Kuroiwa Medaka ni Watashi no Kawaii ga Tsuujinai
Medaka Kuroiwa Is Impervious to My Charms

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

It takes a while for this story to take off. Only after 9-10 chapters one can start to get a grip what this show is all about.

In short: Misunderstandings.

Long read: It's a romcom based on a growing house of cards made of misunderstandings. All the characters involved have a fundamentally flawed understanding of pretty much everything in this story. But that's what creates the humor around the sketchy situations they're in.

The story has also laid down early several plot points that will probably cause more interesting stuff ahead. Like both Mona and Medaka being from Japan's countryside but not being aware of it. Mona sometimes ... blabs out things in her Osaka dialect which she's ashamed of. Nobody took notice so far, but it's one example where the story could take some turns.

That, and Medaka's bizarre cult that he grew up into. I'm sure the author has more ideas in mind as of how to utilize this for the sake of the plot and not just the already well-established misunderstanding that persists over him supposedly not being moved by Mona's charm.

Last but not least, the art in this one is just spectacular! They have very talented mangaka, over there, working on this. I really like it that they draw the girl's figures. Like, they always wear these baggy tops that make them appear slightly chubby. It just makes everything look much more realistic. And Mona's expressions are just priceless - both the positive and negative ones. State of the art!

This is one of those romances where the premise is based on a fanservicy gimmick. As with most of these, the longevity depends on if it can grow beyond the gimmick, and I would say this is the case here, at least so far. The title of the manga will eventually become somewhat obsolete because of this though, but oh well, it's like that for Nagatoro too and I'm not complaining.

What makes this manga interesting to me is that the main girl is the point of view character for the most part, meaning we get to see a lot of her thinking process, which from ... my experience is rather unusual in a shounen manga. This is also one of the reasons why Mona works in my eyes. People might find her unlikable due to her manipulative actions, but it's still kinda entertaining to follow her schemes similar to how it's entertaining to follow a villain. What makes her likable though is that she constantly fails (from her pov), so despite her being a manipulative bimbo I also find myself rooting for her just due to her never giving up.

In reality the dude she's trying to seduce is of course not as stoic as she believes he is and that's the running gag of the manga. Before this gag could get stale though the manga starts developing the relationship between the two, developing Mona into a more honest person and adding new characters. I very much enjoy the development aspects, but the adding of new characters falls flat to me somewhat as they are mostly rivals who all fall in love with the bland MC for no compelling reason, thus turning the manga into a harem which I'm not a fan of. To me it comes across like a lack of creativity in adding new elements to the story to keep it fresh. The best I can say about this is that it does some positives for Mona's development.

I'm not gonna lie though, more so than the story or the characters, it's the art that grabbed my attention and made me keep reading. It's a super clean yet expressive style, looking pretty and funny at the same time. The facial expressions in particular are great, especially Mona's. It's not a very unique style though, just fundamentally very solid and high quality. It reminds me a lot of "I''s" in terms of art quality and style, which is a very high standard.

Overall I recommend this manga for fans of shounen romance comedies and say its selling point is its above-average quality art. It has a ton of fanservice though, so if you don't like that then don't read this manga. And I probably don't need to tell you that you won't find anything terribly deep in here, but who in the world even wants depth in their romance manga fix amiright?

The fact that this manga is popular is proof that gender double standards are not going anywhere anytime soon.

Mona, the not-so-slightly narcissistic "queen bee" of her high school cannot stand the fact that the new transfer student, Medaka is not swooning over her like everyone else. So she decides to make him fall for her, no matter what. Obviously, since this is a romance manga, she ends up falling for him first instead, but her motivation (at least as far as she'll admit) remains nothing more than to satisfy her own ego.

Medaka, on the other hand is not immune to her charms because he's dense, ... like so many other male leads. He's not even immune at all, he's just holding himself back - he is training to be a monk, and that means he is forbidden from having romantic relationships. As far as we can tell, he's choosing that lifestyle of his own free will.

Of course Mona does not know this, but it's doubtful that she'd care even if she did. No matter how many times Medaka tells her that he doesn't want to hang out with her, she doesn't back off - and her attempts at seduction can get rather physical at times. But wait, that's not all! Medaka's classmates actually chew him out for being "mean" towards their beloved idol, and force him to at least be on friendly terms with her whether he wants to or not.

While the manga is rather self-conscious about Mona's narcissism and less-than-pure motives, she still gets away with pretty much anything - and the more I read, the more that bothered me, because, let's face it, what she's doing is basically textbook sexual harassment. But she's a girl, so it's apparently okay. Yaaay.