I’m a strong advocate for manga’s power to enlighten readers about walks of life they would otherwise know only through stereotypes. I’m also a fan of unflappable mangaka diving into kinky subject matter like capital-S Sex that readerships are prone to pearl-clutching at the thought of reading in private, let alone admitting to in writing, as I have so often. We’d be much happier people if we stopped hiding who we are, and many such cases. So when I heard about Manga Mavericks Books‘ English release of a <a href="https://comicvibe.com/xbox-series-x-price-hiked-by-170-due-to-rising-memory-chip-costs/” title=”Xbox Series X price hiked by £170 due to rising memory chip costs”>series that shines a light on Japanese sadomasochism culture, I got involved in that.
Tie Me Up, Stare Me Down, by Zawayuki Taki, follows the relationship between two office workers crushed under the weight of the marketing and sales department. While boss Sawada survives the onslaught of tasks by pinching his brow, his desire to be free from his shitty job is outpacing his ability to hang in there. But deep down, buddy just wants to be freed from the ties that bind him in the corporate grind. So, on a lark, Sawada waltzes into a new bar on the way home from work to get some new stimuli in his day-to-day malaise.
SM bars like this are familiar to Taki, who spoke to Aftermath over email.
“In my twenties, I had a friend who worked as a dominatrix at an SM bar. That’s where I first learned about SM bars, and my first visit after I had become a working adult was the first SM experience I ever had,” Taki said.
“Up until that moment, I had always believed that eroticism is something to feel shame and guilt over. I had become sick of people around me who would react negatively to me for having just a little knowledge of it,” Taki continued. “So when I experienced bondage for the first time and had a venue to have erotic conversations in a healthy, non-judgmental environment, I felt that for the first time I found a place where I belonged. It was this experience that became the basis for the Tie Me Up and Stare Me Downone-shot.”
本日公開！
中間管理職のウブなおじさんが、縛られて新たな世界を開いちゃうお話描きました♥️【続きはくらげバンチより】https://t.co/kHbs7c7Baj#縛って見つめて #漫画が読めるハッシュタグ #くらげバンチpic.twitter.com/Ebd5byknKX
— 多喜ざわゆき/ Zawayuki (@zwzwyk) July 25, 2023
In Taki’s manga, to Sawada’s surprise, the bar he’s wandered into is a fetish bar—more specifically, a bondage bar—where Nana, his mild-mannered subordinate at work, moonlights as its queen. At work, Sawada protects Nana from being too curt for her own good, since men are waiting for an excuse to give a woman shit for speaking her mind. Rather than ducking each other like their obvious game of eye tag was interrupted by the Men In Black’sneuralyzer, the two enter a power-dynamic role reversal in which Nana gives Sawada the liberation they both have been looking for through the sensation of bondage and the pleasure of being seen and heard. Think Smoking Behind TheSuper Market With You, but replace the intimacy of a slow-burn romance via the drag of a cigarette with the tightening and loosening of ropes, the crack of a whip, and the steady ebb and flow of surrendering oneself to the trust of their captor.
“I wanted to convey two people connected to each other by a very ordinary, very human, sense of frailty. The thought behind choosing this setting is that I wanted even those who are new to BDSM to enjoy the story; hence, my careful portrayal of Nana, avoiding the stereotypical ‘dominatrix’ vibe,” Taki told Aftermath. “Just like Sawada felt constrained by his title, I got to wondering if people who, because of their ‘dominatrix’ label, find themselves bound by ideals that differ from their true self. I think the desire to be one’s ‘ideal self’ is a beautiful thing.”
It was paramount to Taki that their portrayal of BDSM was authentic emotionally to readers, and not just titillating.
“I was inspired by the saying that there are as many forms of SM as there are people; I decided to tackle my own version of BDSM. There’s no doubt that the commonly held conception of BDSM is simply inflicting pain one-sidedly, but I was surprised by how much of an empathetic response I received by simply drawing the kind of BDSM I wanted to see,” Take said. “I received countless messages from people along the lines of ‘This is the kind of SM I’ve been looking for! It’s not just about violence; it’s about how trust is essential.’”
That’s not to say the manga isn’t without its bounty of eroticism. But in her pursuit of drawing Sawada and Nana’s newfound relationship, Taki strayed from flattening it to a simple affair of a domineering woman overpowering her boss and getting him off in the process.
“Rather than straight-up eroticism,” Taki said, “I wanted to convey a sense of adult ‘give-and-take’ conveyed through facial expressions, behaviors, and of course, their gazes, as well as a ‘sexual tension’ created by a sense of anticipation and suspense during their intimate state of play.”
読切「縛って見つめて」のタイムラプスみつけた。久しぶりの原稿で試行錯誤が多い！ pic.twitter.com/xXYqirUYLq
— 多喜ざわゆき/ Zawayuki (@zwzwyk) July 29, 2025
How does a mangaka find themselves writing an SM series as their debut? Taki’s trajectory to this point can be traced back to the halcyon days of her youth.
“I happened upon sadomasochism in novels I read in my teenage years,” Taki said. “I didn’t feel a sense of revulsion to someone appearing to derive pleasure from pain. Rather, I found myself able to readily accept it.”
“As a rule, I dislike corporal punishment, but when reading such works,” Taki continued, “I felt that it more resembled the escape one’s mind seeks when cornered by that kind of punishment, or put another way, like the sensation of transforming fear into pleasure when I have a nightmare.”
Living up to my own lauding of mangaka as sociologists who draw exceedingly well, I was delighted to discover that Taki wasn’t just drawing on her own anecdotes about SM culture in Japan; she also consulted Tokyo-based shibari artist Takase Shinnosuke to lend authenticity to Tie Me Up, Stare Me Down.
“After reading the psychological bondage scenes in the one-shot version of Tie Me Up and Stare Me Down,Mr. Takase offered positive feedback, saying that I had nailed it,” Taki said. “From him, I learned that first, there are numerous schools of bondage.
“Interestingly, the way rope is tied and handled reveals specific quirks and individualisms. To those who have a trained eye, the way a rope is threaded and knotted reveals the specific school that rope style belongs to,” she continued. “ I decided to focus and lock in on a single school and depict kinbaku through the lens of an individual, with the belief that a person’s philosophy and character are carved in their binding technique, thus giving Nana an even deeper sense of realism.”
While reference photos are nice and all, it’s a far cry from inhabiting the same space as a shibari artist to fully comprehend the intricacies of how all the ropes work. After all, no one wants to read a manga where an artist yadda yadda’s such an important and dangerous detail on the pages of a readership liable to DIY their own shibari setup. When Taki needed hands-on experience to get those details right, she trekked to Takase’s studio for live demonstrations.
“After the story for each chapter was finalized, I would take a visit to Mr. Takase’s bondage salon ‘Bakuraku’ and ask him specific questions like ‘I want to depict a character on all fours like a dog. How would I go about tying their hands and feet?’” Taki said. “He would then demonstrate the binding right there on the spot, and I’d catch it on video and in pictures.”
Writing a manga about BDSM is sure to garner a curious readership, if not for the merit of its story, out of sheer curiosity to see what all the hubbub is about and maybe, just maybe, blush at what they find and have something awakened within them. The pressure in writing such a manga lay in serving as a gateway for readers unversed in SM culture. For Taki, that was a responsibility she didn’t take lightly.
“Since this manga was read by bondage artists and people involved in the BDSM world, there was a sense of looming pressure on not just me but the supervising team, regarding how things were depicted,” Taki said. “Though, to my delight, some readers even went as far as recreating the bondage scenes from the manga and sent me photos. Having people who are into this recreate the scenes gave me a sense of elation beyond words.”
As is the case for most manga—especially queer manga and manga depicting sex—there was a period in which fans of the series weren’t sure it would ever get a localization in English. You can imagine a sexual manga of this nature wouldn’t fare any better unless a publisher that was about it bout it caught wind of the series and christened it in plastic wrap in brick-and-mortar stores. But manga readers are nothing if not resourceful. The domino effect of the 2024 manga not being localized into English led fans to take matters into their own hands, creating fan translations in the corners of the internet for folks willing to seek them out.
“I got the feeling that this is the kind of manga that would be suited for an international readership. The publisher thought the same thing and released a translated version, but due to the social media algorithm and shadowbanning, there was a period where the views weren’t where we hoped they’d be. Then, slowly, fan translations started appearing, and seeing how popular they became convinced me that the manga would be received well overseas, but I was concerned that this attention wasn’t leading to an official release,” Taki said. “That an official English version was finally announced is nothing short of a miracle. I’m overjoyed that I can share this with overseas fans who have supported me until we finally arrived at this point.”
緊縛の荒縄、手入れしてもらった！MY縄😂
Bluesky Social多喜ざわゆき(zawayuki)
It goes without saying that Taki is thrilled about Tie Me Up, Stare Me Down’s official English release providing a wider readership with the opportunity to experience Nana and Sawada’s love story. But what excites Taki the most about its localization is the prospect of her newfound readership trying SM out for themselves, even casually, and falling in love with it because of her manga.
“I often frequent ‘Bakuraku,’ where sometimes I get tied up, but many times I just go there to talk,” Taki said. “It’s a place like many where you can just chat others up and get their views on life, culture, SM, and bondage. If you’ve got even just a slight interest and feel like you might have an affinity to the vibe, I believe taking baby steps in your involvement is a good idea.”
While finding a kinky bar in your area might prove a touch more difficult for folks in the States, folks can exercise the core theme of Tie Me Up, Stare Me Down by reevaluating the kneejerk reaction one might have reading an entire blog dedicated to a BDSM manga interview. One way Taki recommends folks do so is by not being so precious about eroticism as a topic worth discussing in earnest and with the same level of candor as other creature comforts we call leisure.
See the picture and you’ll see what I love❤#マシュマロを投げ合おうhttps://t.co/l3qXVjVII2pic.twitter.com/SDr0QPkRyx
— 多喜ざわゆき/ Zawayuki (@zwzwyk) August 26, 2025
“There’s no greater joy than when people tell me that they’re glad they decided to get to know this new world,” Taki said. “The first time I went to an SM bar, I was nervous enough that I nearly turned back several times when I reached that heavy door, but once I took the plunge, it was like a dream.”
“I used to wonder if I was weird or if I didn’t deserve to enjoy sexual pleasure, but in that world, it was all totally normal and a part of daily living,” Taki said. “Seeing people casually discuss sex with smiles on their faces made me think, ‘Isn’t eroticism at its heart a part of being human?’”
Tie Me Up, Stare Me Down is now available for pre-order on Manga Maverick’s website, but it won’t be in folks’ hands until May 2027.
