Jul 3, 2024
tl;dr: A rom-com that starts pretty generic but gets quite interesting, though it has a pretty weak ending.
The begins with the protagonist, Tatara, having a photo taken of him hanging out at an amusement park with his childhood friend Yuriko. This is a problem because Yuriko is an idol, and even though the two of them were there just to buy something, if people think she went on a date with a boy it could cause problems. Luckily, she was in disguise. Unfortunately, she was in disguise as her gyaru twin sister, Ranko, and thus everyone at school thinks that it was actually Ranko on
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a date with Tatara. Ranko being the good sister that she is decides to play along and says that she’s going out with Tatara. And due to various circumstances, they have to keep up the fake relationship. Even though Tatara has a crush on Yuriko.
With the basic premise of this manga being that the protagonist has to fake a relationship with a blonde despite having a crush on another black haired girl, it probably gives major Nisekoi vibes. And to be frank, the first half does feel a lot like a not as good Nisekoi. The first half is essentially just a bunch of unconnected rom-com episodes that aren’t all that great. The comedy is somewhat mediocre. Tatara has essentially nothing to him and is incredibly boring. Ranko isn’t all that interesting either. The manga starts off with her and her friends having really strong personalities, but as the manga progresses their gyaruness gets toned down significantly. Though her relationship development with Tatara is solid enough. Yuriko has essentially no presence since she’s off busy being an idol. It’s hard to even call it a love triangle considering how little we see of that side of the polygon.
Things definitely turn around in the second half though. For one, the comedy improves. The plot also goes in a pretty different direction and embraces the fact that there is one girl clearly being focused on more. It emphasizes how the differences between the two and how they interact with Tatara resulted in differences in relationship development between the two. Tatara gets fleshed out much better as a character. Ultimately, I think it does a pretty good job of building up to why he picks the girl that he does. The manga also throws in some themes relating to figuring out what you truly want out of life that I thought were pretty interesting. However, the ending was incredibly rushed and muddled a lot of what the second half was doing so well. The time skip especially felt unnecessary and straight up contrary to the themes of the relationship arc between Tatara and Ranko. As a result, I can’t say I’m entirely satisfied with the ending.
The art was decent enough but not particularly amazing. Character designs were generic but worked well enough I suppose. Also, I thought it was sweet how in the credits the mangaka put Special Thanks to “My Mom” in each volume.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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