Imasara desu ga, Osananajimi wo Suki ni Natte Shimaimashita
It's a Little Late, but I've Fallen in Love with My Childhood Friend

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8.1/10


I didn’t know this manga got a MAL page, but I guess it did — this review is off the top of my head, and I didn’t reread the manga to make this, so take it how you will. I’m also only bothered enough to do this because I feel like this manga is over-hated and misrepresented due to some rather questionable decisions via the author in the plot.

Yes, this manga starts off as a light, cute romcom depicting teenage romance/crushes, but it’s not overbearingly “cute”; not at the cuteness stage where darker topics become completely nonsensical.

The plot is also nothing short of amazing, as ... it’s not tiresome and pretty refreshing with some of its developments and plot points. I mean, there have been some really unique plot points in humor or development which I’ve never seen before — and for my experience, that’s one hell of a compliment.

As for the characters themselves — they are amazing. The fmc is written amazingly and so is the mc; they provide the perfect balance between cute interactions and humor, and it’s simply amazing — they don’t act robotic or not like high schoolers, which a lot of school romance mangas struggle with.

Though, there’s a lack of side characters or introduction of side characters, which makes this manga feel less like a serialized manga and more like a webcomic. Though, I’m not complaining too much since the characters are more than interesting enough to carry the story that you don’t even notice it.

Now here’s where the plot starts to thicken or get interesting — it gets … psychological? I don’t think that’s the right word to describe it, but there’s a turning point and foreshadowing around the midway point where you can tell something’s going amiss.

As for the resolution of it itself, I find it being written pretty well; it’s one hell of a surprise, and I sort of like that — this manga presented itself as unpredictable with its plot, and it did just that.

This may be a bit off putting to some, as the manga slowly stepped away from the genre of “fluff” and took a more direct route to … a deep, plot twist manga, but the writing and explanation of everything has been as good as it gets for what the author is trying to execute. I still love it; you might not.

PS: is one bad arc or moment in a manga enough to completely discredit what the author has built? I don’t think so. I also don’t even think the dark route is even a bad arc, as it’s well-written and explained. It’s more so of a surprise that you didn’t want. I mean, the essence of the story is still there. The characters we love are still there. I don’t know, I’m just rambling at this point. I’m trying to defend this with my life, but I can understand why there’s a hatred for what the author has done.

Reading Rankings (Portnoy inspired + A Huang-Teizan Original)
10 - God’s penmanship
9 - Must-read. Drop everything else.
8 - Instant bookmark
7 - Entertaining
6 - Good to pass time
5 - Why are you reading this?
4 - Bad.
3 - Typical garbage.
2 - My head hurts.
1 - Retirement is a thought.
0 - “Did they even give you a story?!”

Fumiaki Maruto did it. He baited a legion of romcom expecting readers just to dump trauma on their heads...and get his most recent work review bombed.

Was it inevitable?

Well, kinda. If you've read any of Maruto's works, you'd know there's no way he'd go for a pure romcom. Perhaps some people came across 'Imasara desu ga...' by the line of the manga's illustrator - he seems to be known for lighter, fluffier serializations. The plot expectations never lie on the artist, though - it's all on the writer. And Maruto's always been obsessed with drama queening through his storytelling.

If you felt betrayed by the tonal shift, ... that's fair. It IS a bit too drastic, a bit too heavy-handed.

Does it mean the series is trash?

Well, it depends on how the shift is handled, right?

After the failure (early axe) of Maruto's latest 'Media Mix Maiden', I was curious to see what's up with him. He's been in a definitive slump for quite some time already.

So far, 'Imasara desu ga...' shows a glimmer of hope. The 'light' and 'dark' arcs (corresponding to the main heroines' names) are handled decently. Cute and fluff, conflict and dread are weaved together for a whiplash-inducing switch to a more psychological, gloomier narrative. One of Maruto's strong points has always been stellar dialogue. It's the same here - conversations flow well, feel organic, and the character interactions simply 'click'. The tension is also present in both conceptual 'halves' of the story so far.

Where will the series go from now on?

For some people - nowhere, as they've already dropped it. For others, it'll be a scrutinizing journey to evaluate whether Maruto can handle the tonal shift in a logical, coherent manner.

For me? I'd like to see Maruto's still got it. So far he's doing well, but still far away from his potential. The series gets a 7/10 and I can easily see it go higher or lower from here on, depending on what happens.

This manga isn’t particularly bad, but I cannot, in good conscience, fully recommend it. At this point, it feels like a poorly executed bait-and-switch. It’s clear that the author intended to build up a readership before abruptly and disruptively changing the manga’s tone purely for shock value.

To be clear, genre shift isn't a bad thing. In fact it's a trope that was present in some of the best medias that came to us from Japan. However, those shifts require a good execution to avoid alienating your audience. In most successful examples, the tone shift typically respects some or all of the following principles:
1. The ... tone shifting is gradual
2. It’s foreshadowed in some way.
3. The initial tone represents only a small portion of the overall story.

None of these principles apply here, although the third one could still be salvaged. The tone shifting in this manga was extremely brutal. It's so drastic, that you could likely make two separate mangas out of the different parts, each of which would appeal to a specific audience. But right now ? the content would not be satisfying for either of them.

It's hard to tell what direction will be taken right now. the story could end up being extremely good that it would make us forget how the story initially started, or it could become a bigger trainwreck than it already is.