Ladies on Top – Is it wrong to get done by a girl?!

I’m still on the fence if manga Instagram is the best or worst thing I’ve ever chosen to get myself involved in. That’s neither here nor there since I did see the English-edition of Ladies on Top or Onnanoko Ga Daicha Dame Desuka?, i.e. more literally Is it Wrong to get Done by a Girl?. It falls into the more recent trend of josei with more sexual themes getting picked up for translation. I got curious, started reading online, and knew I needed it in my collection immediately. After I finished reading it, I re-read it again, and knew I’d have to talk about it here. So, without getting too ahead of myself, a plot synopsis!

Mitsuki has a bit of a problem. She’s cute, employed, and 100% ready to commit. Yet, all her previous relationships have failed spectacularly due to one problem. All the flirting techniques guys use, caressing her cheeks, patting her on the head, even the kabedon make her shudder rather then make her heart flutter! However, at twenty-four, Mitsuki has enough experiance to navigate these situations, and is determined to make her next relationship her final one. She’s currently dating the handsome, elite company worker Takayuki. All seems to be going well until one critical night where it seems that Mitsuki’s problem might be a potential solution for their relationship.

Where to really start with this series? I guess the most obvious starting point would be at the title itself. It’s one where it’s both so on the nose, but also a bit misleading. In Japanese and English, actually. Yes there is plenty of focus on the idea of Mitsuki “doing” Takayuki. I can’t take into consideration everyone’s circumstances, but at least in Japan, the idea of a woman “doing” a man is very uncommon.

Their relationship, like all relationships is so much more then just who is doing who. It’s a wider exploration on Mitsuki, the woman being the more proactive of the pair, and how that affects the relationship. She’s never been in a long standing relationship before, her previously relationships all being approximately three months. Certainly not one where her preferences took the lead. It’s a huge learning curve since she’s aware how lucky she is that she found a guy that seems to be at least willing to try to make her more comfortable than before.

That doesn’t make Takayuki’s half of the relationship a cake walk though. He’s been raised with the traditional sense of ‘men lead, women follow’, and struggles when he realized that isn’t his style. In his own explorations of relationship preferences, that he does prefer having a woman lead in certain regards. Some of Takayuki’s struggles also stem from his previous relationships, and how he has to work through those issues himself and then with Mitsuki. It’s really wholesome since the entire series centers itself on the sexier side of communication, boundary setting and expectations for the ‘roles’ a partner takes in the relationship.

Having focused on the wholesome, what about the actual sex scenes in the story? Nejiga Nameta does a great job of balancing a variety of depictions. There are explicit depictions with the intent of getting you hot under the collar. There are also more metaphorical depictions that allow the clumsy side of sex to be shown without giving you secondhand embarrassment. I actually thought the metaphors were pretty clever too. There are some scenes that are semi-censored or heavily implied, but in a tasteful way. A short summary is; it doesn’t get into the hentai side of sexual depictions, but it’s not overly fluffy either.

Talking a bit more about the art, outside of the sex scenes – it’s solid. The backgrounds are a nice blend of common backgrounds, textures, grey-scales that highlight the main action, but it’s nothing outstanding. The character designs lean more towards generic women’s sensibilities in terms of style and preferences, but isn’t unsurprising. Most importantly, everyone looks well proportioned regardless of situation.

Going a bit further, the secondary characters are pretty par for the course. We get a smattering of co-workers, ex’s, and eventually family members. The only really outstanding characters to watch out for is Takayuki’s most recent ex, and then co-worker/rival. They’re a little more fleshed out then the rest of the cast, but more or less serve the greater purpose to push our main couple’s relationship forward. I think this was unfortunately more due to the short run-time of the series, (six volumes with forty-four chapters), rather then author negligence.

All in all, I’ll keep this simple: if this sounds appealing to you, you should give it a read. It’s way more then just smut, and has a lot of really appealing points for a variety of readers. I know I certainly enjoyed it. With that, I’ll see you next post!