Meursault's biggest op: buying sunglasses

For the women who think “A Kiss With a Fist is Better Than None” is instructive.

Tough Love at the Office is considered a bit of a holy grail for toxic yuri lovers. To me, it lives up to the hype. The splash pages had me thinking, with horror, that there would be a ton of feet stuff, and actually I’m kind of disappointed there wasn’t more subversive stuff in the end.

The basic premise is that a woman decides to destroy her up-and-coming competition at a high pressure international corporate bank job (idk man I’m gay I don’t do math), and the way she does this is by beating her up, sexually dominating her, and then playing a ton of mean girl corporate mind games with her and spending a lot of page time just destroying her life. The lines of victim and offender are blurred because the other woman fights back, schemes, and needles her with one-liners, and is all too willing to use her right back, but it’s pretty clear the POV character is especially, delightfully unwell.

I really want to shout out Sal Jiang’s charming character designs and expression work here, each character feels distinct with their hair styles, face, and body language, in ways that don’t feel over-the-top. I don’t know of Sal Jiang’s gender identity, nor is it my business, but the character designs strike me as somewhat queer in their gaze. Women’s clothes are perhaps a bit tighter, with necklines that plunge a bit more than is believable, but the women are somehow understated yet inherently beautiful and glamorous, communicating quite a lot across simple linework. The hair styles, including a middle aged woman with a pixie cut, are among some of the most believable for an office setting I have ever seen. These are women who eat their lunches and breathe air and clack their heels. And if you’re a fan of women mean-mugging, especially at each other, you’re in for a treat.

The premise – two women who want to advance their careers, who should be friends and help each other out but immediately hate each other (yet are attracted to each other), who are catty and petty to extremes, two-faced, manipulative, etc. – is just a refreshing one. These are women who are only defined by men around them insomuch as they have to work for or with them at times, but it’s only their female coworkers who truly get pulled into the mind games and, at times, seductive and romantic scenarios. Men are literally never on their minds in that way. Men just tend to show up and ruin the vibe. It is nice that no woman in this manga ever appears to be under threat of sexual harassment… from men, at least.

I do want to note early on in the series there is a portrayal of a Saudi banker that could strike readers as insensitive, as well as a male character who is a mixed race foreigner being portrayed as an affable, greedy idiot. These are quite brief moments that are gotten through with quite quickly, but it is worth noting this kind of thing in Japanese media, especially as the mostly Japanese cast - including the men - are generally portrayed as being a lot more clever and in control of things even if it is in a distinctly corrupt and unpleasant way. Men in this series are generally such non-entities that I nearly forgot there are also a few side characters who are Japanese men who are also forgettable and stupid, but these were still character decisions that were made and should be noticed. I do think the one brief side-character who is Singaporean woman seems to have a bit more going on, at least as much as any other side character does.

This is not for the HEA girlies, this is not a positive portrayal of lesbians, this is not fluffy, this is not affirming, this is not wholesome. This is two women, one whom should absolutely, 110% get arrested for assault multiple times, who twist themselves into pretzels, literally cause noticeable physical harm to each other, and all for what? To work for shitty, corrupt men in the world of banking, of all things. Whoa, ladies, we're pretty off-message here! That's not sisterhood, ladies! Wdym these two do not learn to be anticapitalist and retire to a commune/cat rescue? Oh noooo.

So to be clear: the toxic yuri is toxic. You either get it or you don’t.

If Christian Gray can have his dom jeans or whatever the fuck, then fuck you, I think these women get to bite each other and give each other handies through their nylons and that’s fine. This is trashy, and it’s not trying to pretend it’s anything but that. Some may find it disturbing and exploitative, but others are just going to find it hot. The messiness of the relationship, the obsession, the violence, even the somewhat downbeat and ambiguous ending, that is the meal you have ordered with this one, it cannot be and is not much more than that.

I could have been on the deck of the Marawati myself with how immersive and exciting this book is. Amina Al-Sirafi, you are my hero, I am obsessed with you. A pirate, mother, adventurer, friend, and nakhudha, what can't she do? This book is so conversational, it really does feel like a first hand accounting of Amina's experience, and yet it's also so rich in detail. The setting is vivid and fascinating, and the characters are so well rounded and personable. I absolutely can't wait to see what they get up to next!