Neneko works as a spy, assigned to seduce and reveal the secrets of an expert assassin known as ‘Mi’ who belongs to a competing group. Unfortunately, her identity as a spy has been revealed, and ‘Mi’ is aware of her true intentions. Surprisingly, ‘Mi’ appears to have romantic feelings for her! He suggests a proposition: she can maintain her facade as a spy while also being shielded from their respective superiors by marrying him. The question remains – are his emotions authentic, or is he simply using her to extract information?

This erotic, deadly new series is the first (and so far only) title to be translated into English from mangaka Yuzo Natsuno, and the series is ongoing in Japan, with four volumes so far released. Yuzo Natsuno’s art style is unique and striking. Neneko’s extremely detailed hair looks as if the mangaka wanted to draw every single strand and is eye-catching on the cover, but it does get a bit messy in black and white. There are a few instances where there’s so much hair everywhere that it almost fills up each panel, to the detriment of showing what’s happening on the page. This ‘pencil sketch’ style made me wish I could delete layers of her hair so I could see more of what was going on. The attention to detail also bleeds over to the male assassin, whose name is Omi Amai; his fringe is super elaborate, looking as if it would be soft to run your fingers through, but you’ll also notice every crease of his shirt, every indent of his muscular arms, and so on. It makes the characters look beautiful, but also feels ‘too much’ on the page at times. Another thing to note is this; if you’ve watched a lot of anime, you’ll notice sometimes, in the lower budget series, how they often try to avoid animating battle scenes. Examples including having still images of attacks, with sound effects compensating for the lack of movement, or even having the fight happen-off screen. Assassin & Cinderella is the first instance I’ve seen of that happening IN A MANGA. There’s a scene at a party where a fight breaks out. Omi wades in to do battle, but all we see is Neneko watching from the other side of the window and her minimal reactions, only to cut back to Omi when the fight is over. It’s a very weird decision.

But the point of the manga is probably not the action scenes, it’s the sexual tension between Neneko and Omi, and whether you’ll engage with it or not, is whether you’re into passive protagonists or not. Neneko is a spy in name only; we never see her doing any sleuthing or engage in any action that someone in her position might have to do. She’s very passive from the opening page to the last, with all the assertive qualities going into the male love interest, Omi, who from the get-go is into Neneko, touching her, wanting to marry her and protecting her with his very life. I can see why someone who enjoys that type of romance fiction would be drawn to this; Neneko is super-cute, with an impressive cleavage, and the male love interest is very passionate, intense and handsome to boot. I personally couldn’t get past Neneko’s very non-sexual vibes, and being unreceptive to Omi’s sexual advances (of which there are many). It’s fine to play a tongue-in-cheek, ‘hard to get’ sort of thing, but Neneko never seems to enjoy adopting sexualised poses or gaining attention, and I personally find that a turn-off. It also suffers from the same issues I had with Snow and Ink: the relationship moves way too fast and there’s no clear point at which the pair start to fall for each other.

This book is rated M, with a ‘parental advisory’ on the cover, but I personally didn’t find it worthy of it? The rating is probably for future volumes, but aside from that large chest of Neneko’s and a few suggestive poses, there’s no sexual content here. My last reviewed Mature-rated book, It’s All Your Fault, is far more explicit, and that doesn’t have any sex scenes in it either.

Mei Amaki translates this volume for Square Enix Manga and it’s an easy read; there’s no translation notes but the book does include a bonus chapter at the end.

Assassin & Cinderella was one of the manga series I was looking forward to most in 2025, but I found myself speed-reading this very bland, over-designed book. There’s no action to complement the characters’ jobs, or spicy sexual tension to get invested in, so overall unless you really like the art style and like this genre of romance, it’s a pass.

Read a free preview on the Square Enix website here. 

Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).