Experience Love, Lust, and Laughter in this humorous and heart-warming coming-of-age manga exploring self-discovery, romance, and sexuality, with quirky art and real moments that will make you laugh and reflect.

Follow the hilarious and heartfelt journey of a young woman navigating the messy, chaotic world of self-discovery. With a mix of humor, awkward moments, and tender realizations, she explores her sexuality and learns what she truly wants — before figuring out who she wants it with.

Do Women Need Sex Entertainment? is created by Yachinatsu and Sono Yoshioka. English translation by Andria McKnight. Lettered by Skylar Rutan. Published by Titan Manga (November 11th, 2025). Rated M.

Kevin Cormack
Rating:

Although it's not explicitly stated by the book itself, Do Women Need Sex Entertainment? seems very obviously to be an autobiography, especially considering the author shares her name with the main character. It's set during the early 2020s, during that period I'm sure we'd all love to forget, the COVID-19 pandemic, and 28-year-old Sono Yoshioka is out of work after her part-time employer closes his business. Following a tip-off from a friend, Sono finds new work as an admin assistant at a somewhat sketchy night-time establishment – a male escort agency that caters exclusively to women!

Desperate for work (and a living wage), Sono swallows her initial discomfort and focuses on being the best damned escort agency admin assistant she can be, even when that means having her interpersonal boundaries crossed at short notice. Not only is she expected to handle clients' phone calls and all manner of other administrative work, she's also obliged to participate in “staff training” sessions. To her acute embarrassment, this means she has to strip down completely naked in a room with six male co-workers while they practice “sensual massage” on her. And yes, that also includes manual genital contact. While the story is mostly played for laughs, Sono is honest that the whole situation makes her feel uncomfortable, even if she eventually relaxes enough to receive multiple orgasms(!)

Sono's discomfort also makes it a little uncomfortable for me to fully enjoy her story, as I keep worrying about how it seems she feels obliged to make moral compromises (including around her own bodily autonomy) to keep her job. The inherent cognitive dissonance she experiences is perhaps one of the reasons she chose to write this memoir, as she has plenty of positive things to say about her work, too.

Whatever your view of paid-for sex work (in this case, male prostitution, though full penetrative sex, and being hired by men is forbidden by the agency), this remains an interesting and at times very humorous read. The art, though simple, is adept at expressing emotions, and features a fair amount of realistically-proportioned naked human anatomy. Despite the multitudes of bare chests on display, the nudity isn't leery or exploitative, merely as matter-of-fact as the very frank narration! I definitely don't think this is a book for everyone, and it isn't a story I'd normally read, but I don't regret learning about Sono's unusual professional life.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Although plenty of people will tell you that the answer to the question posed by the title is “yes,” it's worth mentioning that the title doesn't really have much to do with the actual story. Protagonist Sono (possibly an autobiographical depiction of one of the creators), after losing her job due to Covid, ends up working at an escort service for women. That means that she's in charge of booking clients, stocking sex toys, and that sort of thing. While she's surprised by her new job in the sex industry, she never really questions its value or right to exist, even though she's fairly naïve in other ways.

What I like best about this volume is how matter-of-fact it is. Sono learns about different fetishes and services that people can request, and while some surprise her, the book itself never casts aspersions. One client, who wants to book a threesome with her husband, at first completely throws Sono off: this woman has a child! (Oh, the horrors. Everyone knows parents never have sex.) But when she starts to learn more about the situation, she realizes that this couple is looking for professional sex help; post-baby, things haven't been enjoyable and neither she nor her husband know why. The implication is that neither of them are all that familiar with her anatomy or female arousal in general, which is something that the escort is able to teach them. It's framed as therapy rather than sex work.

That may be disingenuous, and the book certainly has no problems showing that some of Sono's experiences are uncomfortable, like when she's made to be the practice dummy for a group of men learning sensual touch. That involves both oral and digital sex, and she's clearly not onboard with any of it for most of the chapter. It's true that sex doesn't need to be shameful, but it does need to be consensual. At another point, Sono's (male) boss tells her that she needs to know how all of the sex toys work with the strong implication that she's meant to try them all out, which is another inappropriate moment, so this isn't without its pitfalls.

Still, I think the volume is more good than bad. It's frank and unflinching, discusses female arousal and pleasure, and does it all with simple, yet effectively graphic, art. (There's only one uncensored vulva on a training dummy, but it's there.) It's an interesting read. If I personally knew Sabrina Carpenter, I'd tell her to read this book