The best way to enjoy "Haite Kudasai Takamine san" is by following 3 simple steps
1. Open a twitter account (easier to do than following this boring plot)
2. Follow the artist Yuichi Hiragi (You can find link to his profile in his introduction page in this site)
3. Enjoy the extremely erotic (and excellent) arts of Takamine-san he occasionally posts (and whole community goess berserk),without getting tainted by its poor attempt in characterization, same old cliche in narrative we've been witnessing in romcom genre for almost a decade now, more importantly I don't have to watch for what two cardboard characters are saying or doing
The same pathetic MC, who did a heroic noble job to help the girl a long,long time ago ; same person now has no identity aside from being "too kind for this world".
The whole character of Takamine revolves around what its target audience wants, manipulation in name of teasing. I must say I'm not one of those this manga is aimed for, simply because I never understood the appeal. So I want to explain myself.
The main character, aka Takamine has zero traits outside being a pseudo-manipulative "ojou-sama" who wouldn’t hesitate to sexually harass the boring kid of the class, because you know she's being a tsundere for no reason, she has been saved by the boring kid in the past hence she has to return this favour by threatening him for false rape accusation, questioning her status as a noble student. I can see in near future Takamine changing and acting like a "maiden in love", however that wouldn’t change the fact how it started and it leaves a bitter taste. Yeah I know this is what we call "sounds only in an anime romcom what could happen" but that doesn’t mean it's a good thing, specially when there are good romcoms/shoujo/simple romance who have utilized these cliches to new extent. This brings to my main problem with this manga, use of past events to determine the outcome.
If one new relationship is getting defined by a certain past event, that's already impeding the characters to move forward. Became worse when narrative fails to bring any new angle to view the relationship. This manga isn’t interested in doing that, they create a total bland MC for the sake of audience self-inserting and enjoying the ecchi. I can't remember a single thing this boy did, not because I lacked attention but because he hasn’t really done anything noteworthy (Aside from being that one time when Takamine threatened him for rape accusation, when I felt strong empathy for this poor kid and angered why this simply living being has to endure such pain).
For the blandness of the hero, Takamine also comes off as a bland heroine who would better be put into a hentai manga where I don't have to worry about anything except the erotica. But no, the story practically ends there and provides nothing else to offer. The one sided banter (it's not banter it's totally harassment) couldn’t convince me what cheap tricks it'd use in future to sell a couple which already was forged because of a false rape accusation, only a certain past event is directing the whole show. Which in my opinion, not just cliche but predictable too. (I've read enough Nisekoi).
To further clarify, I'm not against the idea of using certain past events to connect two characters. It can just be a coincidence, can be used to develop their feelings and sense of familiarity, however I'm totally against the idea that THIS past event will determine whether or not you would end up with the person involved. This becomes worse in harem where one girl gets certain privilege just because she'd met him before. Takamine might not be a harem but it's already using it to set the course for the manga, to sell the couple and I didn’t like it. Seriously, why not just start the manga from there if it's that important.
Here's my question,
Why is it that romcom authors, always attempt to thread the hero-heroine with certain past event which nobody remembers now but the plot compells to remind them? Why does a romcom couple have to have a shared backstory? I believe in luck but why that "lucky" event has to happen in the past? Why not now?
If Takamine's erotic body is the only selling point of your manga why should I bother reading a plot full of cliches where I can instead enjoy her illustrations author Yuichi Hiragi occasionally posts on twitter?
I want to enjoy Takamine. I couldn’t, hence I made my copium. Hope it helps
