The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

Saya Becomes A Sadist

What's It About? 

Saya's boyfriend Makura is afraid of what she'll think of him once he admits he's a masochist, but is met with a pleasant surprise.

Saya Becomes A Sadist is a manga by Onaka Emi with an English translation by Itsuki. This volume is lettered and retouched by Luis Chavarria. Published by Irodori Comics (March 11).

CW: This manga contains graphic depictions of sex and is intended for mature readers only.

Is It Worth Reading?

In a world where "I want her to step on me" has become a downright typical expression of endearment, it can be amusing to see a story where that's directly put into practice. And big ups to our boy Makura, as he pretty quickly convinces his girlfriend Saya to start stepping on him! You could guess that would happen from the title of this one, and that's always going to be a component of these doujin releases from Irodori; their shorter length and more, uh, focused content means the pacing is swift and concentrated. It generally works anyway, carried as it is on the backs of our leads. The titular Saya in particular appeals pretty well, though I admit she's playing on Easy Mode for me. A deadpan bespectacled office lady with a resting bitch-face? Hand her a big ol' mug of beer and I'd be hooting and hollering like a cartoon wolf while I reposted thirsty pixiv art of her.

The masochistic Makura is no slouch in his selling points, however. That is if you want to see an earnestly cute dude who happily lets himself be reduced to a blissed-out puddle of sweaty submissiveness, well, come get your man. What makes it all work is that the couple does feel like a couple, one who is just getting to open up with each other as they move in together and navigate that odd space of communicating their intimate needs. It does mean that as far as the actual sadomasochism goes, this material is pretty basic, entry-level stuff, but that too is part of the appeal of a story like this. Author Onaka Emi works in some character stuff alongside all the steamy uncensored fondling and fucking too, like Saya meditating on how this reversal of the expected norm of gendered sexual roles works to bring women and men closer together in their relationship. Makura, for his part, gets to express his feelings as a masochistic wife guy. It might've worked better with more space to pace out character stuff between multiple sex scenes. But as an effective one-and-done, Saya Becomes A Sadist hits its particular beats well enough, for a first time with this kinky couple.

Is It Worth Reading?

Everyone knows that one super-vanilla couple who knocks back a few Dollaritas and lets it slip that actually, they're pretty kinky in the bedroom. Once you learn the details though, it turns out they're just doing the kind of stuff you'll find in Saya Becomes a Sadist. Though the title implies that this erotic comic portrays a BDSM relationship, they're just doing extra foreplay.

Saya has quite the conundrum! She and her boyfriend, Makura, are planning to move in together when Makura suddenly calls the whole thing off. It turns out he hasn't exactly been forthcoming with his erotic fantasies and he's worried that Saya will be so turned off that she won't want to live with him anymore. You see, Makura is a self-professed masochist. He'd gotten the wrong idea about Saya, who has a severe case of resting bitch face and a tendency to wear black gloves all the time to protect her dry-skinned hands, and assumed she would be more of a dommy mommy. Saya is surprised but not turned off, so she agrees to give Makura's bedroom fantasies the old college try.

Luckily for Saya, Makura doesn't seem very hardcore at all. He isn't looking for pain or extended roleplay or anything like that. He just wants a foot job and a little butt play (with his butt, not hers) before they wrap it up with some woman-on-top. Good on them for trying something new, but I wouldn't say there's anything particularly shocking about their choice of activities, and definitely nothing sadistic about Saya's gentle requests for consent during the act, nor Makura's returning declarations of love. The uncensored art focuses equally on Makura and Saya's bits, making this the kind of comic I'd recommend to a bored male-female couple to read together if they're looking for some fresh ideas—though to be honest, these are probably ideas they've already heard of.