This is the third manga I've read by Tachibana, and it's the least impressive. Sarutobi is extremely unpleasant and the pages without him are much better by contrast. The relationship between Togame and Inugami is kinda sweet.



While it was a quick and easy read, I don't recommend this because of the unpleasant ML and the general lack of intrigue in the entire story.

While there were the usual panty shots and the like, it felt a little less skeevy because Sarutobi was pretty upfront and there actually wasn't any physical groping. I thought this was going to have some romance elements to it, but while there might have been some hints of potential future romance, it really wasn't a main point of the plot.

At some points, it looked like the mangaka was gearing up to have a larger subplot with the school pres, but that didn't really happen to the point that you kind of wonder what was the point of some of those manga panels lol.

There could have been more character development, but since this manga was pretty short, there just wasn't enough time.

While the ending wasn't really satisfying, it wasn't too terrible either. I'm glad that things didn't pan out in the cliche route.

The premise is that the protagonist Inugami's position as "perfect" is under threat by some unknown dude who is later revealed to also have stolen her successor rights to her family.

Cue the typical romcom jinx— or so you would think. Instead of your standard romcom routines you get a weird sadistic relationship and a tendency towards empathizing with the female protagonist for the situation she's in. She hardly deserves Sarutobi's scorn and derision and we're not made aware of why he acts in such a manner until end of volume 2, beginning of volume 3. And when we're made aware of his reasoning, his actions begin to make sense but you wonder why didn't the mangaka start off with that? It would have helped establish his protagonists as competing rivals over the succession rights and help firmly establish what the series wished to be. That is another issue with this manga— that it doesn't really know what it wants to be. There's elements of romcom, ecchi, and possible politicking that never really mesh well. At the end we don't understand either protagonist relationship with another and are left all the more confused by it.

Yet despite those criticisms, the manga had decent character designs for the females and interesting characters (include the rival male protagonist once his motivations were explained). What motivated the score to be above average were plainly the characters which I felt would have been better developed if motivations and relationships clearly demarcated (or at least partially) in the beginning.

That said, the score of this manga is purely in it's wasted potential and is only deserving to be read in passing when you're bored.

... Last updated on August 31st, 2018, 10:47am

A nice perfectionist girl has her entire life ruined by her only living family member for her supposed benefit. She then has to compete with a perverted narcissist who forces herself to humiliate herself and threatens her social position, only friendship, and future.

The story is terribly paced and lacks any closure or sense that anything that happened was actually worthwhile, but the art is okay. Worth a read if you want to see what the depiction of a mangaka's fetish for humiliation looks like when it's not in a hentai manga, but mostly it's just depressing and a bit creepy.

This manga is really good manga if you believe in gender equality. All three characters are really interesting. They all have their own stories and the characters don't leech off each other. It also shows what a realistic positive harem would look like and also what it means for a business to adapt from the whole only hire family to actually hire people who are skilled enough for the Job. So if your into all this stuff than this manga is for you.The people who are commenting negative stuff about this manga are usually people who don't like independent characters. It is short but it is good

There are good endings where things get wrapped up nicely and the reader gets satisfying closure.

There are also so-so endings where things are open-ended but the reader can accept it because it made sense and tying up all the lose ends may not have been possible or sensible.

And then there are endings that make simply open up a can of worms and not only don't tie ANY loose ends, but only complicate things further and end up being a terrible ending that ruins the experience before.

The epilogue for this series is of the third type, where rather than tying things up, it takes the open-ended ending and blasts a giant hole in the wall. Perhaps it'd make for an interesting segway into a sequel, but for an ending it was pretty terrible and made me question whether I had just wasted my time reading 17 chapters of this.

I've had a hard time reading this manga and it's mostly because Tsubaki is actually a very nice person and it's hard to see her be abused. She works hard and diligently at school in order to show respect for her family, she's gracious to people who she beats in contests, even people who are rude to her and she cares deeply for her friends. Yes, there is some point I think to her being able to learn how to handle not winning all the time, but generally we learn these lessons in ways that don't involve deep psychological torture and sexual harassment.

Inversely, Sanosuke is really a detestable human being. It's not because of his arrogance, or because of the wagers he makes (after all, part of it is Tsubaki's fault for foolishly accepting stupid terms) but because he revels in his own malice. Even if you want to believe that the things that Sanosuke does are ultimately for Tsubaki's own benefit, his actions are the difference between a parent punishing a child because it's necessary and one who does so simply because they enjoy the act of punishment.

Finally, don't be mislead by people who are comparing this manga's themes to things like S/M or sexism. Really, this manga has nothing to do with either of those topics. It reads more like a "bash fiction" that you might find some fan writing about a character from a t.v. show they hate. It's just mindless pummeling of Tsubaki over increasingly stupid contests and with reasoning that rivals the kind of nonsense a 5th grader might make up. Frankly it sucks and I find myself just wishing someone would use Sanosuke's head for a golf tee.

It's clear as the day since the first chapter that the MC's Grandfather hired Sarutobi to "train" Inugami into being a better heir, because she "apparently grow up thinking she needed to match up the expectations put onto her rather than being herself" or some other bull like that.
Further more, this kind of plot in shonen is rather common when gender-bent, the male main character getting defeated by the girl that just transferred in everything he though he was good at, and not really uncommon on Shoujo, both one way and the other. So, while I don't mind people not liked the manga, since I don't think it's that good, I would really like it if people stop bringing the whole "battle of the sexes" and "discrimination" arguments on a manga that's not really about that.

Finally, my real concern whit this manga is how the author sucks at writing "smart" people, the stuff he thinks clever seems like a third grader attempt at being smart.

... Last updated on January 28th, 2015, 9:41am

Original Review:

I'll cautiously agree with jasperv - it's too soon to judge, This is definitely not Renai Shimasen ka which was a refreshing, entertaining, and sweet read, so this follow-up work is especially jarring for existing on the total opposite end of spectrum. This not Nana to Kaoru, where for all their use of ropes/gags/etc. the underlying emotions are gentle and romantic.

I can't tell where this is going, but the lack of 'romance' tag as a category gives me cause for concern (EDIT: Ok they added one recently. There's still a loooong way to go to get there). If this becomes just an episodic game of humiliation then it will quickly wear thin for many. I'm hoping there is a broader reason for his treatment of her and that he will eventually come to like/love her - they might actually see each other as equals. Could just be wishful thinking though.

Final Thouhts:

Yeah, so it must have gotten axed which was probably for the best. The rushed ending was rather terrible considering everything that happened. The 'Romance' tag was removed entirely. The art was good, that's about all I can say. The mangaka REALLY needs to get back to his days of "Renai Shimasen Ka." That was a cute and refreshing romance that many people enjoyed, although it ended a bit abruptly - so maybe it was axed too. Anyone know?

... Last updated on January 26th, 2016, 5:16am

me too was taken back by this new work of Tachibana Roku.
after the interesting oneshot and the solid "Renai Shimasen ka?"
the mangaka had a promising start, and a potential to do something different.
yes, it's still too early to judge if this is about psychological S&M, if it was why the POV is the female protag, also she's referred to as the "Heroine", and the vilain the male protag, maybe this is what makes this manga different.
I'm still hoping for something new and interesting.