Reviews

Oct 19, 2024
Preliminary (24/? chp)
Lured in by the premise of an atypical high school rom-com protagonist, but he ends up being the very reason that drags this typical high school rom-com story down.

Instead of following the usual anti-social MC, this series also known as Chiramune follows a story from the point of view of the most popular guy in class: Chitose Saku. One problem with most stories within the same subgenre is to justify the way the heroines fall for the unsocial protagonist. Being the sociable, handsome, smart, and athletic guy should have made it easy to understand why Chitose was able to have an established harem from the get go. Unfortunately, Chitose Saku is not the charming guy this manga is trying to portray him as.

Chitose Saku is a conceited narcissist - appaling traits but can be good for a story if actually treated well. However, Chitose is shown as the ideal person in this story, never reprimanded for acting or saying anything remotely repulsive and instead always rewarded as being the cool guy. When someone dislike him, that person is the one at wrong. Any flaws Chitose may have becomes invalid in the world of this manga because he is just perfect here. By stepping back a little, he is actually as or even more cringeworthy than the anti-social MCs pretending to be the know-it-all. Chiramune makes it worse than the next rom-com story because Chitose is shown to actually know how the world works, when in reality it only works because it is Chitose's world.

In Chitose's world, everything revolves around him, including the characters. Team Chitose - as he calls it - consisted of him, 2 other athletic guys, and 4 girls. Every single character only has meaningful conversations with him, and there are almost no chemistry between the other characters - almost like they only stick together because of Chitose. Seeing how conceited Chitose is, it is also hard to believe that he would have minions following and girls lining up for him instead of running away if not because of how the world of the manga works. He created the hierarchy himself, categorize people into archetypes, and groups people he deemed as the good popular kids vs not. He dictates on how one should live their youth.

I can see it being entertaining for fans of stories within the same subgenre, which is the high school rom-com stories - particularly ones originated from light novels - because they are way more similar than they're not. However, with how the protagonist is written, it's better to just read other similar books and skip this one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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