look like most fellas reading romance manga i love cute girls so this is right up my alley, but another part of that comes in the form of self-inserting (at least, unconsciously). saito is a character that, if you're like me, will stare you right in the face and make you think about your own perception of relationships
the theme of "perception", and our preconceptions of people's personalities, probably makes up the sole focus of spotlight. i think the idea of a beauty pageant being the centerpiece of a romance manga is a little cringe but it actually works great for spotlight, as pageants are entirely based on peoples perceptions of participants, being portrayed as ideal people, and matching them up with each other. saito's relationship with ogawa was founded upon a distorted idea of her personality as some sort of goddess, but this idea slowly unfolds as saito reflects on his own perception of ogawa and other people. avoiding spoilers; a lot of things in spotlight aren't what they actually are, and character development is always in motion as the characters surrounding the pageant realize that their preconceptions of each other are just based on surface-level perceptions
if you're into a not-really-romance that breaks and shits on typical romance tropes, this is probably up your alley
