Red-Light District / Sex Work / Prostitution
These works take place primarily in the red-light district or feature a red-light district as a consistent setting. These works may also include areas where prostitution is commonplace, but not exclusively in a red-light district.
Manga Review | Reward Me with Your Body, Sir by Reo Ohno
Title: Reward Me with Your Body, Sir
Ookami is doing his best to please his clients, but his secretaries are making it difficult. They are often incompetent at best and unreliable at worst, making Ookami’s working life impossible. He is desperate for a solution and willing to hire anyone just so long as they don’t get in his way. As a result, Ookami looks to… an unconventional source. He checks out an app to rent a boyfriend.
There is a seemingly neverending supply of potential boyfriends, which means an unending supply of potential secretaries. At a cursory glance, Ookami lands on Mao. He’s beautiful, and, for no reason in particular, he is Ookami’s first choice. When they meet in person, it starts out more awkward than he would like. Mao immediately tries to jump Ookami’s bones, which almost puts Ookami off this plan altogether. But once Ookami sees Mao all cleaned up and in action, he knows he made the right choice.
That is until Mao asks for a reward afterward.
Manga Review | Kuroe and the Garden of Feminine Pleasures by Chifuyu
Title: Kuroe and the Garden of Feminine Pleasures
Sonogi Eda woke up after a night out drinking in a shocking predicament. He has a vagina. Thankfully, he still has all his other parts, too, but that is a small comfort during this horrifying discovery. What’s worse is that Sonogi doesn’t have insurance, so he can’t even afford to go to the doctor to get it checked out. Desperate for an outlet and anyone to confide in who can help, Sonogi goes in to work at the host club and asks his boss if he knows anyone with medical knowledge he could talk to.
As it turns out, the boss recommends the number one host of the club: Kuroe. While Sonogi’s not convinced Kuroe can actually help, he has nowhere else to go and asks Kuroe to meet him in private. After disclosing his current predicament, Kuroe talks Sonogi into showing him his new body part. While all Kuroe does is humiliate and tease Sonogi, as well as blackmail him with this new secret, Kuroe does have some information about what is going on with Sonogi’s body. There is an illegal drug going around that gives the person who takes it the opposite sex’s genitals. Thankfully, it isn’t permanent, but it won’t go away in less than a month.
Relieved that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, Sonogi is comforted… except that now he’s forced into Kuroe’s servitude in exchange for keeping his secret. Can Sonogi withstand Kuroe’s sadistic, womanizing tendencies?
Manga Review | Wails of the Bound ;β by Keri Kusabi
Title: Wails of the Bound ;β
This is the sequel to Wails of the Bound.
No longer feeling compelled to protect his chief anymore, Miyabi, having finally met his alpha partner and being marked, Shingo Utou decides to take a promotion, putting him into the chief position of division two. Utou hopes his time of pining after and protecting omegas, who could never love him in return because he’s a beta, is finally over for the foreseeable future, but then he meets the new hire: Sumito Sasabe.
Sasabe is an omega, and though he’s not planning on disclosing his secondary gender at work, he has to disclose it to his bosses. Sasabe hates being an omega, as any success he has is always attributed to his ability to seduce and pleasure. But he hates betas even more as they can do nothing for him, unable to mark him and protect him from other alphas, so he’d rather hate them so he doesn’t mistakenly fall in love with one.
Utou is having flashbacks of working with Miyabi, and after talking to his boss, it’s clear that the intent of hiring Sasabe is to replace Miyabi and what he offered the company: his body. Utou has no intention of seeing another omega be used by clients again. But every time Utou tries to help, Sasabe sees him as just another predator trying to take advantage of him. Still, as time goes on and the two grow closer and closer, they find themselves falling for each other. But Sasabe’s role in the company is already becoming that of a sex worker, and he’s desperate to take that opportunity away. A beta can’t mark an omega, so there is only so much Utou can do for Sasabe. Thankfully, there is an alpha from another company lingering around that Sasabe could use.
Manga Review | Wails of the Bound by Keri Kusabi
Title: Wails of the Bound
Keisuke Takaba is an alpha, and he’s recently been hired at a company. As the new guy, Takaba is still feeling out the office hierarchy, but all of his assumptions go out the window when he finds out his chief is an omega. Takaba has an aversion to omegas due to his childhood, having to see and hear his omega father being used and abused by various customers. Add in the unfortunate fact that Takaba doesn’t even know who sired him, and this has created an intense hatred and phobia of omegas. But Chief Miyabi Karasuma isn’t concerned with being well-liked, especially by alphas.
Miyabi Karasuma, chief of his department, didn’t get where he is by being a well-mannered omega. Having been hidden away and confined by his father for most of his young life, the moment he became an adult, he was determined to build a life for himself where he used every advantage his omega body afforded him. He has sex with clients, many of his client’s subordinates, and even the higher-ups in his own company, securing contracts and money that keep him at the top of his company’s sales reports. His sales tactics are an open secret around the office, and most people despise him for his unconventional methods, none more so than Takaba.
But as Takaba spends more and more time with (and beneath) Karasuma, Takaba is beginning to realize that Karasuma isn’t just any omega. Karasuma is strong. But even the strong need a place to rest, and Takaba wants nothing more than to be Karasuma’s place. Can Takaba break through Karasuma’s disgust for alphas?
Manhwa Review | Bound to Be Fools by gahyun
Title: Bound to Be Fools
Kangjin Cha was on the cusp of taking his own life in high school. He was ready to jump off the top of a building at school, hoping to embarrass his overbearing and cruel father as well as escape his suffering. Before he can go through with his plan, Jungkwon Jang, another student, rushes to the rooftop and snatches Kangjin down back to the safety of the roof. Having been rescued by a stranger, Kangjin is desperate to learn more about his savior and, to do so demands that Jungkwon take responsibility for the life he saved. Jungkwon reluctantly agrees.
Over time, the two become the best of friends. It isn’t long after that that the two end up becoming boyfriends. They are the epitome of happiness with each other. But outside of their relationship, their individual lives are fraught with pain and suffering. Jungkwon, in particular, is struggling with the immense debt left behind by his late father, who committed suicide. The debt collectors are once again hounding his mother, and he is desperately trying to protect both his sister and his mother from the violence, only for Kangjin to come in and bear witness to one of the most embarrassing times in his life. He loves Kangjin, but he never wanted him to see him so low.
In a fit of rage, Jungkwon breaks up with Kangjin and refuses to see him ever again. Kangjin is absolutely heartbroken, Jungkwon’s love being the one bright spot in his life. Kangjin’s sorrow eventually swells into rage, and even years later, as an adult working as a host and sex worker, he still finds his life being directed by the trauma that abandonment caused him. When Kangjin ends up running into Jungkwon, all of those feelings come back to the surface, and Kangjin wants nothing more than to finally get revenge. As it happens, Jungkwon is still struggling with debt and desperate for a way to dig himself and his family back out, and what better way to get his vengeance than to drag Jungkwon into the same muck Kangjin is rolling in?
Manhwa Review | Cover-up by GyaGa
Title: Cover-up
Yeon Geum-hwa is a tattoo artist and a highly sought-after one at that. Unfortunately, he learned his craft from his ex-boyfriend, an obsessive and controlling man whom Geum-hwa would love nothing more than to escape from. That opportunity arises when he gets a call about a potential client in Japan. They want to fly Geum-hwa out there to perform a cover-up for someone. While it’s not explicitly stated, it’s not hard to figure out that this client is part of a gang or yakuza.
It’s a dangerous prospect, but if it will free Geum-hwa from his ex’s influence, the danger is well worth it. So, after designing the tattoo, Geum-hwa is flown out to Japan, where he meets his client, Katamoto Seung-jae, the second son of the Katamoto family’s head. Geum-hwa inadvertently ends up in the middle of a power struggle between the first son and the second son, being used as leverage by the first son when Geum-hwa and Seung-jae begin a physical relationship. While he’s no longer any safer in Japan than he would be at home, Geum-hwa is hopelessly in love with Seung-jae, and while Seung-jae feels the same, he isn’t willing to risk Geum-hwa’s life.
Even though Geum-hwa is willing to risk everything to be with Seung-jae, Seung-jae feels compelled to let him go. Will Seung-jae be able to follow through, or will he be unable to let Geum-hwa go?
Manga Review | Aggressive Sex with an Angelic Smile by Io Kaziwara
Title: Aggressive Sex with an Angelic Smile
Tatsumi is a fisherman, and he enjoys it for the most part. Unfortunately, it isn’t the most stable or consistent way of making money, and when he’s finally reached the end of his finances, Tatsumi takes the leap and applies for a higher-paying job in the city. After getting invited for an interview, Tatsumi packs a few essentials and makes his way out there. His friends berate him over the phone, telling him that he will get scammed… again, apparently having a history of being lured by beautiful women.
As if the world has it out for him, after hanging up, a pretty girl runs up to Tatsumi, begging for help. He remembers his friends’ warnings and intends to walk away, but then he sees a pair of men in black heading in their direction. Without knowing where he’s going, he takes the girl’s hand and runs into the city. The girl directs him to a warehouse where they lock themselves up to hide from the men pursuing them. There, Tatsumi does his best to comfort the girl… only for her to reveal she is a pretty man, and he has been drugged with an aphrodisiac and has no intention of letting Tatsumi go without having his way with him.
After all is said and done, it turns out that this was the interview for the job, the job being a gay pornstar as Yuki’s debut partner. To say Tatsumi is stunned is an understatement, but without a dime in his pocket and nothing left of his pride, Tatsumi takes the position. Can Tatsumi make it as Yuki’s beefy bottom, or will it all be too much for him to handle?
Manhwa Review | My X Report by Golden Egg
Title: My X Report
Seon Seorim got a job working under the prolific Professor Jin. Unfortunately, while on the job, Seorim pressed a button that caused an expensive piece of equipment to explode, leaving nothing of it behind. Seorim thinks the worst thing to happen to him will be getting fired, but then Professor Jin drops a bomb on him: he has to pay Professor Jin back for the damages. The piece of equipment that was destroyed is almost priceless and will undoubtedly bankrupt Seorim. However, Professor Jin has an alternative solution: get hired by Professor Jin’s rival, Gong Woon, and steal and sabotage as Professor Jin commands.
With no other choice, Seorim does as he’s told and is hired on as an assistant to Professor Gong. While Seorim feels guilty and nervous, he’s ecstatic about this opportunity as Professor Gong is touted as a genius and one of the greatest innovators of the time. Seorim is looking forward to seeing what Professor Gong is working on until he sees the storage room packed full of unique sex toys. Surely this is a mistake, right?
Not at all. As it turns out, there is a lucrative market for sex toys, and Professor Gong is all too happy to capitalize on it. The only problem is he needs someone to test them, and who is better than his new assistant? Maybe this plan of espionage is a bit more than Seorim anticipated.
Manhwa Review | Rent Boy by Studio Stellas
Title: Rent Boy
Anton Arnault has finally come of age. Unfortunately, his celebration isn’t all that fun. Since he is a child of mixed blood, most attendees (the upper crust) don’t see him as the heir to the Arnault fortune but as an invader into their exclusive world. They foresee his rise to power as the end of the prestigious Arnault name. They don’t try to hide their disdain and mockery of him either, and all Anton can do is shoulder their judgment and do everything he can to prove them wrong.
Unfortunately, the coming-of-age party isn’t the end of the ritual. Now that he is of age, it’s time for him to visit the Cyrene Salon, a pretty facade, hiding behind it an exclusive brothel where the upper crust can explore all manner of pleasure hidden from the eyes of general society. Anton must also visit and give up his virginity to one of the many workers there to finally enter the noble world as a man. Wanting to establish himself in this society, he requests the top sex worker in the brothel, who turns out to be a young man named Arwin. Anton is instantly smitten and finds himself drawn in again and again just for Arwin.
Unfortunately, Anton isn’t the only one bewitched by Arwin. As it turns out, Arwin is also his father’s favorite, and Klaus Arnault isn’t above challenging his son for the affection of Arwin. Can Anton maintain his foothold as heir to the Arnault family, or will he lose it all just to be with Arwin?