Reviews

If you liked Lovely Complex, then you will probably like Dame na Watashi ni Koishite Kudasai. This should be the kind of story I really go for: corporate cog Shunin quits his conventional job to take over his grandma's cafe, with the ambition of recreating a neighborhood hangout where all kinds of people could come for peace, comfort food, and a restful respite from the stresses of their lives. It all sounds very Iyashikei.

But it is the delivery that I can't get into. There is a sort of romantic tension between the main characters, but the focus is not on the potential romance, but on the comic bickering between our ditzy 29 year old unemployable Shibata, and her new/old boss Shunin. The distorted facial features of Lovely Complex are the center of this manga as well. Contortions of chin, lips, nose to display anger and irritation are the mangaka's main trick, a style that she is dependent upon. If you found it cute in Lovely Complex, you will enjoy it here as well. But it is this dependence on the bickering couple that turns the story into an anti-romance.

I admire the mangaka. She seems very relatable and seems to be writing from her own life experience. It's just the style of storytelling, and the lack of actual romance that turns me off. I just don't find it comforting, romantic, or funny to read about couples bickering or fighting.