Corporate Spy Falls for Puppet Company President
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Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series The Busy Bee Falls for the Useless Cat's Meow. While the manga may vary slightly from all other forms of media, it may have similar story elements and could be considered spoilers.
Content Warning: There may be references to mentions of religion, power imbalance, spying, manipulation, invasion of privacy, mentions of car accidents, death, strained familial relationships, overwork, nepotism, overuse of medication, gossiping, mentions of sexual harassment, impersonating a relative, homomisia, self-deprecation, mentions of gambling, infertility, mentions of cheating (not between the main couple), bribery, extortion, and terminal illness, as they appear in the manga.
This post was sponsored by Renta!, a digital manga rental and purchasing platform where you can sample, rent, and purchase officially translated manga in various genres like shojo, seinen, josei, and BL. If you’d like to support the BL library, check out a free sample of this manga by clicking here or the link at the bottom of the review. Thank you so much for your support Renta!. Please note that all thoughts and opinions in this review are entirely my own and have not been influenced by this sponsor.
Synopsis:
Junya is super talented. In his spare time, he frequently obtains licenses and takes exams, making him exceptionally skilled in multiple areas and industries. Unfortunately, all of his talent and enthusiasm have only earned him more and more work to the point that he works well into the evening and survives almost exclusively on canned coffee. Junya was supposed to join the company as a corporate spy on behalf of his father in hopes of getting closer to the president of the company, seduce him, and then use their bedroom time against him. However, the president, Zen, is heavily guarded by his secretary, and Junya is often far too busy working on other people’s work to even have the time to try and get close to him.
Junya’s father isn’t interested in excuses. Zen’s company is their rival, and to secure a big contract, they must ruin the president’s reputation as soon as possible. So, at the next opportunity, Junya takes a chance and finally gets close to the president. But what he finds may be even more scathing and reputation-shattering than what he had initially planned.
Review:
The art style in this is very classic. While some people would probably love it, it’s not for me. I especially don’t care for the size and shape of their noses. Plus, the size of their hair or the back of their heads, in relation to the proportion of the rest of their features, is so odd-looking. A random but interesting note is that Asahina sometimes looks like he’s a character from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. I’m not sure if that’s a positive or negative, but I do know it highlights how inconsistent the style is, which makes me sad. The little chibis are super cute, and some regular panels are on the cute side, but they can’t carry the art for this.
While we’re on the topic of the art, I want to talk about the spicy scenes. There is lots of smut in this, but it is, unfortunately, pretty stiff and awkward. I honestly found myself cringing or laughing throughout those scenes. I’m not sure if it’s due to the older style of art or something else, but they look quite silly. If you’re coming in for a seriously hot and steamy time, that’s not here. If you would like to laugh at some awkward and cringy smut, on the other hand, come on in.
Unfortunately, the story isn’t much better. There is one plot point that really bothers me. There is a subplot where Junya finds a picture of a man standing beside his pregnant mom. It’s pretty evident that this will be revealed to be his real biological father, but once this is presented to us, it isn’t brought up again until the very last chapter. It happens at the end of the second chapter, and then what follows doesn’t even touch on this plot point. I had to go back and re-read those panels to ensure I wasn’t missing something because it came off like a page was missing. I wish this hadn’t even been brought up until it was going to be explored because, by the time it was explored, I had just given up on it altogether.
However, there is one major win in this series. Based on the first chapter, I wasn’t expecting it to be funny. It was noted as being a comedy, but the opening didn’t feel like it was building up to anything humorous. Zen comes off as an aloof asshole, and I was expecting a pretty intense slow burn where Junya eventually tears down the president’s hard exterior. To my pleasant surprise, however, Zen turns out to be a silly little love bug. He’s airheaded and gregarious, the complete opposite of the character we are initially presented with. In my opinion, he makes it impossible not to love him, which makes Junya’s instant attraction and romance much more believable. I adored Zen’s real personality, and I think this reveal made the story much more palatable than I had anticipated.
Results:
Overall, this one had some really high highs and some really low lows. The art and the smut were far from my favorite, but I did fall in love with Zen’s character. I was so glad they did a bait-and-switch, but I wish the overall narrative had been better. This wasn’t a win for me personally, but if you’re looking for something you can spend an evening laughing at as opposed to with, this might be the one for you. Either way, I’d love to see more characters like Zen in the future.
Have you read The Busy Bee Falls for the Useless Cat's Meow? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
This post was sponsored by Renta!, a digital manga rental and purchasing platform where you can sample, rent, and purchase officially translated manga in various genres like shojo, seinen, josei, and BL. If you’d like to support the BL library, check out a free sample of this manga by clicking here:
Click here to read it for yourself!
Thank you so much for your support Renta!. Please note that all thoughts and opinions in this review are entirely my own and have not been influenced by this sponsor.