Well, I agree that it starts off a bit...uh, messy, but if you pioneer through the choppy 'wtf just happened?!?' bits, it gets smoother on from there.
After the first couple of chapters things move on in the form of development between the characters and the story gets a bit of a dark tone which I wasn't expecting since the art looks so much like a light-hearted shoujo in the beginning.
I'm all for reverse harem but sometimes, even as a girl, I dislike the trope because more often than not, someone always gets hurt. This was unavoidable in the case of this manga of course. As with any reverse harem, the male protagonists find a way to bond with the cross-dressing female lead.
This doesn't have the humor to balance out the dark tones though, as with more popular reverse harem mangas/stories.
The revenge part of the story is put in the back burner for a long time in favor of making the reader get to know the leads first before any proper action takes place. Most of the first two volumes cover the respective pasts of the leads, revealing bit by bit to expose each character's issues. This isn't a light fluffy read but it doesn't have the right balance in the story to be truly called drama. It's...weird. Dark and slightly dramatic at times but it's okay, albeit not exactly groundbreaking and meaningful.
The leads:
The Crossdresser
Female lead is pretty badass, has similar emotional aloofness as the girl from Ouran Host Club. She's [supposedly] driven by revenge for her father who was wronged by the eviiil chairman dude.
She connived to use the 'four' guys' weaknesses to her advantage so they could lend her their power and influence in the school but ends up building a relationship with each one without her meaning to. (the 'four' guys used to be patients of her father, each afflicted with some illness and each connecting with the female lead's dad at one point or another)
She reaches a point where she questions her resolve for revenge and the guilt she has for using the guys. (Although, really, her plan to manipulate each one pretty much fails but instead they end up having bonds stronger than any obtained by blackmail or similar tactics)
She has conflict within herself as the part of her that desires to completely be rid of the girl/emotionally weak side of herself is warring with her 'self' building unexpected bonds with the guys. Basically, she doesn't want to care but ends up doing so even if she thinks it makes her weak.
The Reverse Harem
#1--Haru (the one most likely to end up with the lead) is surprisingly, really a prince type. Noble and kind-hearted. Seriously, with his looks, I was expecting him to be the jerk/playful type who still gets the female lead since he's like the leader of the group. His 'illness' is some sort of wound on his chest that can never seem to heal. Put into black & white, it sounds like some sort of allusion to a forever bleeding heart or something like that.
He's sweet and is slightly protective of the heroine but he isn't loud or shows any sign of any other personality quirk. He's...the perfect guy in terms of shoujo manga, I guess. He isn't a perv, not even a goof we usually see in 'the good guy' types. Weird. I ended up liking him. Even weirder.
We find out that he met the heroine when they were kids but didn't know how tell the girl since she didn't seem to remember him. He's surprised by her new personality and tries to reconcile it with the angel-like ideal he had of her when they were children, when she was sweet and innocent. He's troubled that he sees her so bent on revenge, her attitude is completely different from when they were kids and tries hard to accept the 'changed' heroine.
This is explained in ch9 and onwards which is helpful since the beginning caused the readers to go 'whut the fu--' when out of nowhere, it becomes obvious that he likes the heroine with no development whatsoever.
#2--Aki and #3--Fuyu are two persons in one body. Their issues stem from people seeing them as one personality while rejecting the other. The heroine's dad was the first to recognize them as two distinct people despite the one physical body they share. Of course, that's how they bond with the heroine because she's the only one other than the other two sick boys and her dad who also recognizes them as distinct and separate.
I sort of felt my heart break for Fuyu (the cold-hearted sadist type) in one scene where it becomes obvious to the reader that he's starting to have feelings for the heroine but Haru is sort of in the way.
Aki (manipulative womanizer, the womanizing part doesn't stem from an innate desire to womanize which is usual with other reverse harem manga, but stems from his desire to manipulate) also likes the heroine at some point after he realizes she's 'different' from all the other girls and he just can't manipulate her quite right but he's the first to recognize Fuyu's growing feelings.
#4--Natsu is the cute immature-acting type even if he's actually quite broken on the inside. I found his development to be the most profound among the 'four' because although he realizes his affection for the heroine, he has accepted that he can never have and so desires that either Haru or Fuyu 'catch' the heroine so that even after she fulfills her revenge, she won't be able to leave the group.
The heroine, to him, is the only one in so long that he is willing to trust and love and even if he's happy he has been accepted despite his illness and issues, he is unwilling to let his first taste of acceptance go so he believes he won't be able to take losing the heroine.
After the character developments and stuff, the bad guy pops in every now. We'll be getting more backstory on him and everything that's going on. The plot thickens, so to speak, by the near end of volume 2
The story gets much much better by volume 2 but it still gives me a heavy feeling when I read it and doesn't have the promise of becoming more emotionally fulfilling. The characters are each getting a bit darker (except Haru) and...It's not exactly depressing though. It's just...not extremely impressive yet. I might end up changing my rating in the end.
(14 chapters so far)
(-17)
(+97)
