Chitose-kun wa Ramune Bin no Naka
Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle

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All right, first things first, this manga isn't for everyone. I write this assuming the author was conscious of their decision and wrote the story they wanted to tell regardless. But that decision means a lot of people will not enjoy this manga for what it is: a subversion of the classic misfit trope (more pronounced during the first arc) that for quite a while now hadn't seen a fresh take. Author might have been a little too bold coming up with their protagonists though, pushing away a lot of readers, no doubt.

What people coming to this manga without knowing much about it beforehand should ... keep in mind, in my opinion, is that you'll be seeing the story of the people who are usually side characters in most light novels and manga we encounter out there. Here, the main protagonist and his friends do not start belonging to the group of awkward kids who struggle to communicate and go through school life dreading every single social interaction that common Japanese authors seen so fixated on.

What you find instead is a protagonist who is articulate, confident, talented, and—perhaps the nail in the coffin for a lot of readers—self aware. There's a reason characters with these traits are usually side characters: it's really hard to create engagement with the average reader. After all, rooting for someone who appears to have everything already figured out kinda feels silly. Not to mention the fact most people come to manga and such as a means of escapism, and, unfortunately, in this day and age many believe that means leaving your brain on stand by mode.

Now, I won't say this story is the next best thing to come out of the East and will blow you away with its fresh take on the genre. It won't. The dialogue is pretty on the nose and the story beats are, more or less, the same you read before on other manga, even if here they are used to make you question your perception of other people's struggles, instead of make you sympathize with the common underdog we are used to seeing. And here lies the main hurdle the author faces with this type of story: too many harsh truths written on a page make most people stop reading, rather than entice them to continue reading and reassess their idea of things.

For some time now my friends and I have become bored with the depiction of the same misfit character that changes only in appearance between one manga to the next—if that—, so this subversion was very welcomed to us. Author seems to have set out to explore what goes on beneath the surface of the "perfect teenager", but not in a gloomy way, as other stories somewhat tried before. Here we see a protagonist who not only embraces his ego but is also confident this is how life should be lived. Bad for attracting readers unable to question their preconceptions, but really fun for lovers of character building who were aching to get away from the staleness of the high school setting genre. As I said though, some harsh truths are written right on the first few chapters, which I believe was the author way of making sure people understood early what this story was about, and chose to stay only if they were interested in it.

Past all that I felt needed to be explained, this manga offers an interesting view on which types of struggles people who seem to be doing well in life go through. There's some exaggeration here and here, some decisions from both the protagonist and his misfit friend from the first arc that are head scratchers—this is manga after all—, but overall I have been enjoying how the author bring these situations to the page. If you're someone who is able to empathize with characters not for their difficulties but for how they handle them, was sort of fed up with the weak character vibe of the month trend we had going on, and can handle the harsh truths the author will make you read right from the get go, I highly recommend this manga. Otherwise, stay away.

Lured in by the premise of an atypical high school rom-com protagonist, but he ends up being the very reason that drags this typical high school rom-com story down.

Instead of following the usual anti-social MC, this series also known as Chiramune follows a story from the point of view of the most popular guy in class: Chitose Saku. One problem with most stories within the same subgenre is to justify the way the heroines fall for the unsocial protagonist. Being the sociable, handsome, smart, and athletic guy should have made it easy to understand why Chitose was able to have an established harem from the ... get go. Unfortunately, Chitose Saku is not the charming guy this manga is trying to portray him as.

Chitose Saku is a conceited narcissist - appaling traits but can be good for a story if actually treated well. However, Chitose is shown as the ideal person in this story, never reprimanded for acting or saying anything remotely repulsive and instead always rewarded as being the cool guy. When someone dislike him, that person is the one at wrong. Any flaws Chitose may have becomes invalid in the world of this manga because he is just perfect here. By stepping back a little, he is actually as or even more cringeworthy than the anti-social MCs pretending to be the know-it-all. Chiramune makes it worse than the next rom-com story because Chitose is shown to actually know how the world works, when in reality it only works because it is Chitose's world.

In Chitose's world, everything revolves around him, including the characters. Team Chitose - as he calls it - consisted of him, 2 other athletic guys, and 4 girls. Every single character only has meaningful conversations with him, and there are almost no chemistry between the other characters - almost like they only stick together because of Chitose. Seeing how conceited Chitose is, it is also hard to believe that he would have minions following and girls lining up for him instead of running away if not because of how the world of the manga works. He created the hierarchy himself, categorize people into archetypes, and groups people he deemed as the good popular kids vs not. He dictates on how one should live their youth.

I can see it being entertaining for fans of stories within the same subgenre, which is the high school rom-com stories - particularly ones originated from light novels - because they are way more similar than they're not. However, with how the protagonist is written, it's better to just read other similar books and skip this one.

I want to smash in Chitose's face with a hammer, he's such a massive piece of shit.

He's genuinely just a bad person but the story doesn't have the balls to actually call him a full on piece of human dog shit with two legs. It SLIGHTLY touches upon on that, but immediatly within the next few chapters it brings up all these things about how he's actually the best guy ever.

Every girl we get introduced to seems to have feelings for him because he's just sooooo cool. He manages to shut down the strawmen instantly because he's just soooo awesome. He is just such ... a amazeballs guy with an awesome liife and a ton of friends and anyone who dislikes him sux.

To enjoy this crap you HAVE to like the main guy more than anything else, you have to see his words as biting ( and so totally original) commentary and you have to pretend like he's such a deep and layered character. If you can't do that, you'll just see him for what Chitose truly is, an unlikeable Gary Stu.

It really doesn't help that the first storyline of this involves him having to help out an even MORE annoying shithead. Congrats! Not only do you have to follow one piece of shit, you get TWO sausages that do not have a single interesting or redeeming factor about them. Seriously Kenta is so pathetic.

Perhaps it's the fault of the manga adaptation, perhaps it's because I'm not the target audience, but the more I read the more it felt like I was trying to pull my own teeth out with a spoon.