Can’t Win With You vol. 1 Story by Satosumi Takaguchi Art by Yukine Honami Published by Juné Price: $12.95 USD ISBN: 1569708126

I’ll join your harem.

Yuuhi Torishima loves soccer and intends to use an inherited mountain to build a soccer field. His father and brother, however, would prefer that he let Shuiku Academy, the school his brother is a teacher at, use it to build another campus. At first he is adamant, but after an encounter with a couple of current students who are totally against living in the middle of nowhere, Yuuhi decides to show them what’s what and lets the school rent his mountain to build the campus on. This doesn’t sit too well with the trio of brothers that really run the school, who decide to show him what’s what. It doesn’t help matters any that Yuuhi is a bit power hungry with his positions as landlord and resident advisor.

Well, that’s how the story starts anyway; the plot evolves somewhat by the end of this first volume. I say somewhat because it still seems to stick to a theme of, “Let’s attempt to sexually assault Yuuhi,” that was in the beginning, except they’re doing it for entirely different reasons by the end. If you’re expecting any of these attempts to be hot and passionate, let me just let you down gently right now; anything naughty is covered by not-so-naughty body parts or scenery, so you never really see more than Yuuhi struggling. The way the boys go about these attempts range from humorous tussles to aggressive near-rape.  A bit uncomfortable, the latter, but if Yuuhi’s not going to dwell on it, then readers shouldn’t either.

So is there a sweet love story to to help take the mind off the uncomfortableness?  Yes, there is a love story, but I’m not very wowed by it so far; it seems to have just developed out of thin air with no sexual tension whatsoever.  If there’s such a thing as too sweet and subtle, then their relationship is the perfect example; I’m not even sure I can see how their friendship developed, let alone a budding courtship. The love story between two of the side characters is more interesting at this point than the love story developing between the main character and the guy that the creators make clear is his soon-to-be-beau. No, what balances it all out is the humor caused by a cast of insane characters, the most memorable of which are the school chairman, who is, as Honami-sensei so aptly puts it in her afterword, “a nutcase,” and Nekota, an adorable raving fangirl fanboy. There’s also my personal favorite, the pretty boy with the fluffy chick plush.