There's No Freaking Way I'll be Your Lover! Unless... (Manga) Vol. 5

There's No Freaking Way I'll be Your Lover! Unless… Manga #5

by Musshu

Sena Ajisai, the angel of the school, always seems to Renako like she has everything together. But this illusion is shattered during a Mai-sanctioned visit to Ajisai's house where Renako witnesses her normally sweet-natured friend get into a fight with her family. Later, when Ajisai declares over the phone that she's running away from home, it's up to Renako to keep her friend from doing something she'll regret!

Genres: Manga, Yuri, Romance, LGBT, Contemporary, Comedy, Comics

196 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 17, 2023

Reviews

[Mark]

After a brief side event with Oduka (freaking) Mai, Renako is spending some time with Ajisai, whose normally cute and bubbly side is not quite the same at home. And, speaking of home, Ajisai decides to run away from it and Renako ends up in tow because of course she does.

This is one of those manga that overcomes its own weaknesses to still be very, very enjoyable. Even with its wildly funny yuri take on the harem genre, the hapless Renako once more manages to blow somebody’s mind, it has enough annoyances of the genre along with it.

Let’s start strong - Avery Hutley’s translation work on this is freaking great. I’m not sure how much of the wordplay was in the original text, but the terms ‘Renak-rolytes’ and ‘boylingual’ had me grinning. They should not work, yet they do! These zingers save entire scenes.

Basically the humour is what this story does best anyway. Renako is fine enough, but she has so little confidence and panics so often that it does grate after a bit. She’ll have to admit that she has friends who like her at some point.

Some of her panic is very amusing, it’s just pretty relentless how she beats up on herself. There’s also a hint in all this as to why Mai is so smitten with her - Renako is so incredulous that Mai is her friend that she doesn’t try to use Mai like everybody else does (Renako’s sister’s friends immediately glom on to Renako as a path to Mai).

Ajisai is pretty typical; the bubbly personality who is straddled with responsibility at home and resents not being able to just do as she likes. Her summer is basically babysitting and when her younger brothers interrupt her time with Renako she blows a gasket.

Naturally, rather than discuss this or deal with it somewhat rationally, she bolts and Renako comes with. This involves a lot of amusing ‘bad ending’ versions of Ajisai (the artist clearly had fun with her gyaru version) and Renako having a breakdown because she can’t carry a conversation.

Again, it’s written solidly enough that Renako’s wild internal dialogue carries the day and makes this a lot more amusing than it would be. The girls at least get as far as an onsen and that promises certain escapades for the next volume.

A pitiably lame main character is the hallmark of any harem series and this one follows suit with the bevy of love interests and all the hi-jinx. As with many of those, the clear winner has (hopefully) been decided long ago and is pretty obvious.

Then again, at least this has the writing chops to make it go down a lot easier. Yes, Renako’s default state is panic with a tinge of whinge, even with everybody around here clearly wanting to be more than friends, but a lot more lines here land than they don’t.

3.5 stars - the characters are probably more underwhelming than terribly interesting, yet they work as delivery vehicles for gags and some of the story is good enough. Worth a read for the laughs at the very least.

[Lee]

want more mai time!

These moments with her friend are cute, but I miss seeing her relationship with Mai progressing more. I’m hoping to see more of them together in the next volume or so.

[lcvesbooks]

this volume was the best in the series considering ajisai isn’t constantly trying to assault renako, but there’s still something about this that doesn’t feel ok. mai is annoying as fuck and she needs to leave renako alone because— anyway this series is probably not finished but i have no interest in continuing it. it’s terrible and i can’t believe i forced myself to read 5 volumes.

[Rebecca]

Definitely the best volume so far - and can I register a request that Ajisai is endgame? She's the only one who seems to respect Renako's bodily autonomy!

[Anne Bollmann (Annelise Lestrange)]

*~.Quotes.~*

"Gosto de promessas. Elas me passam a sensação de uma conexão concreta... e dão a possibilidade de ser leal." - Ajisai Sena, p 34

[Amara]

This volume dragged a little bit

[starnoodles]

I wanted to like books 3 and 4 of this series, but it’s almost getting impossible? I feel like I’m literally just sitting here tolerating Mai and Satsuki because I’m more invested in the B plot between Renako and Ajisai. I feel like if the plot just stuck with the Mai plot or had Renako switch to Satsuki entirely, this entire series would have been more cohesive and actually enjoyable. But no, we pretty much just have an entire series dedicated to Renako having no say in literally anything, and more or less getting tossed around like a prized doll between two kids playing.
Not great, kinda dogshit, read something else. Read “Run Away With Me, Girl” or literally ANYTHING else that is written better.
It’s shitty because the first 1-2 books were actually somewhat decent. Sad, don’t waste your time or money.