Where to start with this one… As everyone, Kuragehime was my first introduction to works of this author. And i thoroughly enjoyed Kuragehime even tho i’m a guy and so perhaps not the target demographic. But, it was well written, the character cast was well thought out, the characters themselves had a good chemistry, and things happened that pushed the plot forward. So, when I came across this manga, i looked forward to another good manga.
But, this manga is everything Kuragehime isn’t, and it’s been basically unreadable.
Now, perhaps it isn’t fair to compare 1 to 1, and I get that the author wanted to explore a different topic, such as a beauty whose life is hell due to her beauty, and I think it’s a good and insightful topic that can serve as a good starting point, but the problem lies in execution; between the plot, the cast, and the genre, I can’t tell which is worse. In fact, the art is the only good thing I can say about this manga.
With that out of the way, let’s jump in this dumpser fire.
CAST
If Kuragehime is an example of a well though out and balanced character cast, then this is an example of everything opposite. In Kuragehime, the chemistry between 4-5 core characters is what drives the story. But here?
No.
If anything, this manga should be an example of how NOT to write a character cast. Most of them don’t seem to have any natural connection to each other or fill each other in any meaningful way, even the main few characters.
Of the inner trio, we have a passive tragic weepy beauty, her hardheaded and austere female girl and your typical lost spineless arts student guy (complete with cardigan shirt and fluffy hair – because ofcourse), with all three of them having a combined charisma of a stale cucumber. Where there is a passive character, there has to be an active one (and/or an event interveening) to balance it out. Otherwise you get… well, this.
Izumi is our protagonist, a very beautiful woman who has a trauma of her beauty because all men want her and loose their minds over her (played as a gag).
She wants to change (i suppose?), but she is a weak and passive person that can’t stand up for herself nor does she have any self-respect.
That is OK as a starting point, but then for plot to actually work and move forward, she’d need to have her hand forced, and/or have a cast of other characters that actually help her grow and overcome the unpleasant situation in life. Like in Kuragehime.
Weak as she is, and hamstrung between fear and her tragic one sided blind love, it seems some spine is the thing she needs to learn more than becoming “unpopular”. Again, here is a potential for growth and plotline that’s completely missed; a passive person dealing with and overcoming their own malaise, with help of others.
It would have made a good plot, but this isn’t happening. Last I checked, Izumi is still a quiet, weepy and passive individual, that’s STILL being used by her douchebag lover.
Which is partially due to her just being like that, BUT also partially due to others in the cast not balancing out her passivity with proactivity of any kind.
As for our (supposed) MC, he’s your typical passive weakling broke arts student MC (because OFCOURSE he studies art - I mean, God forbid he actually studied something practical like medicine, engineering or accounting, right?) right down to his cardigan shirt, fluffy hair and hunched spineless demeanor. While he does want to help her, he simply doesn’t have the spine to push things through.
The third character is a quiet and hard headed (and sharp tongued) plain girl. Something like Daria, but austere like 1950s Britain and without the dank charm.
Frankly, I don’t even know if they’re the main cast. I mean, I wonder if there is IS a main cast… Now, there are other characters they interact with in the place where they live. Rest of that “crew cast” are basically a discombobulated mess of various characters poached from who knows where, and booted into the story, fueled up on caffeine and speed to do gags like there’s no tomorrow (I will come back to that), but that still somehow ending up boring.
But if it was only that, that’s still be digestible.
But there is an even worse thing, one that really broke the manga for me.
And that’s that in background of “the crew” you have this nonchalant douchebag.
He is a professor at art university the MC attends, Izumi’s lover, he is virtually untouchable, always right, always savvy, and one nonchalant word of his has Izumi and the student kid trembling.
Izumi fell for him in moment of vulnerability because he’s a charming smooth talker. He is using her for sex and as artistic inspiration, while still staying married to his savvy and stylish wife. He leads Izumi on and keeps her on the leash since she is hopelessly in love with him, all the while him not helping her one bit. He is aware of Izumi’s suffering, but just doesn’t care, as long as he can get what he wants.
Like when his wife is having a meltdown at izumi, and he’s just enjoying the sunshine and breeze. Now, you tell me this leaves a good taste in your mouth, or that you find it funny… I don’t. And I don’t mean to be a moralist or something, but it’s just bad taste.
He also threatens MC with a smile to flunk him if he tries anything with Izumi or if he happens to not like this or that, and the MC always tucks his tail between his feet.
In fact, this guy was what broke the manga for me. it’s this that made it unreadable. Or rather, when this toxicity never gets challenged or overcome, and when growth and health never happens (as far as i’m aware from what I could suffer through before dropping it).
PLOT
NOW, I always say it: an initial distasteful setup and/or cast isn’t a problem. The problem is when you do nothing with it and it just spins in its own passive circles (I’m looking at you Kanojo Okraimasu).
In Kuragehime (yes, I will compare it AGAIN) the plotline is simple and crisp in having a clear driving force; save the “monastery” and safeguard our way of life and friends’ circle. In order to do that, we need to do X and Y, and we need to get active. Simple and effective.
But here, this doesn’t happen. Frankly, the plotline (if “trying to get unpopular” can be called a “plot” at all – i mean just wait until you’re older) is so undefined, vague and optional that it simply does not work with the passive cast of main characters (Izumi and student) that it’s just meandering aimlessly, full of gags like river of frogs. Which brings me to the next point…
GENRE AND GAGS
Second botched thing is taking this sort of passive, hapless and tragic cast and throwing them into a “comedy” setting. It seems to be the last type of genre fitting to explore this kind of topic with this kind of cast. If cheap gags are your thing, then by all means.
But for me, i haven’t found a single one funny. NOT. A. SINGLE. ONE.
CONCLUSION
So if you like a manga with an overload of stale gags straight out of Japanese TV, with a passive circle of awkward characters shoehorned in God knows why, awkward sobbing beauty and a weakling MC, both under the thumb of a slick douche, then by all means, this is a manga for you!
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