February means another round of Bad Romance manga here at the Manga Test Drive, and it's only fitting to start with a romance that begins with a demand for divorce.
TO SIR, WITHOUT LOVE: I'M DIVORCING YOU (Haikei Mishiranu Danna-sama, Rikonshite Itdakimasu), based on the light novels by Kori Hisakawa and character designs by Airumu, with art by Iroto Tsumugi. First published in 2023 and first published in North America in 2025.
PLOT:
The last thing Byletta wanted was marriage. Unfortunately she does not get a choice in the matter, as her father has married her off to a promising military officer named Arnald Swangen. No sooner is she brought to her husband's household than he departs for war. That's no problem for Byletta, as it gives her plenty of time to focus on setting up her own dress shop, winning over her younger sister-in-law, and reforming her drunken, wayward father-in-law. In return she has only one condition: when the war ends, she wants a divorce.
Eight years later, the war is over and the first letter Arnald receives is Byletta's divorce ultimatum. He has no desire to let her go and she has no desire to stay, so the two make a wager: he will grant her a divorce...if he cannot manage to impregnate her within a month's time.
STORY:
It's very hard to write a romance about taming a shrew and has been so since the days of William Shakespeare. The appeal of these stories lies in the power dynamics between the leads. When done well it can be like watching the romantic equivalent of a duel, where two opposite but equal opponents face off using only their words and cunning. When done poorly it usually ends up being a story about how some dude negs and abuses a bitchy woman into submission. To Sir, Without Love wants very much to be the former but the end result is closer to the latter than it would like to admit.
The worst part is that I can clearly see what Kori Hisakawa was trying to do. Byletta and Arnald are meant to be seen as a perfect match for one another in personality, even if neither of them can recognize that yet. Inevitably all the crazy baby-making sex they will have as part of the wager will muddle both of their feelings enough that these two will inevitably fall in love. It's the sort of dynamic that thousands of bodice-ripping romances have been built upon, but it's a dynamic that also depends on both halves of the couple being endearing or intriguing enough to be worth rooting for and that's just not the case here.
Byletta is not the one at fault here. The story clearly sees her bluntness, independence, and people skills as positives. It's also very clearly on her side as far as the injustice of her situation. It is bullshit that she's married off as a literal teenager to an older man she's never met! It is bullshit that somehow she ended up married without actually meeting her groom face-to-face! Indeed, she just shows up at her in-laws' manor one day and everyone treats her like his wife, but I guess To Sir, Without Love: I'm Annulling This Extended Engagement wouldn't have the same punch. It is bullshit that it falls upon her to fix his family and secure her own financial independence and receive nothing but rumors about her seducing these men from unseen others in return for her efforts! I don't think any sensible reader would view her desire for a divorce as unreasonable.
No, the fault lies with Arnald. He possesses all the warmth and charm of a frozen steel rod. He views marriage as a tool for rising through the ranks, with his wife doing all the socializing on his behalf. Indeed, he doesn't seems to have any affection or care for anyone, including his own family. He also believes all of the scurrilous rumors about Byletta, and he doesn't even begin to consider that the truth might be anything different until he sees her literal hymen blood on the sheets of their marital bed. Let's not even get into the fact that "mutual consent" is clearly not part of their wager. Indeed, the whole thing seems to be built around dubcon, with Byletta saying 'no' until she eventually says 'yes.' We're meant to see things like 'Arnald being somewhat gentler in the morning after pounding the virginity out of her all night' and 'being irrationally, pissily jealous of any dude who crosses her path' as signs of the change she's fostering in him, but mostly I just found him to be a dick. Even those old-school bodice-rippers understood that their rakes had to be at least a little charming to win over their readers, but clearly nobody involved with this series ever thought that far.
ART:
I'm of two minds when it comes to the art here. On one hand, Iroto Tsumugi's take on the characters is far more refined and appealing than Airumu's original illustrations. It's not extraordinary work by any means, but the poses have a lot of naturalism and she puts effort into the smaller details of the costumes and other background trappings. Yet there's a stiff, icy feeling to every page of this book. Even the sex scenes suffer from this! While Tsumugi is capable at drawing smut, she can't quite convey actual, tangible sexiness. Maybe it's just the coldness of the story seeping in. Maybe it's Leighann Harvey's translation, where every line of dialogue is dripping with clipped formality, even in the middle of sex. Maybe it's just that most of the cast have such narrow eyes, as if everyone but Byletta is constantly squinting in suspicion. All I know for certain is that the art does this story no favors.
RATING:
This manga is published by Yen Press. This series is ongoing in Japan with 5 volumes available. 2 volumes have been released and are currently in print.
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