The Fall 2023 Manga Guide

I Can't Refuse S

What's It About? 

Miku is in a bind: her father has taken on too much debt, subjecting her family to so much work and stress that now her mother has fallen ill. Miku is willing to do what it takes to help her family, so she agrees to become a wealthy benefactor's mistress to raise the cash they need! Unfortunately, that alone isn't enough–the wealthy man has a preference for women who are experienced in bed, and Miku is anything but. That's when the man's butler, Kamishiro, steps in. The gorgeous but sharp-tongued Kamishiro is blunt: he says he's been sent to train Miku in the sexual arts. Under his hot and heavy tutelage, can Miku become experienced enough to inflame the desire of any man…including her teacher?

I Can't Refuse S has story and art by Ai Hibiki. The English translation is translated by Katrina Leonoudakis and lettered by Mercedes McGarry. Published by Seven Seas Entertainment's Steamship label (September 26, 2023).


Content Warning: This manga contains explicit sexual content. For mature (18+) readers only.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

What I like about both of Ai Hibiki's manga that I've read is that she always has an underlying theme that belies the smutty exterior. The previous title I've experienced, Hitorijime – Choukyou Ganbou, or Teach Me Love in the French edition, buries an affirmation of female sexual desire under a pseudo-incest romance between stepsiblings. On the other hand, I Can't Refuse S hides a message about consent in a story about a young woman who sells herself to a wealthy relative to pay off her father's debt. Miku's got a classic manga Debt Dad, along with the added burden that her father's defection has had a deleterious effect on her mom's health. She remembers that a distant family member helped her father financially before, and she knows he has multiple mistresses, so, not wanting to ask for a handout, she goes to offer her sexual services. The problem? She's got zero experience.

Or at least, that's what Butler Sougo says is the problem. To be perfectly frank, if Sougo is just the butler, I will be shocked; between the fact that he offers, er, is assigned to teach Miku how to be a mistress and that we've never seen this mysterious wealthy relative, I'm guessing that Sougo either is the wealthy relation or his son. And while he's willing to “train” Miku in sex, he's also cautious about going at her pace – he instructs her on consent and praises her when she gets too flustered or upset and says as much. Sougo's attracted to her, but he also doesn't want to push her into this, and he's not all that keen on her selling her body to repay her father's debts. This, fortunately, doesn't come across as him trying to save her from herself; it's more that he wants her to go into it with her eyes wide open – and because she desires him all on her own.

This is one of the less immediately smutty Steamship titles – like Outbride, there's no penetrative sex in this volume, just a lot of groping and kissing various body parts. The topic is more risqué than the book itself, which aligns with how Teach Me Love unfolds, so it's possibly just the formula Hibiki likes to work with. The art isn't spectacular, but at least there are female nipples present, and neither Miku nor Sougo have excessively exaggerated bodies. It feels like the first fifty-odd pages of a contemporary romance novel, and since the Steamship line trades in manga versions of the Western romance genre, that does work. It's a little abrupt getting off the ground, but still fun, and if you've ever wanted to read a book where the line “I wasn't expecting to get sex lessons from a super-hot butler!” was used completely unironically, this is your chance.

MrAJCosplay

Rating:

As someone who has dabbled in dominant and submissive relationships, I always feel a bit uncomfortable reading stories like this. I understand the taboo of someone in a position of power looking after or training somebody who has next to no experience whatsoever can be titillating in some ways. But that power dynamic will invariably mean you're fighting an uphill battle for me regarding general enjoyment. Thankfully, I think I Can't Refuse S knows that because its entire premise is based around a girl who wants to be put into that situation. Scratch that, “want” is a very strong word because she doesn't want to use her body to pay off a debt, but she is unfortunately forced into a situation where she thinks she has no choice. Then, due to her lack of experience in being a mistress, she needs to get schooled in the ways of being a mistress by a conventionally attractive butler character. You can see where everything is going from the jump, and I'm of two minds about the story.

On the one hand, it doesn't do much to satiate that personal discomfort. Half the time, I feel bad for Miku because she shouldn't have to deal with any of the bad luck that forced her into the situation in the first place. She wants to repair a debt that her shitty father left to them and take care of her sick mom. However, I have to give the book credit that it does a good job framing some of the sexual encounters in a way that makes it easy to get sucked into the scenes being portrayed. The artwork is gorgeous, and the way the monologues are used is fascinating because sometimes I can't tell what the main character wants anymore. Is she going along with the training because it's something she has to do, or is she starting to reach an awakening point of her own? That is the best way you could do a story like this, so I have to give it credit. If you're like me and generally don't like these types of stories, it would be worth checking this out to see if it's one of the few that keeps you engaged, even if it doesn't ultimately win you over.