TLDR: First season is absolute trash. I wouldn't even call something boring trash, so this is worse. It's straight up 50 chapters of reading about the FL getting manipulated by this mofo of a ML. Second season suddenly gets rid of this side of him though and he turns into someone who actually respects the FL. Tbh I would recommend not even reading the dialogue of the first season (otherwise it's infuriating) and just learning the names / situations of the characters for the second.
Full review with two updates below:
I actually laughed out loud at multiple scenes, the female lead is fine, and the premise is your run-of-the-mill incarnated as someone else which is also fine. Art is also good too. Story is kind of non-existent so far but a lot of slice of life manga start out slow.
Now, the reason this is rated so low is because other than looks the male lead has nothing going for him! In fact, it's plain creepy to read about this guy who befriends the female lead, insists he doesn't need any friends except for her (total red flag in real life), manipulates her into saying "yes" to fake dating (she's like "but why I don't need to," then does it because he says it'd help him), and then uses magic on other people to crash her perfectly innocent group blind date after he told her it was okay for her to go.
The whole situation where he continues to be her friend after making it clear that he's actually super into her is kind of weird too, though that one's not totally on him - it's also pretty weird for the female lead to just like... continue to insist he's her "special friend" while rejecting all of his advances...
All the while this male lead character is making sly under the breath references to his identity about how "he won't excuse her behavior twice" and "whether or not I become a disaster, that's up to you"... like what, is he going to throw a big fit and kill people or something just because the girl he decides he likes doesn't wanna date him? It's actually kind of gross that this creep is gonna end up with a female lead who actually wants to be independent and not caught up in romance.
Currently on chapter 18, will probably drop soon though like this isn't romantic it's just disturbing. It's actually a shame because take away all the ML is creepy af parts and the romantic scenes are cute and the female lead is practical and funny.
Update #1 - Another ten chapters later (with minor spoilers):
Yeah I stand by how everything is actually pretty good quality other than the manipulative creepy parts like how he uses magic and his people to set up an entire fake workplace so instead of her working at the job she worked hard to get, she's going to this fake setup orchestrated by him? I have never even encountered such a plot device. Imagine, gaslighting your partner so hard you fake an entire workplace for them to work in. With absurd fake work to do.
Though, at this point the fake workplace is so obvious that I can't just blame the male lead. The female lead is also beyond dense for accepting it. It's looking to be like this is supposed to be more of an absurd comedy than anything.
Update #2:
Okay it actually becomes good a couple chapters into the second season. (Still, that's a lot of very frustrating chapters to slog through.) The male lead, while still kind of clingy, is actually respectful of the female lead and does all the nice doting things without the totally not-okay manipulation. The plot is actually really good now too, and pretty unique from all the other reincarnated from a romance novel manga I've read. At this point it's actually a seven or eight out of ten and I'll definitely continue reading this, but my overall rating's still only a five because the first season was just that terrible.
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