I found this title really interesting. The setting is a brothel, but this story is much more focused on the characters than the spice. That said, it's content still spicy, and touches on some darker themes like suicide, emotional manipulation and some non-consensual moments, but I never felt like it was going too far with any of the themes or topics presented. It was an intriguing adult title, in more ways than one. I think this would be easy to recommend to people who have an itch for this sort of story. By the end, I was much more invested in the lives of these characters than I thought I'd be.

Thank you to netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I’d read this online a while back and was excited that it’s getting an official English translation. Nemui Asada has a lot of interesting manga and seeing their works out in the world is awesome!

This story is a little bit…wild. It’s about a man who is pretty much forced to pay back the debt of the sex worked he falls in love with after she abandons him. He works in a gay sex shop called The Circus where he meets a cast of interesting characters. He doesn’t really get a lot of time to adjust to working in a sex shop and just wakes up after attempting suicide and is pushed into a room with another man.

I actually did like the dynamic that everyone in the shop had. It felt like a weird little family. And what Shiro and Kei had felt like something between that and love. Shiro’s past was sad but he just needed someone to care about him and love him deep down and I can’t fault him for that. He couldn’t outgrow what he knew his whole life. I also hadn’t read the last two chapters before and it changed a lot of the story so yay for that!

I’m so excited Tokyopop is picking up more and more of my favorite manga. I’ll always be a test reader!

***Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review***

After falling in love with a call girl and getting duped into giving her all his money to pay off her “debts”, salaryman Kei has officially hit rock bottom. One night Kei attempts to kill himself, but instead he gets swept away by the men of Circus (a brothel that caters to male clientele). Unfortunately this ended up not really working me. I was intrigued by the premise and first 20% or so, but it quickly lost me after that. One shots always tend to be a little lacking for me. There’s only so much relationship development and world building that can happen in less than 250 pages. One of the main reasons why I couldn’t get invested in this story was that I didn’t love the main characters and found myself not really caring where their storyline went. I loved all of the side characters though, to be honest they were the only thing that kept me reading until the end.

All in all, this didn’t work for me but I’d recommend it if you’ve historically enjoyed Tokyo Pop’s one shots in the past.

CWs for blackmail, suicide attempt, violence, sex work, and non-consensual sex

Story: 2/5

3.5 Stars

The art of this manga is really nice and while the plot has a lot of interesting ideas behind it I feel like the flow was off. Maybe because its a oneshot but there was a lot sort of pushed in to the 200+ pages and some things happen so fast and are then glossed over pretty quickly so they aren't given nearly enough time like they should be.

I think if the author had focused on about half of the plot points in this one it would have a stronger structure and would also allow for a better build of the main relationship. As it stands, their bond feels pretty superficial and we don't really see much in the way of it building or growing to be something that could believably last.

Overall the plot was entertaining enough and I did enjoy the art and the characters.

Thanks to TokyoPop for giving me the arc of this manga through NetGalley.

I know Nemui Asada's zombie BL work so when i saw this was going to be published i didn't hesitate to request it so see how's this one.
The beginning was interesting, but as the author herself says, the execution of the story could have been more polished.

The development of the relationship was very lacking to me, and i'm not convinced of the last pages tidying everything up. It was entertaining nevertheless.

Edition wise, my only complain is the fact that the SFX is translated beside the kanji and not the SFX design translated itself. Idk if it something that's work in progress or TokyoPop doesn't translate that part of the mangas.

This story wasn't what I was expecting, but we follow Kei, who has gotten himself into a pickle and ends up living and working at Circus, which is essentially a brothel for men seeking men. There was a fun cast of characters, but I was sad to see that we didn't get to know very much about any of them. The premise felt like it had the potential to bring this strong ensemble together with a good story, but the plot was a little chaotic after the initial events and landed in a spot that still felt a little confusing. I thought the art was really nice and the snippets of the characters we got were interesting as the world started to form, but there was something that felt mismatched about the way Kei fit into it and then exited it. I would definitely encourage anyone who picks this up to check out the content warnings.

I wanted to enjoy this but was overly unimpressed with the relationships, the dynamic, and the plot felt convoluted.

Swept away by a circus crew, this main character was not….
Loved Circus follows Kei, an unassuming man buried in debt after spending his money to help a call girl he’s fallen in love with. Living in his car and on the run from loan sharks, Kei contemplates suicide, though he is saved from death by the employees of Circus—a male brothel. With no other way to repay the money he owes, Kei is coerced into working for Circus, becoming quickly acquainted with the strange bunch that call the place home.

────── {⋆★⋆} ──────

This story was certainly unconventional, though entertaining as ever. Each member of Circus was enjoyable for their charisma and banter, which made it even better seeing Kei find his footing through their easy friendship. I could have sworn there was a romance in Kei’s trajectory, though the ending didn’t really fulfill as much as I expected in that sense. The art style was really eye-pleasing since it felt familiar to me (I’ve read a few webtoons with a similar style). Overall, a quick and enjoyable read!

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**

Please review content warnings for this work.

Loved Circus by Nemui Asada is a manga aimed at adult audiences. Readers follow Kei, a guy who was swindled by the sob story of a brothel employee and wound up taking loans he couldn't repay. Kei finds himself saved by Circus, the brother company to the one he took out loans to pay. Circus has all male employees and all male clientele. Kei is offered a job at Circus to earn out of his debt.

As with many manga and graphic novels that deal with such topics, the navigation of adjustment for Kei is sped along, rationalized by him owing the company his life. However, Kei didn't know what he was getting into by working at Circus and was very much tossed into the deep end. Many readers may have problems with the issues of consent for Kei throughout this manga.

The group cast of Circus employees were all lovely characters. Shiro, Joe, and Rin all really contributed to the enjoyment of this work. The art style and choices for character design really did add to the story and meshed well with the plot lines presented.

One volume gave very little room for character growth, which caused some pacing struggles. From my understanding, this volume is a bindup of previously serialized work which may have made this pacing less prevalent by nature of the chapters not being back to back.

My rating was ultimately affected by the pacing and how very few of the plot points presented ever got effective resolution. I did enjoy my time with Loved Circus and wouldn't hesitate to read more from this author.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this title.

Finding himself in a heap of trouble, Kei attempts the unthinkable after his girlfriend leaves him with a pile a debt and loan sharks out to get him. He finds himself saved by the men of Circus, a brothel that caters to male clientele.

Kei faces new challenges with his new position, learning about himself and the way the real world works. Through the ups and downs of relationships, debt, and general life- Kei works alongside his new friends as they keep Circus up and running in the red light district. He soon realizes that ending his life was the worst decision he could've made, and finds solace with his new friends and life. Working his debts off, he soon realizes one of the brothel workers may mean more to him than he knows. Is this budding relationship genuine, or is Kei falling for another ploy- just like his ex-girlfriend?

We learn the true meaning of desire and love in this story- a oneshot aimed towards adult readers. It had the perfect amount of fluff and a great ending. Some parts were rushed, but overall a really good story. 4/5 stars.

Love Circus was certainly interesting. This manga had many little spins and turns. Overall, it just wasn’t for me.
Thank you Net Galley & IPG for the ARC in exchange for an honest review of content.

This was a fascinating book. I thought the story was something I had never seen before in manga (and in books in general) about an all-male brothel. The dynamics between the different brothel men were excellent. The characters were distinct and well done. I thought that the attraction between the main character and love interest was something that could be felt in the longing glances in tension in the drawings. The plot itself jump a little too much and would have been better with certain things more fleshed out, especially some surprises in the last chapter. Overall I enjoyed this book but thought it could be improved with more backstory and a longer run.

I really like stories that involve life choices I'd never make, like this series.

Kei went into debt trying to help a woman he thought needed money. Even tried to end his life when he was unable to give her money money. Then he was saved by Shiro during his suicide attempt and taken to the Circus to work. Turns out that woman was taking advantage of him and now he's deep in debt and working it off as a male only brothel.

There Kei gets to know his coworkers, Joe, Rin and Shiro better. Something a bit deeper develops with Shiro but never quite takes off because of the traumatic past Shiro has yet to make peace with.

Kei leaves the Circus for a new office job and when he returns to meet Shiro again Circus is a different kind of place and Shiro has experienced massive changes.

First of all I want to thank netgalley for providing me with this manga.

loved cirus tells us about Kei, who after meeting a girl ends up in debt since he wanted to help her, however he is not able to pay his debt so he decides to kill himself, but his attempt is stopped by some men from a boys' bar, For things in life he ends up working as a company boy.

start by saying that I love the story, they are short chapters, read in one sitting and with an ending that I did not expect for one of the protagonists.
Kei is a sweetheart, he wants to help, he trusts people and even though he has already been scammed, he is still willing to help people. then we have shiro who grew up in a brothel, he thinks that for people not to abandon him he must have sex with them, the relationship with Kei will be complicated, but his resolution will be beautiful. since she will learn that it is not necessary to prostitute herself to be happy.
then we have joe, who is the craziest of all, who works in the brothel because of a debt and because he likes sex, and finally rin who came to work at a circus because of a debt.

Finally we have the owner who is the ringmaster and his wife, the two open a circus in order to make Shiro happy, since he does not know any other reality, they try to help him as much as they can.

As I said, they are short chapters, but they leave you wanting to continue reading, the drawing is beautiful, I do not regret having read this.

I give it 5 stars out of 5.

This was a very odd, very sweet story, but the ending was so far away from what I expected that I’m not sure how I should rate it. The author’s note reveals this was serialized, so maybe that’s why the plot is a little bit all over the place? I personally liked the characters a lot more than the plot, but overall I still found this pretty good.

Loved Circus has a beautiful art style and the story has some unique twists. I’m glad that it has a happy ending but I did not expect how it would end. I was really happy to see an overview of the backstories for Rin and Joe told during one of the bonus chapters.

This was not what I was expecting in many many ways, and damn is there a lot to unpack here, so hang tight.

First of all - trigger warnings. There is a lot of implied sex (which makes sense, based on the plot). There's a few moments where you see some of what's going on, but that's few and far between. BUT if uninvited sex, sex work, or fetishes are not for you - skip this one. There's also some trauma issues with dead parents and traumatic upbringings.

Now, I don't think the plot is bad, but it's pacing was weird. It seems like most of it was just we have sex, that's our job, here's our dailies lives. But the very beginning and very end moved way fast and it didn't seem like the end was gonna happen that way at all, or that the beginning really was relevant. I think it needed to be more fleshed out (haha).

The characters were nice, I enjoyed the multidimensional aspects of them a lot. Each make was different and had different skills for the shop and stuff, it was cool. The characters were probably my favourite aspect of the manga.

I know I say this a lot, but this one should have been either an anime or a series. There was so much that could have been said and done, and it's unfortunate that there were rushed portions. I enjoyed it for what it was though.