HARUBA Negi shatters several stereotypes of the typical harem manga through his characters. Uesugi Fūtarō is not your typical dense or well-liked male protagonists, but a socially awkward nerd with a not very likeable personality. Itsuki, despite being the first girl, actually ends up being the only one out of the 5 who doesn't harbour a relatively strong affection for Fūtarō and ends up having a supporting role throughout up til the end, not to mention she was the only one not to share a kiss with Fūtarō. Miku who seemingly took a head start as the strongest contender did not win in the end, however, the typical ursurper characters, i.e. Nino and Ichika, did not as well. Nino, went from hostile to tsun-tsun dere-dere, but proactively being upfront with her feelings and became the very first one to confess to Fūtarō's face. The genki type Yotsuba's back story was then revealed and turns out to be the one who wins Fūtarō's affection and marries him by the end. The unexpected choice of having the genki type character winning the harem race while simultaneously having the first girl as purely a support type clearly showcases how unorthodox Negi is as an author of such a genre. At first, I thought it was unfair as to why Itsuki was the only one left out from having strong love feelings towards Fūtarō, but then I came to terms with it after realising Negi's intentions with the characters' roles. When Ichika turned a bit yandere and sabotage-minded, I was actually disappointed at this choice. I guess Negi's intention was to introduce significant drama content without involving additional characters, but nevertheless I felt appalled when she was chosen by Negi to be given such roles because she was actually my favourite character.

Many readers are mad because of the choices that HARUBA Negi has made, but the way I see it is that's just how good he is at making such lovable characters entangled in an interesting plot which lead to presenting an unorthodox conclusion.

and the best girl won at the end

#MikuIsBestGirl