Call Me Master

by KedamaShiba

Teru Ichinose, who rose to the No.1 spot at his host club in under a year, meets a charming new host, Tsukasa, who seems keen on taking the throne. Teru takes Tsukasa under his wing, only to discover that Tsukasa has plans of his own in mind for Teru...

Genres: Manga, Yaoi, Boys Love, LGBT, Romance, M M Romance

200 pages, Paperback

Published November 18, 2025

Reviews

[sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 2.5*

This was fine... Some dubcon/noncon in the beginning. The pacing was just a little off. I didn't really feel anything for the characters or the story.

[Susanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Akira Ichinose is the best host at a club, with plans for opening his own club. A new host, Tsukasa, racks a debt when a client leaves without paying, but Akira likes his attitude and makes him his assistant.

Tsukasa is the perfect assistant, but he tends to take liberties with Akira’s body. Akira is the boss outside the bed and believes he’s calling shots in there too, but Tsukasa is in charge. But the story leads to an inevitable breakup, although the events causing it are rather odd. I understand Akira, but other main characters suddenly had completely new personalities. The ending was sweet though.

This was an ok one-shot. The narrative was a bit jumpy, a lot happening between panels that took catching up to, but the romance was cute. Art was good, and there was quite a lot of ok spice. The story didn’t need to be longer than this though.

[⭐️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story and the characters didnt rly hook me in… the cover is GORGGGGGGGEOUS though.

[mydarlingreads · Rating 2 out of 5]

Felt rushed and superficial

[Ryofire · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art for this is really nice and the premise is fun. But the writing is just really bad. Not precisely the plot, exactly, just the dialogue and back and forth. Maybe it's better for folks who like this particular version of bratty bottom and a top with barely any backstory until the very end? The backstory we get is fun, it's just too late, and the majority of the story drags, going through beats that might be fun in the most random way. It feels kind of like the mangaka had a dynamic they wanted and liked it being set at a host club without really caring about the host aspects... or at least how to exaggerate them in a way that made sense. A lot of romance takes place at -generic sales office building business- and this read that way, in a way that made the whole situation more farcical and less interesting because it tried to one on one a generic sales business with being a roleplaying waiter. Why does a host who doesn't run a business need an assistant? Why is he allowed to just randomly grab one? It's just a weird set-up. There are fun parallels to be made with say, a businessman selling services in an office to a host selling services to a client, and maybe that's why it reads virtually the same as any of a number of similar office romance stories. But the effect, rather than being an interesting point about similarities, feels hollow and disjointed, like this needed a second edit or something.

I'll admit I also don't read a ton of host stories, and the last one I tried (and dropped), "This is But a Hell of a Dream" was worse than this, but, "Wanna Be My Dress-Up Lover?" by Mamita generally is a far more compelling host-focused BL manga.

[R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story is both as expected and also very different given the title. Tsukasa is an unusual enough character, but still did not see that ending coming. On the other hand Tsukasa's relationship with Mr. Ichinose is more expected, at least in the beginning. It seems things don't go as planned for either one of them, though the both agree with what they want in the end - in about the most argumentative way possible. The host club isn't truly explained very well either, but with Ouran as an original favorite, it gave me some framework for comparison to fill in the blanks, though of course this is an older and more upscale version. This was a unique experience and an interesting read, but unlikely to come back to it.

[Elaine White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Call Me Master is an opposites attract story about two hosts, one veteran and the other a newbie. Both consider themselves the dominant male, but one is far too soft and secretly sweet to be dominant. Both are arrogant, which leads to a fun push-and-pull of power, and lots of teasing. There's also a definite "he fell first, but he fell harder" vibe too.

Favourite Quote:
"You bark so much, it's hard to tell which of us is the dog."

[nora e · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover is really cute, but the story didn't really grab my attention or keep me super interested like BL normally does. It wasn't that the plot was bad, but more so, it felt too short. Like if the story was extended and more details were added it would be a lot better.

Also the transitions between panels wasn't smooth, so it was sometimes hard to follow.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the plot with the host club feels underdeveloped and it should be classified as dubcon. But after that just one big oaf and a smaller oaf that have trouble being honest with one another in cute ways. I like the art and it is uncensored.

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know the title probably will give some readers the ick, but I honestly enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I love when manga can do kinks well, and this one delivered for me. I really liked the relationship in this one. It's not perfect, but it was a fun time.

[G.✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good.

[J-Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Art was gorgeous, but the plot was weak….

[Felix The Pirate Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anders, aber irgendwie süß! Für einen Einzelband wirklich eine interessante Liebesgeschichte mit ungewöhnlichen Wegen. ;)

[Frank Chillura (OhYouRead) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this, but it just wasn’t my fave.

[Fahad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure how I felt about this. I never fully understood what the main character does. Plot line was a bit flat.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute and not what I thought it was but still loved it

[Peppa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is bad

[Jannika · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 ⭐️

[Vivian Lu · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was kind of boring. The romance came out of nowhere and didn’t really make sense. I was sucked in my the amazing cover but the plot and pacing wasn’t good.

[Rhianjan]

Yeah nah.

[Yolotzin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Idk that I entirely understand their relationship

[S.A. McClellon · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay, but nothing to write home about. The characters were kinda forgettable and the story was pretty surface level and flat. But I can't be too mad at it cuz this is one of those stories where it's more for the spice rather than the storytelling.

[Atticus · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ⭐️

Call Me Master follows Akira, a host at a host-club, and Tsukasa, his new assistant. As the two of them work together, their feelings grow more than just professional.

I found this manga to be very sweet. I loved the detail of how Akira struggled to sleep alone and Tsukasa decides to help.

Overall a good standalone. It could have been fleshed out a bit more, but it’s still very enjoyable. The art is also beautiful.