Junko

Though I reviewed the first book favorably, after 8 books and some really tropey behavior, I am so ready to throw in the towel.

Considering the author was herself an author of Boys-Love manga, I can’t believe there isn’t any sincere queer representation in this book. I am still hoping that one of the four boys who purports to have interest in Kae will actually have interest in one of the other boys. But I won’t hold my breath. I think that will make the difference between a series I show more will recommend and one I will forget and quickly remove from my book shelves once I’ve read it.

Volume 9 offers a bit of hope, a girl tells Kae that she can’t keep dragging all those boys around, and so she tries to make a decision, but now it seems they don’t mind! And supposedly the next volume will pick things up… why are manga like this???

I'm getting really frustrated with the plot development, it constantly stagnates. It almost progressed and then the characters proclaimed they were happy with the way things were! Apparently the next one will have 'change' and 'things will pick up' but I truly wonder if they will and if the end will have been worth the wait. There could have been a lot of slow and steady development between the characters. Maybe I need to be a connoisseur of the genre to see them, then again, maybe this is just the way the genre is and there is no actual character development. show less

I reviewed the first book of this series, so if you want to know what it’s about, read that. But basically, Kae is a chubby fangirl who ships guys together (in life and in fiction) and in japan this type of fangirl is called a fujoshi. When her favorite character dies, she attracts the attention of a couple of guys (and in a later volume, a girl!) it turns out all these characters have more genuine affection for her than just attraction to her superficial appearance, even straying out of show more their comfort zone (and into her fandom) just to hang out with her. While it is at times heartwarming, the series thus far has shown many of the usual tropes and any hope of having real non-fujoshi queer representation is almost nil.

This book enters another player onto the scene, and I am so very done with this manga. But I’ve read 10 volumes, even at volume 9 I felt like I was in for a penny in for a pound, so I had to keep going. That really took up the whole volume, the new guy. Considering it starts out really sweet and then starts to get melodramatic, I think how you feel about the series thus far defines how you feel about this entry, because there’s terribly little development for the established cast. And honestly, it is a weird friend group, and if it weren't for Kae, they wouldn’t hang out, but I kinda like them as a group.

In sum, this is another shady entry into the history of this ‘reverse-harem’ manga. Nice to see that a pretty-face from Kae’s past doesn’t care how heavy she is, only the content of her heart, but SPOILERS he’s a creep and the gang will have to come together to save her in the next volume! So I guess the final book will deal with her finally choosing (or not choosing) this guy entered too late in the game to be a real threat, I guess. show less

Hiya! It’s me, Kae. Everyone came all the way to Hokkaido to rescue me from Tah-kun, but just as we were getting away, Mutsumi-senpai fell from a cliff and hit his head! Now Mutsumi-senpai is in the hospital and won’t wake up! But no matter how long it takes, I refuse to leave his side until he’s conscious again. It’s my fault that he’s here, and I’m going to do everything in my power to bring him out of his coma—even if I have to draw some magic circles and call upon a few

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spirits! But will my otaku skills really be enough to bring him back? Or will I have to borrow a method from a fairy tale to wake this sleeping bishonen? Either way, this experience has made me realize something about Mutsumi-senpai, and when he wakes up, I may just finally make my decision…

I was actually kinda excited about this volume, even if I didn't expect to love it. There would have to be some amazing twist to make up for the previous volumes. With the cover and the blurb I was so sure that it was the final volume, but... you won’t be surprised to discover it isn’t. So, volume 13 comes out in February 2018 and 14 in July. Will it never end?!

If you read the previous review you know that after being rescued from a hairbrained attempt to elope with her, Kae’s friend fails. But as she’s being saved one of Kae’s knights is seriously injured.

I shit you not, she spends this entire volume thinking about her relationship with her senpai, who is probably my favorite character, and deciding that she’s in love with him, acting as a lovely girlfriend to him when he wakes up, until a scene in the final act where she is duped by his older brother and returns to her obsessive fangirl self.

It’s so tedious! I think I must be the wrong demographic, because it seems most people talk about all the parody humor and the trope subversion and I’m just over here getting mad because I don’t get it.

Seriously, fuck this series. I am officially on break from Kiss Him, Not Me. show less

"This reality is unbelievable!"

Sweet otaku Serinuma Kae is just your average fangirl who is also overweight. She's really nice, pretty smart and, of course, has a very active fantasy life as a fujoshi. While daydreaming about her classmates Igarashi and Nanashima with her friend Ah, one of the boys falls on top of her, letting us see her interactions with them as well as the other two boys in this story, Mutsumi, an older student and fellow History club member and Shinomiyo, a younger and show more very cold student.



From tumblr (unknown)

After the latest episode of her favorite anime airs, her favorite character (who happens to look a lot like Nanashima) dies in a sword fight (I think???) and she falls into a depression so deep she doesn't eat for a week, arising on the eighth day looking like a model. Of course, the boys fall over themselves to date her (except Mutsumi who is cool, knew it was her immediately and maybe just wants to study???).

"Can she do it? A real life Otome game"

Hijinks ensue.

Kae is typical to many manga leads, except she isn't exactly pining to go out with any of the boys who want to go out with her. As the title suggests, she'd rather they dated each other. Of course, when flirted with, she blushes and when showered with attention, her heart races, but I know plenty who still act that way*.



From tumblr

Of course, an unreal fantasy wouldn't be complete without our heroine being fully accepted for her socially stigmatized ways. Is it impossible, no, especially considering the treatment these boys gave her before her transformation.

"Can she get along with the ball?"

I'm actually looking forward to seeing the friendship of these five develop (and forgive my fujoshi heart, but I'm really hoping that a relationship between two of the boys actually does develop) as the series goes on. I've already pre-ordered the next two books.

I'm already kind of rooting for Mutsumi because he recognized her kindness, knows her more than the others, as they are in history club together. I've never been one for the whole senpai-madness, but I, as perhaps is typical, enjoy the idea of an older student with a younger student. He helps her study, is mature and sweet... The realist in me really can't tell yet who she will end up with (and with five volumes already out, maybe Junko doesn't know yet?) but am getting vibes from Igarashi as a potential front-runner. Though in this chapter (the sports chapter) we see growth in one character, perhaps as the series goes on, we will see the more positive things about each character. Though I wonder if I can get any more positive about Mutsumi!



From tumblr

"The strange room and the four high-school boys"

My biggest qualm was that the characters of Kae's mother and brother were so two-dimensional (her mother, literally) only really reacting to a specific aspect of Kae, her physical beauty, previously her being overweight. Her brother is so fashionable, he's either just a caricature I don't completely grasp, or he's destined to confuse Kae's fantasies by being the object of desire for one of her admirers... I honestly have no idea where this will go.

Though sometimes questionable, I find this first volume very enjoyable. I definitely laughed out loud a couple of times.

*Me, I mean me.

160pp. Kodansha Comics. 13 Oct. 2015.

Read more of my reviews at www.auroralector.com show less