"Tough Love at the Office: The Complete Yuri Collection," is an Action-Packed and Steamy Tale

I became aware of the manga, "Tough Love at the Office," when I read a review of it by Tegan O'Neil on The Comics Journal website of the version that collects the whole tale. Created by Sal Jiang, translated by Alexa Frank, and adapted by Asha Bardon, the series focuses on two female office employees, Shirakawa and Kuroda. They start out despising each other, but there can be a weirdly thin line between hate and love, or lust. This is part of the, "Yuri," genre of manga, which focuses on romance between female characters (Yaoi being centered on male characters). I wouldn't describe what Shirakawa and Kuroda have as romance, however. There are literal knock-down, drag-out brawls between the characters that take on a quite erotic tone before shifting into outright angry sex without being too raunchy, as this book is labeled as being suitable for audiences 16 and older--this ain't hentai/porn, in other words, even if it gets a bit steamy at points.

Sal Jiang is a fantastic storyteller. Jing excels at portraying moments of calm in the office with a building intensity you wouldn't normally associate with a bunch of cubicles and computers, leading into the actual crazy fights or bits of corporate intrigue...that often lead to punching, scratching, kicking, and kissing or caressing. It's a quirky read and one that is, as I'd agree with Tegan's aforementioned review stating, quite sexy. It's two terrible people fighting and/or getting freaky, after all, what else would you expect?

This is a thick book, as it collects the entire yarn in amazingly illustrated black-and-white between the covers. Plus, as you keep reading, you really do begin to care about the two leads. As another review by Erica Friedman notes, "The characters are terrible people, but they sometimes do good or kind things, which gives them nuance. Neither of them is a sadist to the pleasant office drones around them. They are, however, two dominant humans fighting for dominance in every way possible." The sheer escalating drama of it all gives things a bit of a dark comedy vibe, mixed with the psycho-sexual aspects to create a superb dish of a story. If you enjoy manga and are looking for an interesting take on the most vicious workplace romance you could imagine, "Tough Love at the Office: the Complete Yuri Collection," is definitely worth a read.

5 out of 5 Stars.