Sub Uses His Safeword to Run Dom Host Club
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Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series It's Time For Your Obedience Training, My Subservient Pet. 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 dubcon/noncon, coercion, self-deprecation, sexism (specifically based on secondary sex), manipulation, power imbalance, BDSM, violence, child abuse, mentions of sex work, misuse of medication, perceived cheating (not between the main couple), divorce (not between the main couple), mentions of addiction, mentions of overdose, excessive drinking, strained familial relationships, mentions of death, murder, corruption, gang activity, and blood, as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
This review does include the extra side story “Intoxication.”
Kyoya is the boss. A once prolific host in his own right, Kyoya now runs his very own host club, catering specifically to the needs of Subs. In this world, people are born with secondary sexes – Doms who want to dominate, Subs who want to be dominated, Switches who can take on either role, and then those who have none of those needs. Subs have a biological need to be dominated, and if they don’t participate in some form of BDSM play, they can experience all manner of physical and mental issues. But play can be dangerous for Subs who can easily be taken advantage of by Doms, so Kyoya created this safe space for them.
Surely, in order to run a host club full of Doms, Kyoya would have to be a pretty powerful Dom himself, right?
On the contrary, Kyoya isn’t even someone with no secondary sex. He is a Sub, but he somehow has the ability to control Dom hosts. Masquerading as the most powerful Dom at the club, Kyoya has secretly laced his safeword into the contract the Doms sign before working, forming superficial partnerships with all of them. So, with a safeword, he can dominate a Dom just as easily as a Dom can a Sub. Unfortunately, for Subs, overuse of a safeword leads to intense physical pain, and Kyoya is beginning to deteriorate.
Thankfully, at his weakest, his new admin hire, Sota, is a Sub, so he isn’t in imminent danger… that is, until Sota reveals he also has a secret. He isn’t a Sub at all. He is a Dom, and he fully intends to dominate Kyoya.
Review:
The art is very reminiscent of Meguru Hinohara. I wouldn’t say it is up to that level quality-wise, but it has a lot of traits that I think people who love Meguru Hinohara would enjoy in this title. It is very narrow and angular, but it is to a point that I think, unlike in Meguru Hinohara, there is an alien-like quality to the characters. A better comparison might be a mix between Meguru Hinohara and Chifuyu. However, unlike Chifuyu‘s alien characters, I am just not a fan of this art style. It is very inconsistent; their necks sometimes look 30 feet long, and I just don’t find it all that attractive. If you want a fresh, clean art style, this isn’t the title for you.
While the art style isn’t my favorite, the story’s premise is very intriguing to me. I already love the dom/sub universe (as evidenced by the fact that I wrote my own), so I was beyond bought in at that point. But then to have a Sub running a host club full of Dom hosts, using his safeword to pretend he can command other Doms – it is such a fun and interesting concept. I also like that our love interest is a Dom pretending to be a Sub, which is unusual since Doms are usually portrayed as being the tippity top of society. Seeing a Sub with seemingly all of the power being brought down literally and figuratively to his knees by a Dom who he commands at work is such a fun power dynamic switch, and I was really looking forward to seeing it.
However, as much as I love the premise, and I enjoyed seeing it play out, this ended up being a huge disappointment narratively. Kyoya’s reason for hiding who he is is very much grounded in reality. His father was a Sub who died, leaving his mother, a Dom, to raise him and his brother alone. His brother, a Dom, becomes a very successful doctor, and while Kyoya tries to follow in his footsteps, he falls short. His mother doesn’t understand why Kyoya isn’t able to achieve as much as his brother, and he feels much of this is due to his being a Sub. It is a very painful, but very real and understandable fear when the foundation is the death of the father, who was a Sub.
But then we get into Sota’s reason for hiding the fact that he is a Dom. It doesn’t seem so out of left field at first, with his parents divorcing since their pairing shouldn’t have ended up creating a Dom child, but then it devolves into government corruption and conspiracy. The tone of all that is just so random and completely ruins the down-to-earth atmosphere of the rest of the tension. This especially sucks because a Sub is introduced during all of this, who tops Doms, which is such a rare find, but we hardly see anything about him beyond how he digs up some information on the government corruption. I would’ve much preferred if we stuck with the much more realistic tension and resolutions, which would’ve given much more time to other couples and dynamics, like Switches (which we also have a character of, but we see nothing of). I don’t mind something with more intrigue and on a grander scale, but that was completely unnecessary here in a story that had a fine premise without it.
Results:
This was one of the biggest disappointments I’ve had in a while. There aren’t a ton of dom/sub universe titles out there, and none have as many interesting premises and relationship dynamics, but that only makes this all the more disappointing. It is pretty ugly, and the narrative takes a turn that is beyond nonsensical. I wouldn’t recommend this at all. If you want to dip your toes in this universe, there are many better ones out there. This is a miss.
Have you read It's Time For Your Obedience Training, My Subservient Pet? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
