the push-and-pull personality dynamic between Kiritani and Yuino. They've got a genuine rapport in bed that can result in some fun segments sussing out who's putting on some sort of front for the benefit of the other, even as plenty of it is definitely pure fantasy fanservice. As well, the book doesn't shy away from goofy, personable moments in the margins either, like Yuino turning into an embarrassed blanket burrito or roasting Kiritani over eye contact afterward. Yuino in general is an extremely amusing weirdo who stands apart from some of the more reactive leading ladies I've encountered in similar books. We Can't Do Just Plain Love absolutely is a shameless fantasy a lot of the time, but hey, that is why we're here, and it's pretty good at it.

Jean-Karlo Lemus

Rating:

What we have here is a fairly spicy office love story between a spunky OL with a scent fetish and her hunky boss, who's very anxious around women because he pops boners way too easily. The set-up explores the two sides of our main lead: Yuino is very headstrong in trying to help Kiritani with his shyness, occasionally teasing him as she indulges in his scent, while Kiritani frets over this woman that he couldn't get rid of if he tried. In private, Kiritani has Yuina utterly wrapped around his finger, and Yuina finds herself almost overwhelmed by his presence. They're perfect for each other, and they just can't bring themselves to admit it to each other.

The artwork is overall pretty good, be it with Yuino's cute expressions as she gives Kiritani gray hairs or the hot-and-heavy moments between them in private. Of course, the real fun is the character writing between the cast. There's very little about the character dynamics in We Can't Do Just Plain Love that feels particularly groundbreaking, but it's well-executed and sometimes that's all you really need. Recommended, just be aware that there's some explicit sexual content.

MrAJCosplay

Rating:

Now this is a title that genuinely surprised me because I feel like the setup is filled with a lot of misdirection. We have a very prominent and influential figure at a company being given a young, naïve female subordinate. However, the subordinate is actually far more proactive in their interactions with her superior while said superior can barely make eye contact with them due to a rather humorous but understandable past trauma impacting the way they interact with women. There's no real abuse of power here and if anything, there are a lot of moments where the two characters kind of approach each other like adults with a sort of childish undertone to everything. This is more so for the sake of levity as there isn't really a moment that feels as though either character isn't acting like an adult.

I believe the subordinate when she says that she wants to help her superior get over his trauma and I believe the superior when he says that he doesn't want to take advantage of anything and is incredibly wary of social circumstances. Naturally, their relationship begins to bloom and that creates a sort of mild possessiveness but I like how naturally these two play off of each other. That makes the payoff of the sex scenes feel all the more impactful because you do genuinely feel like the emotional connection between the two is getting stronger after every sex scene. It's cute seeing the dichotomy between how they act in their everyday life versus how they act in the bedroom. This is definitely one of my favorite adult series on this guide and I am genuinely rooting for both characters to reach a point where they both feel fulfilled and comfortable with the circumstances that they find themselves in.