What if a bunch of spies working for different countries all landed in the same house? What if it turned out that they were also childhood friends and crushes? What if they were now each trying to seduce each other in order to gain access to state secrets? And what if none of this went according to plan?
In a world only slightly offset from our own, spies and nations compete for supremacy through violence and seduction. Seemingly immune to these seductive honey traps, unshakable master spy Hayato spreads rumors of vulnerable top-secret information and establishes a shared house to lure spires whom he plans to turn or kill as needed. Only one problem—the first person to take up residence in the house is his childhood crush, who is now a spy for a rival state. Unwilling to kill each other and falsely believing that their cover stories are intact, Hayato and Seraphy begin an uncertain dance of testing allegiances as they decide just what they’re willing to do for their countries. But as more spies arrive and a tangled web of past and present relationships takes shape, the seductive banter and hijinks that began the story may not be enough to overcome the external forces that have come looking for Hayato and the secrets he claims to possess.
With an intriguing spy story at its core, Honey Trap Shared House makes no attempt to hide that the main purpose of the book is to give page time to the sexy shenanigans and tangled relationships of the core characters. Kuji sketches an intriguing but sparse world of international spycraft and populates it with a set of characters that each have a grounded emotional core to their backstories, even if the women in the story are never allowed to exist apart from their sexuality. There are references to the harsh amorality of spycraft, marked by a trail of bodies and lies each character has left behind. The majority of the book however, takes a much more lighthearted approach to increasingly awkward and forced attempts at explicit seduction by a cast of unprepared characters who all quickly realize that they are in over their heads. There are moments of sweetness mixed into the increasingly bawdy storyline, but Kuji never lets the reader forget that the honey traps are the point, and all the rest of the story takes a backseat to the dynamic between the main characters and those around them.
If the writing left any doubt regarding the point of the book, Kozuki’s art is sure to remind the reader that the focus is on voluptuous young women in skimpy outfits failing to seduce their mark. There are some cool action sequences and engaging artistic styles, but each new female character brings with her a larger bust and fewer clothes than the previous. It’s worth noting that the male main character is never presented in this way. Even in their notes at the start and end of the book, Kuji and Kozuki are very clear that they came to write a sexy romcom, and that’s what they intend to do. Even more than the writing, it’s the visuals throughout the story that push the title solidly into adult territory.
Yen Press gives the title a Mature rating for language, nudity, sex, and violence, and the book delivers on all of these elements without inhibition. As such, Honey Trap Shared House is clearly intended for an adult audience. Overall, there isn’t a huge amount of substance here as the primary focus is on the visuals of the female characters and the situations they end up in. However, the art is effective even when not focused on women’s bodies and the writing does find plenty of humor and occasional moments of sincerity amidst the explicit fan service. It’s not a title I’d recommend for most collections, but for readers specifically looking for an adult-oriented, harem, romcom set in a world of spycraft and seduction, this book does deliver on its promises, managing to have fun even where it forsakes subtlety—which is most of the time.
Honey Trap Shared House Vol. 01
By Masamune Kuji
Art by Koichi Kozuki
Yen Press, 2022
ISBN: 9781975365042
Publisher Age Rating: M
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+)
Creator Representation: Japanese
Character Representation: Japanese
