I was very excited to start reading this manga. The first episode of the anime came out and immediately after watching it I knew I wanted to read the manga as well. I always appreciate manga trying to take a more serious approach to sex and eroticism and that seemed to be exactly what Araburu was doing. Usually, with many of these romantically themed mangas, we get characters who dance around concepts of sex and it can feel very repetitive and immature for someone who reads a lot of romance. Araburu got straight to the point of it and takes an interesting and realistic take on what sex is like for teenagers. It seemed to bring something new to the genre and I was very excited.
Unfortunately, my excitement quickly vanished as halfway through the story the plot goes in a very cliched and regrettable direction. The love triangle that emerges is essentially what ruined this manga for me. Not only does it cut through any character development that the male MC has, but it takes away from what the manga really had going for it. Despite the troublesome nature of growing up and facing the insecurities that teens have with sex, the main girls all had the literature club, and most importantly each other, to help them deal with these problems and their relationships to one another was what made the manga cute and fun to read.
With the love triangle, we are resorting back to the typical ways high school drama is written about and it's aggravating. We see friendships being broken beyond repair as the two main girls actively pursue the same love interest who, before this point seemed like a decent character but has instead fallen into the douchy and oblivious male role we expect to find in trashy harem writing. Instead of focusing on the feelings behind sexual desire, the basis of this manga initially, it is all about hormonal teens making bad decisions and, while this may be realistic in its own right, it has lost the sophistication I felt it had at the beginning.
I was excited to see each girl follow their own path towards adulthood and while I expected the angst of show about high school, the turmoil caused by the love triangle put a hold on any future development for the two girls and has made the only male mc completely unlikable. I appreciated the introduction of a non-straight character but her involvement in the feud seems to undermine her story and growth as well which is a huge disappointment.
I know it is not over yet but I am unsure that anything could fix this decision and it seems the story is beyond help.
