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

This manga is not for everyone and not everyone has the same taste
But I'm quite happy and amused whenever I read a new chapter of this manga.
Some may say that it was a bait for the fujoshi but why not??
The author understands the feelings and exact habit of a fujoshi and i find it interesting.

What I like really like about this manga is not about the BL subplot but the character developments.
Each of the characters had flaws of their own and I'm happy that they change for the better.
Kae the heroine is not your typical shoujo heroine, so don't impose your shoujo standards..
I quite like her to be honest.. Love is hard especially if your inexperienced and I quite get that as the same late bloomer as Kae...

This manga is great and there is never a dull moment...
I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Endgame was a bit.... :T
The best possible guy, I guess. But my salty queer ass won't have this. :'(
That aside, I really was not satisfied with the way Junko wrote her romance with the guy. It was like Katniss choosing Peeta just because he was suffering, kinda like
So in my opinion the writing for that was not the best. Honestly it wasn't very romantic. It was... very watered down. The only thing worse is when Keima ended up with plainy in TWGOK.
Well.. not that Junko manga ever had good writing lol.
I'll impossibly vote for my best girl. T _T

Now back to the series overall: Kae is a m/m fetishizer who ships even people IRL (in her world) and is the typical fujoshi who must have a ship with firm top/bottom roles (which is usually based on heteronormative values) and will fight over oppo-pairs. She likes to voyeur while m/m get it on. She and Nishina kinda make the boys do fanservicey things which can get rather gross sometimes... Overall, this manga can get pretty cringey.
As a fujoshi, I think she gives us a bad name.... but also, many fujoshi are like that, which is really freakin' sad.
The fatphobia is a bit... of a more difficult subject to touch on, but...
That said, the manga does have its enjoyable moments. I read this far because of Nishina. And admittedly, the was pretty interesting there for a while.

And I'm not deluded enough to have thought that Nishina ever had a chance to be endgame, as this is a shoujo manga. But man, I feel slighted, because she was often pushed to the side or just made to "not count" because she's a girl. Sigh... I guess it's for the best if she never had a chance anyway.

... Last updated on March 14th, 2017, 5:57am

Well, first off this was nothing like i expected it to be. It was much, much worse. It's supposed to be a parody but there's no hint of that because all the typical as hell shoujo tropes are played straight. The plot is stereotypical in every sense (and reminiscent of this other one i encountered recently called Mairunovich)- even the female characters are absurd caricatures of high school girls. Besides disliking how the girls are represented, the art is just awful. Gangly, noodle-esque people with those ugly par-for-the-course face types that I assume are the very first things taught to an apprentice. Stuff that ideally, should be a springboard into developing a more personal, uniquer style. There's very little background art, and far too much space occupied by screentones. For something that was published in a magazine, the art should have been of higher quality. As a final note, I've only read 2 chapters thus far. I might begrudgingly read a few more and see if my mind's changed at all but I sincerely doubt it will.

... Last updated on November 27th, 2016, 12:33am

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 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.

A lot of funny otaku/fujoshi moments (even a little yuri), but slow-going with the relationships. It took a long time for the mangaka to show how each guy's feelings for Kae get deeper as they get to know her better, and how she gets to know them better. Every time some sort of typical shoujo manga mishap happens, it's reinforced that they are actually decent guys, not just chasing after a pretty face...anymore, at least. ;P

This is hilarious. I actually WANT it to be BL for real! Why does the author know the spirit of a fujoshi so well Why are all the characters (even the girls) so easily slashable? (Give us more kissing dammit!)

... Last updated on August 10th, 2015, 1:42pm