Asahina Wakaba to ○○ na Kareshi
Asahina Wakaba & Her Chubby-Chubby Boyfriend

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I feel compelled to write a review for this manga as I had absolutely zero expectations going into it and now having finished it, I can safely say it is easily one of my favorite romance mangas. Truth be told, the only thing that led me to read this was the cover art, because the synopsis sure leaves quite a bit to be desired and the main male lead is ugly... But I found myself speedrunning through this manga and I was pleasantly surprised... No, actually pleasantly is an understatement, I was extremely surprised. What I got was a believable and wholesome romance with it's ... own trials and challenges, and a male lead who is one of the GOATs. So much so that he deserves his own paragraph. So without further ado, let me introduce you.

Haruto Iruma... Boy oh boy, did he carry this manga hard. Although on the exterior, he's got absolutely nothing going for him and he is an otaku tragic, we quickly see that there's more than meets the eye through none other than the lens of the female lead. Iruma is peak comedy and not in a way that makes the reader laugh at him. Honestly, every time he shows up, he always steals the show... But his purpose is not purely comedic relief; he's got his own circumstances and despite all he's going through, he still manages to be warm, kind and empathetic. As a certain character quotes, "He was as warm and refreshing as the sun itself, while also as gentle as a spring breeze". Most importantly however; he's relatable and I can easily put myself in his shoes, and not just because he's ugly. So yeah, he's a GOAT.

Now, you would think that putting so much into the male main lead would cause the rest of the cast to suffer, but it's actually the opposite. The supporting cast, well... they do exactly as they say, they support the main characters. They aren't the most fleshed out, but they don't need to be. They are there to make the main characters shine, and they do just that.

I guess we have to talk about the female lead as well, Asahina Wakaba. The story is written from her perspective and I am glad that it is because we can clearly see that she is not perfect, not by any means. She is a character with many faults and that is what makes her a good character. Not going to spoil anything, but it's these imperfections really makes their relationship shine and grow despite how different they appear on the outside.

The art? There's nothing much to say other than that it's really good. It's what drew me in initially and it didn't disappoint. It's not the most stunning by any means, but there is clearly a lot of thought and attention to detail here. This is clearly illustrated in the subtle detail changes which occur depending on the nature of the scene. When it's a happy moment, the lines and drawings will be soft and mellow. In contrast, when the scene is gloomy or colder in nature, they will be sharp and precise. The art does an excellent job at highlighting and expressing in first person, Wakaba's state of mind and emotions at the current moment.

The only flaw I have about this manga is that it's only 18 chapters and the ending felt slightly rushed. This didn't detract from my enjoyment of it much, but it did leave me wanting more and feeling a bit empty after it was over. Let's be real though, not many manga to pull off a compelling, wholesome and heartfelt story with great character depth and growth in the first place, let alone in merely 18 chapters.

In summary, this manga is a real gem. In just 18 chapters, it managed to make me emotionally invested with the characters, feeling for their struggles and also finding joy in their happiness. The author really went the whole nine yards to deliver, and man did he deliver. So yeah, read this manga, it's fucking good.

So...this is the most adorable shit you will ever read. This is the fluffiest, purest cotton candy romance you will ever read, and it's tragic that most people will miss it.
People will most likely ignore it since the male lead isn't a tall handsome, 8-abbed asian hottie who is desired by ever female who is heterosexual, but for the love of god please read this if you're in the mood for something that makes you feel warm and happy inside. This is the case after reading the first few chapters and the couple gets together, before that it's kinda sad though.
I don't want ... to get into technical stuff, but overall it doesn't matter, just enjoy this as what it is, a cute romance with drama.

More Like a 9.5 but basically this just slaps. Only reason it aint a 10 is cause nothing is perfect, and the one vital mistake this manga has is that it only has 18 chapters. Most wholesome Manga you've ever seen in your life basically so if you like a wholesome romance, you need this in your life.
That really it but I have to write more to submit this review, but there aint much more to say cause it just is amazing. Period. My current favorite romance manga for sure I'd say. Im a sucker for wholesome stuff. SO, all in all, you need ... to read this. The end.

To start, I will say that this manga is dark. Very dark. It is not for people who have dealt with issues like multi-personality disorder, scenes of depression, or mental illnesses.
This review will have spoilers that will be marked appropriately.

The story is one not too common, but one that is pretty predictable for the most part. It follows Asahina Wakaba, a cheery, cute girl with a loving family. She has an otaku father and a beautiful mother, as well as a sociable and popular little sister. The second she walks outside of her house and goes to school, however, it is revealed she is ... victim to intense mental bullying. Notice the word usage, *mental* bullying, that's important. By the end of the first chapter and the start of the second, she is forced to play a "punishment game," by her peers. Her punishment? Ask out the perverted fat and not appealing popular boy Haruto Iruma. Haruto is by no means a bad guy, he is quite the opposite, teased and funny and happy, he is just your typical class joker pervert. He's liked, but to ask him out would be social suicide, perfect for these girls who want to ruin Wakaba. Of course, the plot is predictable afterward...

Right?

[Start Spoiler] For the next 8-9 chapters, they go on dates and slowly grow closer, Haruto and Wakaba grow closer, and Wakaba, despite initially despising losing her precious "first boyfriend" and such, comes to genuinely love Haruto. So why is it dark? Not because the bullying gets worst, not because they start beating her up, not because Haruto is a sicko pervert and tries to do shit with her. It is because she acts as if nothing is wrong. She falls so horribly in love she leaves behind her reality of pain. She forgets her memories and represses herself, slowly, the insanity is fulfilled after a culmination of events I will not discuss here.
[End Spoiler]

The characters in this manga make it enjoyable, the story is dark, but Wakaba is very cute and it is fun to watch a wholesome romance (kinda) develop over the first 10 chapters. The art style is also nothing too special, it is a simple, yet pleasing and fitting style for this manga.

By the end of this manga, I felt a rollercoaster of emotions, something different from the typical romance or dark fantasy. This manga delves into viewing the mental deliria of a girl who was bullied and is confused about who she is. If I had to sum up the manga in a few words (as of chapter 14) I would simply call it tragic. Reading this manga, you will find broken, hollow shells of people and who they are, as well as both the journey to that emptiness. Characters feel loss, sorrow, despair. This manga is by no means a "school days," type of reading. It does not use cheap and self-deprecating tricks to make the reader feel emotions, it is able to make the reader feel uncomfortable in a way I haven't felt in a long time.

Do I recommend it? Well, that depends honestly, it's a fairly short read, currently with 14 chapters translated, (and the LN not too far ahead either), so it's no more than an hour read. Be warned that this manga made me feel extremely cramped and just straight-up unpleasant for a fair amount of time by the end of it all.

This is not a romance. This manga depicts the horrors of the mentally ill at their finest.

The old me says that "things that end abruptly mustn't be good!". Oh, how young I am. I read this as the translator team reaches the 10th chapter and while getting excited after such a long time stalling myself for not picking any drama story because of the white album devastate I had back in 2017, oh boy how low my instinct about this now. Asahina Wakaba is a beautiful yet shy girl in the corner of the class. She got bullied a lot for not having any friends by her classmates to confess a fake confession that she's in love with the most "hated" ... guy in the school (well, not really but a body-shaming statement coming from some people from the outside of a bubble).

The story itself is one of hella trainwreck when the author really put everything in it but somehow it really left a great impact on me as a reader that actually avoided drama story. The flow of the story itself is very good and their ups and downs make the composition a perfect one.

The art is just like your typical good art and something that you can expect from a well-drawn school manga. Still, not leaving any impact whatsoever just a simple good art hence I wrote the art style is only at 8.

The characters, ah I really hate the unreasonable bad characters in here so the numbers must be higher huh? But no, I will still give it a 7 because of my hatred towards a certain character in the series and even, how hypocritical Wakaba is. I'm not blaming her for it though, bullying itself are a pretty sinful thing to do and the result is the hypocrite Wakaba herself and the bad guy's personality really put me on my edge too

At the end of the day, I truly enjoyed my time here. I really recommend it for people to have a little journey by reading this series.

I can't believe it. I just can't. I finally found a story that doesn't drag the consumer out to a long bullshit tangent and straight its story. This is probably my all-time favorite manga ever. Aside from Bunny Girl Senpai and Kimi-Zero (Manga Vers.).

Just a quick summary, assuming you don't want a spoiler. The main protagonist, as you see in the title, is named Asahina Wakaba. She is a so-called, loner and gets bullied a lot. One day her bully decided to do something that they thought was a good prank to do to Wakaba and another student in the school, which is a gross ... fatty otaku, Iruma Haruto.

Without spoilers too far, turns out Haruto was an angel and even got praised by his classmates for how he handled himself a lot.

I swear, I can't spoil you too much but I just can't. At least I want to share with you my favorite panel, which is chapter 15 on panel 16. Oh boy, I love that panel so much.

Overall I love this manga, straight to the point and it's up there with my favorite Webtoon called Flawless.

Overall rating: 9.8 (It's not perfect but it is a very good read)

(BTW, if you want to read it and don't understand the panel that I was talking about, read the manga through MangaUp or read the hard copy of it, it's easier to understand because a panel is a page.)

Beautiful story. We get a first-person "view" of the female protagonist here mostly, her thoughts and emotions on being goaded into a relationship with our hearty male lead. Because this is just 18 chapters, the process will of course seem too fast, but if you read into how much they actually spend time with each other, it's completely realistic. The ending chapters though took some turns and detours that to me seemed a bit unnecessary, but I get the intention. Still, that took a point away from my overall rating.

Great characters. It's not everyday you get a chubby young MC. Even his introduction to the ... story didn't leave a good impression on me, which I bet was intentional. He essentially didn't change at all throughout this story. In a sense, he's a finished work of art already after everything he went through, and he's just escorting our female protagonist to grow out of her bullied stage. The supporting cast were certainly colorful and memorable.

Simplistic but still effective art. Not much to be said about it though.

The ending though almost looks like she got pregnant while in high school. lol.

If you are searching for a wholesome, well made, short and complete romance then this is for you! It’s been a while since I have stumbled upon a manga as good as this. This is a must read if you are into romances! It's short, so it won’t take much of your time to read, so you should definitely give it a shot! Here goes my review:

A) WRITING: [46/50]



1. Story (14/15)

The story is short, but in a good way, it tells you what it has to do and it does it well. None of the chapters are boring and the ending is perfect.

...
2. Plot (14/15)

A great plot, all the events feel authentic, and the evolution of the relationships between the main characters and support cast felt natural.


3. Characters (18/20)

Both main characters and secondary ones are perfect, due to the story being short you don’t get to know any character (besides the main ones) very well, but that’s probably for the best since there’s no need for that in this story. In summary: the characters that have to be hated achieve that and the same can be said with the ones that we’re supposed to like, no relationship feels rushed and the main female character goes through a bit of character development throughout the story, meanwhile the main male character was already developed before the story started, so it doesn’t go through any development, but it’s okay since there’s no need. Lastly since we never get a close look at any of the secondary characters we don’t see any sort of development from them.



B) ART: [18/30]



4. Characters (10/15)

The art is good, it does the job well but it’s nothing incredible.


5. Backgrounds (8/15)

The backgrounds are very simple and they don’t appear in half the panels. Again, it doesn’t matter at all because it does the job.



C) PERSONAL: [20/20]



6. Quality Consistency (5/5)

The quality is maintained throughout the manga.


8. Chapters worth reading (5/5)

I recommend a full reading.


9. Enjoyment (10/10)

I enjoyed everything, especially the ending.



FINAL SCORE: 84/100

Rather confusing and seems aimlessly for the most part.

The author seemingly couldn't decide where the story was heading and crammed it all together hoping it would mix, but many of the plot points introduced have lackluster progression or are presented in such a luke warm way without much care for the drama it's supposed to introduce.

Is it a revenge against bully story? Is it a unlikely romance story? Is it a family drama? It's many plots mixed together that weren't blended enough to leave impact.

Wakaba is so boring, they make her so meek (so that you feel bad for her) to the point where she ... doesn't really do anything...like, at all. Even during scenes where it would've really fit for her to be courageous and finally speak her mind. For majority of the manga the other characters talk for her, it isn't until the very last chapter where she seemed to have changed. At the very end, where we the audience won't be able to see her anymore. She wasn't really meek in a Moe sense either (Like Bocchi from Bocchi the Rock) she was just really boring.

Haruto is, um, he's certainly there. I don't have much to say about him. Despite him and Wakaba having multiple scenes together he doesn't really shine in them. I mean he's friendly and cheerful and...uh...oh he's an otaku too. And he has a super tragic backstory. That's something.

Yeah I didn't like the main couple very much.

Perhaps that contributed as to why I didn't enjoy this, but despite my grievance with the characters (the side ones barely have any screentime) I can at the very least say the art is good and it's a neat concept that I wish had some better presentation.