DO M JOSHI TO GAKKARI JOOU-SAMA
STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
4
RELEASE
May 2, 2022
CHAPTERS
29
DESCRIPTION
Nakamura is a high school girl with masochist tendencies and she thought she'd found her perfect dominatrix in the tall, beautiful Kumegawa. But it turns out that Kumegawa's personality isn't quite as domineering as she seems. A yuri dom-sub reversal comedy from a genius newcomer!
(Source: Young Ace, translated)
CAST
Misuzu Kumegawa
Sayo Nakamura
CHAPTERS
REVIEWS
EveThePuppy
Come for a tantalizing lesbian dynamic with a cute art style, and stay for... Well... Ehh...Continue on AniListContent Warning: Age Gap, Age Regression, Body Writing, Bondage, Boot Licking, Diapers, Exhibitionism, Exploitation, Insults, Misogyny, Nudity, Sexual Harassment, Slave/Master Dynamics, Spanking, Stalking, Tickling, Verbal Abuse, Verbal Humiliation, Watersports, Waxplay
Note: This review is based on the first half of the manga. As of writing (06/15/26), the English fan translation is incomplete. I have read everything that is currently available, and if future chapters change my opinion, I will alter this review accordingly. However, seeing as there are no others reviews for this manga currently, and the manga has been finished for nearly four years now, I believe a partial critique is better than none.
__- - - Intro - - -__ A Masochistic Girl and a Disappointing Dominatrix (also occasionally referred to as Which Is The Mistress?) is a swing and a miss for me. I adore the pitch; "A bratty masochistic sub needs to train her kind and innocent dom into being crueler" is a premise ripe for some incredible yuri brain worms. It's a dynamic I really quite enjoy, and I wish I saw more of. Throw in a tall sub/short dom dynamic with some genuine attempts at kink, and this should be a winner from the get-go.
But, while the manga doesn't not deliver, it suffers from some awkward creative decisions that really hinder it. Strange pacing, inconsistent tone, and a simultaneously too-bloated yet too-slim cast of side characters leave A Masochistic Girl and a Disappointing Dominatrix in an erotic trough.
Too horny and mean to work as a regular comedy manga, yet too chaste and distracted to be meaningfully titillating.
__- - - Every Panel Is Worth... Well... Maybe Like 100 Words Maximum... - - -__ All of my major issues with A Masochistic Girl and a Disappointing Dominatrix come back to the pacing. It is breakneck. Each "chapter" of the manga contains anywhere from 5-8 mini-chapters that usually function entirely independent from one another. Set-up, story, climax, and epilogue are usually condensed to a mere four pages or so, and there's little rhyme or reason to context. A scene revolving around piss will be followed up by a scene about exhibitionism, which itself is followed up by a swimsuit two-parter with a surrealist sex comedy chapter bolted on to the end.
There are some benefits to this approach, sure. If a scene isn't that funny or it deals with a kink that's not relevant to you, don't worry. You'll be onto something new in a minute or so. And it does leave the manga feeling a lot bulkier than it actually is. The constant start-and-stop flow made thirteen chapters feel like five volumes.
But unfortunately, this speed destroys a lot of the manga's erotic moments.
As an example, there's a scene early on in the manga where Nakamura gropes Kumegawa on the subway. The set-up is there; the scenario is meant to highlight Nakamura's repressed dominant side and highlight how submissive Kumegawa is. The actual events leading into this moment are... Shaky. But they work well enough! However, the scene only lasts for (generously) five panels. The act itself is just eluded to, with a few shots of Kumegawa's blushing face and a panel of Nakamura's guilty, steamy smile. The panel after it immediately wraps up, the two talk it out in a handful of sentences, and the entire thing is resolved in a single page.
That's... Not great.
A majority of the erotic moments in A Masochistic Girl and a Disappointing Dominatrix feel like they end right as the scene is starting. There's no time to simmer in the tension. Nor is there much internal monologue provided. And as a result, most of the erotic moments feel distinctly unemotional. I get that some people don't mind that - the simple presence of a kink can be enough to sell the erotic weight of a scene to some - but for me it really kills the mood.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the comedy... But uh... Well...
Look, comedy is subjective. Or at least, that's what "people who don't want to get yelled at for saying something isn't funny" say. But personally, a lot of the jokes within A Masochistic Girl and a Disappointing Dominatrix just did not land. Part of that is going to be the membrane of translation, sure. But, much like the erotic content, the comedy is often too brief and too isolated. I'm not going to say much about it - in large part because I don't really think that's the draw of this manga - but I'd feel bad if I didn't mention it at all.
__- - - Characters? What Are Those? - - -__ The character writing isn't anything too great either. Kumegawa and Nakamura are the manga's main couple, and they both feel out-of-place in different ways.
Kumegawa isn't just a naive dom, she's Azumanga Daioh Osaka levels of spacey. Sometimes it works; Kumegawa has an eccentricity to her sub/dom behaviors that can actually be quite charming. But, more often than not, she's inept to the point of farce. A child in a high school student's skin. And the longer the manga goes on, the more out of place her attempts at sadism become. There's a morsel of something here, and I'd really love to see a character like Kumegawa attempted in another context. But I don't think she works well here.
Nakamura, being the (I presume) self-insert of the manga, instead struggles with a flailing sense of consistency. She is introduced as a masochist with a sadistic side, and while that could make for a really compelling character, it mostly means that she can flip-flop between inflicting or receiving a kink between panels. A generous part of me wants to claim that maybe this is intentional. She's a high school student who's realized she's into kink, is forcing a girl she likes to participate, and as much as she claims otherwise, she's just as blind to safe and proper play as Kumegawa. But... My gut tells me that's not true.
These two don't feel like a couple, or even an inexperienced bunch of kinky teens. They feel genuinely kind of bad for one another. And that's weird.
I wish I had more to say about the side characters. A lot of A Masochistic Girl and a Disappointing Dominatrix is dedicated towards this small gaggle of dorks. But they're all fairly hollow archetypes. You have a perverted exhibitionist teacher who constantly tries to insert herself into erotic scenarios with her students. There's a bratty girl who wants to homewreck Nakamura and Kumegawa's relationship, but always fails. A swirly-glasses himejoshi with an incel attitude. A hall monitor with an immoral side gig. Kumegawa's milfy mom. They're all fairly nothing. And yet, despite that, almost every chapter involves one or more of them.
Despite reading two entire volumes of A Masochistic Girl and a Disappointing Dominatrix I don't really feel any attachment to any of the characters. Not even in a "me and who" sense.
__- - - What Does It Do Right? - - -__ This review has been mostly negative, so why did I end up giving A Masochistic Girl and a Disappointing Dominatrix a 55/100?
The manga has a strong core. I said it in the intro, but I really do like the premise. It does a lot for me. And while I don't think Kumegawa and Nakamura are a great couple, there are moments where things click and I can see the vision. A short interaction here, a genuinely erotic kink scene there. It's crumbs, sure. But as a yuri fan, sometimes crumbs are all I need to keep going.
I also really appreciate that the manga isn't afraid to engage with kinks beyond basic S/M play. My perspective might be a little limited, but I feel like a lot of yuri manga stays in fairly conventional territory. Sure, not everything in the genre is chaste hand-holding. But I rarely come across yuri manga that attempts more than light name calling, mild bondage, and occasionally a little intox play. Having a yuri manga delve into ageplay and piss with its chest held high is nice, and I genuinely appreciate it.
And while this may sound like a backhanded compliment, the art style has a cozy kind of ugliness to it. Kumegawa and Nakamura have a real roughness to them that plays well into both their erotic and comedic moments. Nakamura especially. Her drooling breathy mouth-open smile when she's worked up is proof that there is care put into this manga. There's a freak (affectionate) behind the wheel. And I can't help but love that.
__- - - Final Thoughts - - -__ A Masochistic Girl and a Disappointing Dominatrix is, unfortunately, nothing special. Which sucks. I was really hoping this manga would be a diamond in the rough, but it was just a broken beer bottle chucked into a field. There's a glistening, gleaming core here. But whether it's due to inexperience or maybe a rushed upload schedule, it doesn't come anywhere close to being as good as it could be.
Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't say don't check this manga out. The dynamic alone might be enough for some people, and if you don't mind (or even prefer) short kink scenarios, this might be exactly what you're looking for. But I struggle to appreciate it for what it is when I can so clearly see what it could have been. And for me, I'll keep toiling away in the yuri mines, looking for that platonic ideal.
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SCORE
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MORE INFO
Ended inMay 2, 2022
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