Michiko Shibata is almost 30 years old... yet she doesn't have her life sorted out in the slightest. The company she worked in was shut down, she's rejected at all her job interviews due to having little to no studies nor experience, and her cute university student boyfriend has taken most of her money through gifts and loans. And it's been forever since she last ate meat. On the way to bankruptcy, she encounters her former boss Kurosawa, a cross and rude man who has turned down a successful business career to take over his grandmother's café. Although she hates him to death, she's forced to accept his offer to work on the café, under the promise of receiving meals (including meat!) every day.
As it turns out, Kurosawa isn't such a terrible person as Michiko thought him to be.
Dame na Watashi ni Koisite Kudasai (lit. Please Love the Useless Me) is a josei manga by Aya Nakahara, the author of the popular Lovely★Complex. It was serialized in the monthly magazine You from 2013 to 2016, and compiled into 10 volumes. The series was greenlit for a live-action drama version that aired in 2016.
Provides examples of the following tropes:
- Always Someone Better: For Kurosawa, it's his brother. He doesn't envy owning the family business, but he desires being Haruko's husband.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Michiko ends up having a crush on Kurosawa, who loves a woman named Haruko... who's already married. Even so, Michiko starts dating her coworker Mogami, who's very much crushed on her, although she still has a preference for Kurosawa.
- Betty and Veronica: Mogami is the Betty and Kurosawa the Veronica to Michiko's Archie.
- Chick Magnet: Kurosawa ends up attracting many customers to the café... mostly middle-aged housewives.
- Face of a Thug: Kurosawa's friends. They turn out to be cool guys.
- First Kiss: Michiko's is with Kurosawa, although he was drunk, half-asleep and thinking of another woman, so Akira thinks it doesn't count.
- Generic Cuteness: Michiko is considered to be average-looking. She seems incredibly young for a 29-year-old. However, considering the author only drew Shoujo until this point, her style doesn't suit the genre.
- Gold Digger: Michiko's first "boyfriend", who seems to be more interested in getting gifts and money from her than an actual relationship. According to Kurosawa, Mogami is one too, even if he hasn't done anything yet to prove it.
- Japanese Delinquents: Kurosawa and his friends. Down to the Delinquent Hair and everything.
- Nice Guy: Mogami, even more compared to Kurosawa.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kurosawa turns out to be this. He gives Michiko a job, food and later the apartment above the café when she's kicked out of her apartment.
- Pairing the Spares: After being dumped by Michiko, Mogami starts being interested in Akira.
- The Pollyanna: Michiko really works hard to not let herself be run down by her circumstances.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Kurosawa and his friends are skilled at cooking and sewing, and one of them always likes to take pictures of cute things. They're never mocked for this.
- Shout-Out: The name of the club Michiko is forced to work in is Garden 48, and her alias is Yuko Maeda. This is a parody of the group AKB48, whose first two leaders were Atsuko Maeda and Yuko Oshima.
- Akira complains about how she'd have the same name as Akira Kurosawa if she managed to marry Kurosawa.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Kurosawa.
- Trademark Favourite Food: Michiko looooves meat. She even has a meat-shaped plushie!
