I won't lie, but I have a hard time following the background characters. I call them NPCs because as much as I try, I can never really follow who was who, and I admit to being a bit too lazy to try and re-read previous chapters to get the context.
I want to like this series more but this is a giant reason why I can't. Every chapter is 99% focused on these other characters but the only one that actually feels like anything resembling a real character is Fujiyama. Everyone else is just a cardboard cutout Class-S stereotype except instead of doing anything interesting with them, even something as basic as constantly showing Watanabe's stereotyping as wrong and misguided, they're played completely straight and conform exactly to the stereotypes.
So you're left with a lot of the focus being put on characters who are incredibly one-dimensional using roles/personality traits that were already played out by the '90s when you had stuff like Utena deconstructing them and then at the end of each chapter you get two, maybe three, pages of Yoshioka/Watanabe stuff.
But the problem is that Watanabe herself is way too annoying as an MC because she herself doesn't actually feel like much of a character either. Her entire thoughts are just "YURI! I'M SHIPPING! I'M A MOB, I CAN'T BE YURI!" and it doesn't feel like parody because all of her stereotyping based on yuri/Class-S cliches are constantly proven right in the end and it feels like she's basically just getting her way.
So the only character in the series that actually feels like a properly thought out and written character (and not a stereotype) is Yoshioka who's friendly and extroverted (like the gyaru stereotype) but is also surprisingly thoughtful, perceptive and self-reflective which means the best stuff in any given chapter is the stuff focused on her and her thoughts.
If she was the MC/PoV character and the story was focused more on her coming to terms with her feelings for Watanabe and trying to win her over, with Watanabe serving as the LI instead of the MC/PoV character and the series was focused more on them and not these other characters with the Yoshioka/Watanabe stuff tacked on at the end of chapters, then I feel like it'd be far better. As it is, she's basically the only thing really keeping me reading this.
last edited at May 12, 2022 8:51PM