Secretary's Job? by Araya Miki

Rating: 7
Juné 2012 - Taiyo Tosho 2011
1 volume
Translation: Laura Russell

"Adorable and super-talented Takase is the star secretary of his company! His reputation’s been built on his amazing ability to make anyone he works with a success…but what will happen when he’s assigned to the lazy son of the big boss? Can a prodigy improve the reputation of a handsome slacker?" - Juné

Takase's legendary skills basically consist of staring at his assigned target with big round eyes shining with faith and belief until the slacker is guilt-tripped into doing some work, or generally being so cute and adorable that the slacker is motivated to work just to get into Takase's good books. A serious manga this is not. What it is is a gag manga crossed with BL. I defy you not to chuckle or at least smirk at some point in the book. The characters, their actions and the scenarios are ridiculous to the extreme but the humour is very much tongue-in-cheek and is oftentimes a knowing send-up of the BL genre.

Araya has a distinctive good-humoured narrative style that she employs for all her books so readers will either like her work or not. Much like slapstick comedy, the story is not to be taken seriously but read with a wry suspension of disbelief and hopefully with a grin on the face. I, for one, am a fan and always look forward to her books and the silly antics that her characters get up to. Yes, they're silly but Araya is well aware and regularly pokes fun at her own characters with funny narrative asides.  

Secretary's Job is a fun lighthearted title for those who like a laugh. The humour won't be to everyone's taste but it is quite unlike most other humour you get in the BL genre (the most similar I can think of is Sakarai Shushushu's work) so even if you're somewhat dubious it could still be worth trying out just for the novelty factor.