Skip this garbage, Highschool DXD and Rosario no vampire are much better. EZ win. No contest in fact.

The first 4 volumes have a fun sadistic teasing nature and that was the big pull for me (no pun intended) However at volume 5 it begins to stray away from this. It's gotten too lighthearted and isn't that fun of a read. That and the fact that the artwork has recently declined, i.e. Nagatoro's facial expressions aren't as good anymore.

Volumes 1-8 I'd give an 8.2, but starting with volume 9 to current it's more like a 6.8

... Last updated on June 7th, 2022, 6:08pm

While you could be put off by the weak-stereotype (ultraherbivore) male mc, you'll surely enjoy the female MC, especially for the quirky mangaka's way of depicting her mischevious moments: it's like seeing a person with aneurysm or stroke and it's THAT much fun, everytime.
The manga, btw, is not "only" comedy: in a way it depicts the various phases of first love between adolescents, with not very far off from reality behaviours. You could see, beyond the comedic curtain, the respective characters grow, little by little, along with their relationship.
Try it 😉

... Last updated on June 9th, 2020, 5:11am

That is SoL, comedy and Highschool manga, Firstly i had loved that serie, but all humours are same and it makes you feel boring, if you can bear with then you can read it.

I just want to give my support to the review below by somethingwicked - Its totally spot-on.
Like Prison School, it seems like a number of readers misunderstood the real message of this work.
Nagatoro wouldn't do all that she does if she doesn't care about the guy, simple as that. Don't just read through every panel so quickly - take your time, pay attention to the little details. Art and stories are all about the details, and the Japanese are big on the little things. Every line and stroke, every shot, every facial expression, every blush, has a reason. Some authors don't spell out every little thing because they don't want to treat their readers like children, and that's a good thing.

As somethingwicked has mentioned, look at the first chapter: Nagatoro didn't bully him immediately - she waited until her friends were gone, then she does her thing. Same goes for the following chapters - Its all well-calculated, controlled moves. Also, pay attention to her face when she "bullies" him - she blushes, meaning she's also embarrassed, cuz she likes him. Duhh. (You could argue the blushes are due to her having a sadistic high, but could be both right? And that still makes sense). And also, notice she wiped his tears with her own handkerchief and even gave it to him to keep - that's her low key way of caring for him. Really now, its like how men tease the women they like, its not that weird a concept. Reading too much into it, you say? Possible, but unlikely.

However, lets not ignore the fact that this series is also at the same time tickling the "sadistic lover" fetish, which is fine too.

Its rare to find such a well-informed, deep-thinking reader/reviewer like somethingwicked.
Kudos to you Sir or Ma'am.

Ps. Support this author by buying their work published by Vertical! 🙂

... Last updated on November 2nd, 2019, 1:32am

I've seen people compare it to "Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san", but I feel it's way more similar to "Welcome to the NHK!" or "Aku no Hana". What we have here is basically a guy who has serious issues, being more or less bullied by a girl who has issues herself. What starts as bullying, to me, becomes a very unhealthy relationship, in which the guy starts to suffer from a weird type of Stockholm Syndrome, and becomes more and more dependant on the girl, while not making any progress whatsoever in having social interactions with other people. The girl herself becomes more and more dependent on her dominance of the guy, which kinda betrays her own huge insecurities and issues. As quoted from "Welcome to the NHK!", she's "his angel", and he's "her maggot".

That is, if you want to read too much into it. For now it's more like a fetish comedy (which at times shows the hentai background of the author), and it seems to be taking a more vanilla and carefree route, instead of the more interesting and complex psychological one.
In the end it feels like a self-insertion for the reader, since the MC is practically a white board, with the exception of his artistic talent, and that's even lampshaded in the first chapter. Which is fine, but given the premise and the characters it could be much more.

@somethingwicked: Although I agree with a minimal amount of what you say (Sempai is a doormat), I'd say most of it is hogwash.

Nagatoro isn't a bad person? She's not abusive? She's "nicer than any real girl in real life" (you must know some really horrible girls)? She's trying to help him? What an effing joke. She's an A#1 SADIST who gets her jollies by bullying the one she "loves". She's not trying to help him. She's not trying to turn him into ideal boyfriend material. She's just a SADIST who gets her jollies by bullying the one she "loves". Of course, if she really loved him, she wouldn't bully him in the first place.

Sempai puts up with all of her abuse because he's, as you say, a doormat and too chicken-shit to tell her to buzz off. Plus, of course, there's the fear of more intense violent physical retribution (or, as you would call it, "love") if he dared to be so bold.

As of the end of the 1st volume, I have serious doubts as to whether Sempai will grow and mature as a person, whatsoever, over the course of the series. Once a doormat, always a doormat. The only progress potential I see probable, if any, is that Nagatoro will have some sort of epiphany and realize that the way she treats Sempai is just wrong, though I ain't holding my breath for that to come about.

I think the description of this manga is completely wrong. It's backwards. She's in love with him. He tolerates her behavior because he's a doormat, not because he's in love with her. He isn't in love with her, but he does like her. Just not as much as she likes him. He definitely realizes she's not a bad person even though she's seemingly mean to him, so he must know something is up with the explanation for her behavior. Look at the first chapter carefully. She quietly observes him being bullied by the other girls she's been hanging out with, while she didn't do anything, just watched them expressionlessly, watching his reactions. Which means nominally she's quite a bit less abusive than the other girls. And then I think at that moment, there could have been a lit lightbulb drawn over her head. I think she "abuses" him (and she usually tries to not be a spectacle in front of others, she does it when the two of them are alone, so she's not trying to traumatize him socially in front of others) because she's trying to help him. He's so withdrawn, she's trying to compel him to be more assertive and stand up for himself, by letting him practice with an antagonist who actually is on his side, to get him at some point to have had enough and then when he's broken that barrier, she'd be nice to him from there on and say "it's about time". Look at what she does every time. She doesn't try to embarrass him in front of others, and if she actually pushes him so far that he breaks down into tears or actually gets hurt, she immediately apologizes and backs off. She's constantly pushing the envelope, trying to find where his limits are all while wearing that adorable, charming snaggletooth smile, treating him with very controlled caution the whole time, like he's fragile, while pretending to be as cruel as she can without actually doing damage. She's trying to be his friend and give him what she guesses he needs to get over his neurosis. To show him how unreasonable his expectations on the people around him are, by taking it to ridiculous limits. So she's not abusive at all. She's actually nicer than any real girl in real life IMHO. She's the opposite of a real girl, which tries to superficially appear to be nice while she's getting off on ripping up your insides and hurting your reputation, she's trying to appear to be abrasive while she's healing him and trying to highlight the absurdity of the role he has set for himself until he realizes how absurd it is and laughs along with her. But he hasn't done this since he hasn't figured out what she's doing and thinks she's being mean to him so far. Typical dense male shounen protagonist. But I would be very, very surprised if the author of this manga was a woman. I can't tell with this "774 Nanashi" pen name. But this is a prototypical nice female character created by a male author. She goes against female nature. Any time there's a waifu worthy female character in a manga, you need to remember, the author is a man and real women aren't like that. It's sad but true. And when you see it, it only makes you more lonely and retreat to waifus to try to heal your pain, sigh.

... Last updated on February 4th, 2018, 4:18pm

Originally illustrated on Pixiv in 2011, 774 house's Nagatoro comics featured a violent, sadistic girl named Nagatoro that would tease her beloved senpai in varying sexual, emotional, and physical ways. Now fast forward to present year in 2017, where his work has become published by Kodansha as a serialized manga series.

The overall concept of the manga series is the same as the original, except Senpai is given a little bit more focus to make him appear as a more rounded character, rather than in the original, where he's just a blank slate you would use to self-insert. But if you came for 774 house's usual brand of femdom, then you won't be disappointed.

... Last updated on December 24th, 2017, 12:08am

Its only just begun, but what little has been released seems pretty straightforward, seems to be riding the gal girl fad

Shy guy writes manga
Gal reads and interacts with him (while the interaction is seemingly negative, could be seen as oddly encouraging)

Could end up good, could end up too cliche for me though.

Giving a substandard score until the a bit too rough beginning pans out