Reading this was more stressful than fun. (stopped at chapter 20)
I feel like I don't know what the author wants to do with this series. I'm pretty familiar with her other works and enjoyed them thoroughly. And I do read a fair amount of romance ("juvenile" shoujo romance, love triangles, seinen romance, shounen romance, romance with a "harem cast", josei romance, even pornwha "romance"---PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING YOU NAME IT)... BUT THIS SERIES FEELS WEIRD and has me on edge constantly. Like I feel like it's an experimentation to try to go for a "light-hearted" series with aoharu theme---or because I'm so used to the author's other works that I'm susceptible to all kinds of subtle hints that paralyzes me from enjoying it casually. Like there's some weird kind of impeding doom feel while reading it. Like, it feels like it is trying to masquerade itself to be as light like the usual juvenile romance, but there's something GRATING about it where it impedes me from getting the usual "comfy fluffy" vibes. Personally, I couldn't get pass chapter 20 for this because it became a mental torture having to force myself through this.
I remember reading this a long time ago (almost a decade ago); so my review is based off that impression (so I can only remember the "strongest impression" ). All my memories and impressions was that I enjoyed it when the girl "Ebino" was on the scene and the main leads are not on the scene. It felt suffocating and irritating, probably because of the "lying" premise of the main leads. I'm not exactly sure why it was that way, I'll probably write a new review once I will attempt for a re-read in the future. I generally enjoy love comedies, but couldn't muster a single moment of this series where it has a memorable "funny" moment to me.
In terms of personal enjoyment ranking this series vs the author's works, it goes like this: Himegoto - Juukyuusai no Seifuku > Shounen no Abyss > This thing. I honestly don't know what the author was trying to aim with this series. It doesn't feel fluffy to me. The weird supernatural element feels forcefully thrusted in... maybe it is to make it "unique" but just came off as off-putting and slightly "delusional" hence triggering to me. I'll probably try to regain the mental strength to tackle this once I'm done with Boy's Abyss (while that one is unhinged, it's somewhat LESS STRESSFUL than this one because it doesn't try to hide what it is going for).
Hell, speaking of Romance, I think that I prefer reading some romance from Pocket Monster Special "romance" if I wanted some fluff rather than this. I need to cleanse my palate just having to recover the painful memories of recalling tangents related to this series.