By Makoto Tateno
Digital Manga Publishing, 172 pp.
Rating: 13+

Lady Briganza, a classy café, is staffed by young men who wish to convey the illusion that any young woman who walks through the door is the mistress of a mansion returning home for tea and a snack. With staff ranging in experience from the Butler (the head of the staff) to the footmen (new trainees), the stories in this volume cover customer interaction, problems with the job, and problems amongst the staff themselves.

This reads a lot like Antique Bakery crossed with Princess Princess. Since I’m a huge fan of the former and hated the latter, it put this series somewhere in lukewarm territory. It is a good read, though, mostly because it doesn’t set out to tell a story; we simply peek into the lives of the staff and customers at Lady Briganza with every chapter. For instance, the first chapter introduces the staff, then tells the brief story of a little girl who comes to the café after being told she isn’t ladylike by her parents and later making up with her father. Another chapter offers us insight into the lives of the trainees (who also live together) and how their squabbling is meant to build character and help them work better as a team. Two of the chapters are about outside interaction with customers, which is strictly forbidden, and one of these also offers more insight into the lives of two of the more senior staff.

The stories aren’t anything special, but they aren’t terrible, either, and they are entertaining. The Antique Bakery connection comes from the tone and light touch with storytelling, but the character interaction and squabbling and whatnot is what reminds me of Princess Princess—along with the fact the characters are dressing up to provide inoffensive, superficial pleasure, I suppose.

One thing I should mention is that, despite the DokiDoki label, there is little to no boys’ love in this book. If you’re looking for it, you might consider some of the fights and situations between the boys signs of… tension or something, but nothing even vaguely hints at romance between the boys. There is a gay chef, but he’s there for (terrible) comic relief rather than romance. I was definitely expecting more of this, and quite honestly, I’m very happy it isn’t present.

I wasn’t surprised when, in the author’s notes, Tateno mentioned that the book is based on a drama of the same name. It does read like it’s meant to supplement something else, and that also explains the complete lack of character development and entirely episodic stories, but I think it stands well by itself, too.

Honestly, I was expecting to hate this book. It’s got a stupid title, for one. Also, I figured it would be full of bad host club comedy with a staff of boys fawning all over each other, which is not the case at all. Several of the employees at the café are grown men, and their romantic and outside lives don’t come into the story (with one exception). But it definitely reminds me of a not-as-good-but-still-okay Antique Bakery all the way through, and while it never really takes off, it’s still a nice story to read.

Volume one of Happy Boys is available now.

Review copy provided by the publisher.