Yoroshiku Master by Tsukuba Sakura

Yoroshiku Master by Tsukuba Sakura

Art and story (c) Tsukuba Sakura

Genre: Shojo (13 and up, nothing too bad but there is hot springs naked)
Length: 3 Volumes – 12 Chapters




           The art is polished and pretty, there is something about the eyes that bothers me but I’ll address that later. The clothes look really good though sometimes there is some awkward boob positioning in tighter tops, otherwise attire is on the most part simple. The hair is really pretty

and fits the faces perfectly and you’ll want to pet it. Sometimes the hands look really giant, but other body issues don’t come up that I can recall. There are a lot of blush marks, but they are hardly distracting.
           Kurumi is used to being alone since her mother died when she was young and her father is very busy at work, still it makes it hard during holidays to sit by herself in her empty house. So when her father tells her he won’t make it home for Christmas Kurumi resigns herself and goes for a walk to clear her head. Squeezing through the crowd she bumps shoulders with a boy her age and something from him attaches itself to her, suddenly he is calling her master and does whatever comes out of her mouth with out hesitation. The strangest part is when he asks her to say ‘change into a reindeer’ and she does, he actually turns into one! And what can this Kaito mean, she’s Santa? Christmas suddenly got a lot more complicated.
           The one-shots that are included in the first two volumes (I don’t know about the third volume, though, the extra in that volume is not scanned) are also worth reading. One is a story about a boy wanting to fall in love with a girl from his sister school but a huge wall separates the two, yet rumor has it there may be a gate in the wall. Then, in the other one-shot, an ages old vampire has a surprise visitor when a little girl insists she is his daughter even though vampires can’t sire children. Deciding to keep her for the night, he finds himself getting attached.
          This manga is known as ‘Sweet Rein’ in the English publication. This same mangaka wrote Penguin Revolution, actually, I’ve read several manga by this author and I’ve liked every one so I recommend looking Tsukuba Sakura up. Yoroshiku Master’s concept is so original that

you can’t help but go: “okay let me read this and see how it goes” when you hear about it. There are no other master-servant manga about santas and reindeer, nothing even close. Its very novel, the whole thing, so the author treats it like such and you get some crazy cute scenarios, most of which do not occur in Christmas time. Of course, that also causes one of the flaws that may get under your skin, the whole story has three or four years worth of seasons but Kurumi remains 17 the entire time. Much like the kids from Ouran High she never ages until the very end. Still, even if that fact gives you pause you’ll enjoy this manga a lot from its sheer freshness. Not as Christmas-y as you would think, either, even though it’s about Santa giving presents to children. There are two other faults I have with it though, one is certain people’s eyes as I mentioned above. Because Kaito and his family are coined as reindeer in human form, they have these creepy slit pupil eyes. You don’t notice except in close ups but once in a while it made me go, ‘huh, what?’ about his cute face, just a choice the mangaka made to distinguish that they are not human but I think they could have been made cuter instead of making them look so monstrous. The reindeer themselves are drawn really cutely as animals, even given a sense of reality to them despite the art style so the eyes are a real mystery to me. The other problem is the fact that the ending really sucks. It’s not satisfying in the slightest and I thought I had incomplete files because it’s also really abrupt. Still, overall this manga is unique and interesting to the last. The mangaka made a subset of the world you wish did actually exist and gives you hope that you’ll brush past someone in the street some day and their reins will appear in your hand.



4.5/5 Really Recommended despite it’s flaws.