Okay, let me say this first: THIS MANGA IS NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY! Many of the comments that you guys have posted stated how this manga was annoying and cliche, but that is because you guys are looking at it from the wrong viewpoint. This manga is a basic parody of shoujo manga and reverse harems. The sudden weight loss and the sudden harem was the impossible in this manga that is supposed to make you laugh and enjoy it's, well, total unlikeliness. From the those bigger details, to the tinier details (take the Attack on Idiot McDonalds poster in chapter 2 for an example), this parody manga is almost certainly NOT considered a romance manga. If you are a major otaku, fujoshi, or a fandom-blogger on tumblr, then you will probably understand the stupid jokes and references to other anime and trends hilariously displayed in this manga. I recommend this manga for people who understand what a PARODY genre manga is, and that this manga definitely falls into that category!

Look at all the negative comments. Know what they have in common? They're all written by people who read less than 5 chapters of the manga, all focusing on the fact that the hottest boys in Japanese highschools tend not to like BBWs. They focus solely on this one aspect, & obviously none of them read far enough to know she gains the weight back & the boys start to question how much looks really matter.

Let's talk double standards here, folks. The female lead specifically picked out the four hottest guys in school long before she noticed them. She picked them out so she could ship them, she never wanted to be the woman that came between them. If THEY gained weight before she got to know them, she most certainly would have lost interest in shipping them.

Secondly, these guys are complete tools, doormats, buttmonkeys. They let her walk all over them, they let her dress them up, they let her drag them to conventions to buy doujinshis for her, Nishima puts up with with her looking at his as a replacement for Shion, Shinomiya puts up with her making him dress in drag, they even perform fanservice to make her happy, even though it makes them uncomfortable. Sure, all of the boys except Mutsumi are shallow, hostile, & intimidating, but being around her starts to change them & make them question their outlook on life, love, & attraction.

It also has this amazing lesbian/bisexual (?) character who is a foil to the lot of them. Crossdressing, she's the hottest guy in the book, she has a lot in common with the heroine, she is strangely into BL, she's basically a God Mode Sue, but she has actual chemistry with the female lead & poses as a major threat to the boys to either shape up or ship out.

... Last updated on March 3rd, 2015, 11:01pm

I know who the most POPULAR guys are, but I sure as hell don;t know who she's going to end up with. Since it's by a yaoi mangaka & is making fun of harem series, she could end up with the lesbian & all the guys will get paired off with each other, or maybe it will have no romantic resolution at all. Honestly, I would be okay with that too. If she actually does pick one of the guys, it's not going to be blatantly obvious who it's going to be, like how it is in just about every reverse harem series I've ever read. Maybe it will take a realistic route & have all of the guys give up trying to get out of the friend zone & learn to just be satisfied being a group of friends & not trying to ruin the whole thing by being territorial, eventually finding their own special fish in the sea instead of hunting the same one.

I really enjoyed reading this
other shoujo mangas with fujoshi/otaku protags would obviously focus on them beginning to grow out of their shell and into the world of love (or smthn like that), but kae is a fujoshi down to the core, as I'm pretty sure this manga exists to poke a little fun at a fujoshi life and ridiculous reverse harems.
the boys are super cute I love them all, I've always been a fan of Junko, and I can't wait for more
anyway, definitely reccomend to any fujoshis out there lool

A few problems kept this series from being perfect, but from my perspective of being a fan of both shoujo, yaoi, and josei, I rather enjoyed this series. It starts you out with some wonderful comedy that goes off the deep end in ridiculing genres and character tropes. It gives some real back and forth and comes off as unique for a shoujo manga where the final guy is not perfect. It sends the message that both individuals in a relationship are more than their looks and shouldn't expect "perfection" in themselves or in their partners. As Kae progresses through the book, I do get disappointed by her reversion into a typical shoujo protagonist trope near the end instead of keeping her up as an object of the parody of fujoshi she was originally written as. However, each of these otome-game styled love interests are very much holding on to their own tropes with just enough backstory for you to care about them.

Pros:
1. The female protagonist doesn't simply go for the "sporty-bro" type.
2. Ultimatums are not portrayed as effective or healthy in relationships (friends or romantic)
3. Love really doesn't take into account gender or appearance, regardless of if they're the main character or not.

But as it goes towards the end, here are some issues I have:


Overall I still recommend this. It's a good read, but in my opinion not the best plot development. I'm also a just a tiny bit salty this was the only work by Junko-sensei that I've seen animated, since it's probably because it's shojou and not a yaoi like most of her other works.

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.

... Last updated on September 18th, 2021, 3:18pm

I think it's really important to go into this series knowing what you're gonna get:

This is a PARODY of reverse harem shoujos and pokes fun at lots of typical things you find in shoujo. The boys all (minus Mustumi) start off as shallow and superficial, but we gradually get to see them change bit by bit. I like to think that the author is making a point that you can't be in love with looks alone...you have to love who a person is on the inside as well. As the story progresses, you see these boys go from infatuation, to puppy love, and then start finally grasping what it might mean to actually love someone.

As another reviewer mentioned, I find the outcome of this series to be completely unpredictable. The heroine obviously has no clue what love feels like and just seems to want to continue having fun with everyone as a group. The only "men" she's ever fawned over have all been anime characters. Which actually I see as another commentary on indecisive shoujo heroines, especially in reverse harems. I always find those heroines annoying; those who can't seem to pinpoint exactly who makes their heart go "doki doki". But I think the author does it purposefully here to poke fun and say "Just because all these guys like her doesn't mean she's going to like them back (immediately)."

All that being said, the comedy in this series is great. There are a lot of hilarious fujoshi jokes that any fan of shonen-ai/yaoi will be sure to appreciate. Even if that's not your cup of tea, it's still a very enjoyable and hilarious read, as long as you don't expect it to be something it's not.

I really only read yaoi/shounen-ai, but stumbled across this when browsing through Junko's works. The concept is completely ridiculous, but then this manga isn't meant to be taken seriously, and was written for laughs and the parody. It makes fun of the shoujo genre in a good way, and I liked the main fujoshi character (even if she was annoying at times). This is a good read for any yaoi-fan looking for something fun and different (though clearly this isn't yaoi). It's funny relating to her. Look out for the dark-haired-glasses-guy - he made me laugh.

I love the BL by this author, so I thought a shoujo manga would be interesting. The art is gorgeous! The series is funny too! It's great for light hearted fluffiness, but this is not a good series of you want something serious. She lost weight in an unhealthy and totally unrealistic way (not eating sets the body into starvation mode and retains fat while eating away muscle); also, she would have excess skin if she lost that much weight in that little time. But the concept was very cute and I enjoyed it. I didn't like the fact that most of the guys were super shallow and were only interested in her because of her looks (w/ the exception of one guy). I could tolerate the unrealistic weight lost, but the shallowness was a no no . I hope it gets better as the series progresses.

After reading 27 chapters of this manga, I must say that I totally agree with what BlondieOtaku said. My opinion does not only come from reading this manga, but also most of Junko-sensei's work.
She's really capable of writing amazing stories, and she actually has wrote about bullying, the deepness of love, appearances and love at first sight because of them, so I can say with confidence that this is a very good COMEDY/PARODY OF SHOUJO MANGA. It makes me remember sometimes Horimiya, a shounen manga which main themes are love and appearances.
If you're up to a more serius story, this is definitively not for you. This is a really light story full of humor and maybe it will be easier to understand if you know lots of anime and the 'fujoshi culture' in Japan, because lets face it, the main audiences for this manga are japanese people and not foreigners and thats maybe a reason why is difficult to understand for some people.