This was.... something. I did not hate it but I did not like it either. A lot of things bother me... Probably reading too much into a comedy manga but I'm doing this for myself so here we go:
The premise is something I'm actually quite fond of (love rivals falling for each other instead of the original love interest), but I gotta say the execution feels off. At the beginning of the manga, I was confused when het stuff was drawn very "romantically", but then Hiyama's confessions were treated more comedically, and wasn't taken that seriously. I knew I had to eat my vegetables to get to the good stuff but the early parts of this manga really do NOT feel like yuri at ALL. That's okay tho, gotta stick to premise of "shoujou manga" ig.
But then, I was also really confused as to why Hiyama's affections get brushed off so easily. Like, even though Hiyama's "declarations" of love are done in pretty open places in front of other characters, they just NEVER suspect anything? At some point I even went "Do they not know gay people exist???" I've seen dense romcom mcs before but not an entire cast being like that. I was hella confused. I think the premise got a lil carried away and they tried too hard to ALWAYS position Hiyama as a "rival".
Also, I like their new dynamic at the end, but Kimura becomes a COMPLETELY different character after the spring break, it kinda threw me off. I like a good reversal story, but this felt rushed and not well explained. Also I do not like how this implies "I have to change in order for my crush to like me". Idk, feels like a very hollow narrative, especially cuz their love at that point was already mutual? I expected the manga to go: No, Kimura does NOT have to change for her crush, she just has to learn to love herself as is.
Speaking of mutual love, a lot of padding at the end. The entirety of the final volume was not neccessary. Too many misunderstandings... Like, their quarrels seem all so pointless. They already love each other, one of them has already told the other one she loves her, WHY DO WE NEED TO SEE THEM BICKER LIKE THAT OVER LITERALLY NOTHING.
I think this manga would've ended real nicely on chapter 37. Instead of using Mizushima to confirm her feelings, Kimura should've just directly went to Hiyama. It would've been so much powerful if she confessed her love for Hiyama while apologizing/talking to her. It would've made for a really nice climax, with a lot of tense back-and-forths between the two, resulting in a passionate confession from Kimura. Instead of fucking Mizushima suddenly becoming a wingman...???
That's another thing, I can do without Mizushima. This one I bet is more of a me problem, but he kinda creeps me out by the end, with how "attentively" he watches the two. I almost couldn't read through the end because of how much he popped up. Like, why??? Did we really need a shitty male wingman character who sticks his nose way too deep into everything? When Tomoe could've done the wingman job better? Also, if he positioned himself as that early on that would be one thing, but for the entirety of the manga he's just a boring plot tool, and then he becomes way too essential to the plot so out of the blue and so late into the development. That really ticked me off.
Anyway, idk why I wrote an essay for this, but these just bothered me a lot so I had to say them somewhere
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