For some reason, I can't log into my old account & edit my review from 2015.
Unlike every other review before me, I actually bothered to update my review & change my rating after completing the series. Because once your honeymoon phase of starting this series is over, your relationship with it might fall apart.
The comedy was good after all, & the concept was a unique twist, but no matter how much I enjoy the ride, sometimes the destination ruins the whole trip. I would only ever reread the first half of this story, which I absolutely adored.
Much like Ouran High School Host Club, I only liked this up to a point until the comedy was put on hold for relationship drama. When I heard a yaoi mangaka was making a SPOOF of Otome with a fujoshi & a lesbian option, I was hoping she'd break otome cliches by having the girl pick the lesbian (whom she has the most in common with & the only ine she has any real chemistry with) & pair off all the guys with eachother. In the end, this SPOOF just became the very thing it was making fun of. Even worse, you could tell really early on which guy she was going to pick, like how in Ouran it was obvious she'd pick the guy who was most like her father. & Shinomiya was immediately written off as the least likely, never developing any real chemistry with anyone other than Nanashima.
After she finally chooses a guy, you expect the series to just end, or for spinoffs of all the rejected characters to find their own romance, but instead, they recieve no more character developmentvat all, & it becomes a series of issues where things keep tearing the designated couple apart & making it hard for them to maintain their relationship. This is often depicted as a romantic series of trials by the young & naive. In reality, problems only escalate with time & having this many issues early in the relationship is just a series of red flags. At this point, continuing the series became an endurance test, but since I've been reading it for 3 years, I felt I should finish it.
In one arc, the now established couple have a falling out that is completely Serinuma's fault & something the readers completely expected of her, something you wonder why the rest of the guys she rejected can't see would have happened to them had they been in his place. A new character is introduced who should have created a huge conflict of interest for her; "do you love BL so much that you would push your boyfriend into another man's arms?" Instead, the author goes with a much dumber crisis where she has to decide if she's more dedicated to her real boyfriend or her 2D Husbando. This & her panic of trying to patch things up make Serinuma unbearably annoying. Couple this with the fact that the two of them were a poor match with zero common interests, & you find yourself hoping they never get back together & annoyed when they do.
The fluffy romantic moments made me downright queasy & the sexual tension gave me the crawls. At first I debated if I was just that uncomfortable with Het, but then I remembered that Gokusen also had a pure-hearted boy chasing after an oblivious hyperactive eccentric woman that didn't annoy the crap out of me. I believe it might be because the series was devoid of any ecchi up until this point & just lost it's PG rating.
The next relationship dip is one you normally get in Korean webtoons; Going to college in different counties.
If you want a manga with a likable & relatable fujoshi protagonist & the guys actually hook up with eachother, I recommend "Bromance" aka "18 Unlimited."
& for those of you with issues of fat shaming, it's implied in the end that she gains all the weight back (off screen) & stayed that way till the day she died.
(+2)
(-418)
