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Kiss Him, Not Me! #1

Kiss Him, Not Me!, Vol. 1

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Hi there! My name is Serinuma Kae.
I’m the kind of girl who loves checking out boys and fantasizing about them getting friendly (and more) with each other—I’m what you might call a fujoshi.

One day, my beloved (yes, he’s an anime character) died, and the shock of it all was more than I could have ever prepared for! My grief over his passing resulted in some ridiculous weight-loss!

And you won’t believe what happened next! Soon after my change, the four most divinely gorgeous boys in my school asked me out on dates! I accepted them all, and you’d think I’d be happy with my sudden popularity, but the truth is, my heart only yearns for a prince to be next to his prince. Ahh, yes, boys, I’d much prefer that you turn your affections elsewhere and KISS HIM, NOT ME!

200 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 2011

231 people are currently reading
1931 people want to read

About the author

Junko

142 books270 followers
Junko (ぢゅん子 or 純子) is a Japanese manga and dōjinshi artist.

Associated names :
純子
CLIP CLOP
CLIP-CLOP
Dunko


Birth date: November 28
Zodiac: Sagittarius
Blood type: A

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5 stars
1,461 (39%)
4 stars
1,222 (32%)
3 stars
773 (20%)
2 stars
192 (5%)
1 star
79 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 371 reviews
Profile Image for Zain Otoom.
130 reviews210 followers
December 22, 2016
Hahaha this was hilarious! Just mindless fun!
Profile Image for Coco.
1,137 reviews583 followers
March 14, 2017
Soy team Mutsumi-senpai hasta el fin de mis días.
Profile Image for kimberly_rose.
670 reviews27 followers
December 27, 2016
1.5 stars. The art, as always with Junko, is shoujo-beautiful; I surprised myself with a couple of laughs: those are the good things.

I have major problems with the basic story: it's not presented as a ridiculous, fantastical social satire; rather, the reader is asked to see it as a believable reality (for shoujo, at least). Considering that, it is superficial on a subject that cannot be taken superficially in a book marketed to young women (or men, for that matter). She loses many pounds in a single week, and there is no mention of the corresponding negative health issues, only amazement at her "successful" transformation. The sudden attention, approval, desirability and lovability based on her losing weight is hurtful and insulting. But she brainlessly la-de-dahs along. (Caveat: There is one guy who treats her the same as before--with respect, but not sexual interest.)

Perhaps these serious concerns will be address later, but I'm left too disappointed by the shallowness and callousness of the story to bother picking up the second volume.
Profile Image for Liza.
789 reviews61 followers
December 10, 2015
OMG. This manga.

I'm not usually one that reviews first volumes of manga but...

This manga is my love.


It reminds me of Senpai Club.


It makes fun of the tropes usually found in reverse-harem stuff.

Yeah, the little piece about her losing weight and becoming pretty was kind of...insensitive but I'm willing to let it slide. It's a funny manga and I don't want to think too much while reading it.

So yeah, can't wait to see where it goes...

Also this is part of one of the best scenes:
Profile Image for Mayu.
1,290 reviews163 followers
June 26, 2016
Reseña del tomo uno al seis:

6/10

Os la recomiendo, es divertidisima y tiene momentos muy emotivos y otros de fangirl y otros de fujoshi total. Te ríes mucho con la serie, es una muy buena comedia escolar pero a mi me empezó a dejar como una sensación de frustración en el pecho. Estaba totalmente inmersa en lo que estaba leyendo y por un lado me estaba encantando pero por otro estaba viendo que no íbamos a llegar a ninguna parte.

(...)

Con esta obra Junko anima a ser uno mismo, cosa que es una gran lección porque jamás se puede fingir ser otro para gustarle a alguien, porque estaríamos renegando de quien somos. También te enseña que por amor todos esos preciosos niños han encontrado algo mucho más importante que un romance, una amistad que sabe totalmente a familia. Yo se que estos seis chicos podrán contar siempre unos con otros.


En este enlace podréis encontrar mi reseña completa en:

http://saranghaeunnie.blogspot.com.es...
Profile Image for Stacey.
59 reviews20 followers
September 23, 2021
While I really loved the beautiful art, and the story was funny and entertaining, I can't move past the fact that the main character only became likable after her depression caused her to lose weight. Seriously could have started numerous other ways, but the author chose to highlight that our main character was overweight and only became beautiful due to a weight drop, and not just even any weight drop, but one due to a hit to her mental health. Definitely lost 2.5 stars there.

Other than the extremely problematic start, the male characters are funny (and not toooo pushy) the girls are honest and weird and unapologetic about it, and the idea that our main character Kae Serinuma would rather ship the boys together than date them was relatable to any BL fan.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Mehsi.
15.1k reviews454 followers
February 13, 2016
OMG this manga is brilliant! I loved it and I will be sure to buy this series when they come out in English. :) This is a must read to all!

Our main girl is (at the beginning) an overweight, but very happy girl. She is also a fujoshi and loves to pair up boys from her school. And in her eyes, normal things as passing a towel turn to full blown shounen-ai fantasies. Then she loses weight and attracts the attention of the 4 hottest boys in school. However, she doesn't want that attention, she just wants them to kiss each other, not her!
I really loved our main girl, and I loved how she saw pairings everywhere, and even saw 2d guys in 3d guys. I loved how even when she is experiencing doki doki moments with the guys, she still prefers them to kiss each other.
I recognized quite a few things in her that I also have, though I am not that extreme.

There are various other characters and I all loved them. I also loved how even though our main character was overweight at the beginning, no one really seemed to mind it. She has a great bond with her classmates and even has friends. You don't often see that happen, in a lot of stories if you are fat you are out. You get bullied or teased.

I loved our four hot guys (and they were indeed very hot!). They were great and I also loved that they weren't shallow. Instead they cared for our main character and even accepted her and her fujoshi ways.

The story is hilarious and I really enjoyed it. I would really recommend this manga to everyone.

Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
Profile Image for Elizabeth (Elzburg).
354 reviews946 followers
March 3, 2019
review banner

This is a review of the entire series.

When I first read the synopsis of Kiss Him, Not Me! I instantly knew that I had to watch it. Kae Serinuma is a true otaku (a fujioshi specifically) who ships her male classmates with each other. When one of her favorite anime characters dies she becomes so sad that she locks herself up in her room for a week. In this time she rapidly loses weight and miraculously becomes extremely beautiful. Because of this she gains a harem of boys from her school who all try to win her over, but all she wants is for them to love each other!

The anime just finished airing last week and it’s safe to say it has become a new favorite. Because of this I knew I had to continue with the series by reading the manga. The anime and manga are exactly the same (except for one slight exception which I will explain later), so you can pick either one and have a good time.

Nana giving a thumbs up

Except I never found myself laughing when I read the manga, only when I watched the anime. But that could be because I read the manga second, so I already knew the jokes so that’s why I didn’t laugh. It was still a joy re-experiencing the series though. *Edit* This review was originally written directly after reading up to and including the eighth volume (aka everything the anime adapted), so it was all essentially a re-read. However, once I got to the content I had never seen before, I kid you not, this series DESTROYED ME with how funny it is and how much it made me laugh! This series is so good that at one point I literally felt withdrawal while I had to wait for the next volume to get published in English.

Nana and Igarashi-kun

The exception I mentioned earlier is pretty much only relevant if you’re someone who has watched the anime and would like to continue on with the manga without re-reading all of it. The exception is that one of the key moments in the series was presented at a different point in the anime than it was in the manga, so this is something you need to be aware of if you’re transferring from anime to manga. So click the spoiler tag below to learn that, and also to find out where the anime drops off so you know where to continue in the manga. Don’t click the spoiler if you haven’t read up to chapter 22 (volume 6), or if you haven’t completely finished the anime.



So, since this is a harem (albeit a reversed one), this means that there is one important question that must be asked… Who is best girl boy? If you’ve been paying attention throughout this review you may or may not have noticed something….

Igarashi-kun

A sort of… motif… you might say… Throughout my chosen images…

Nana

If you haven’t caught on yet, Nana (blond one) and Igarashi (other one) are my favorite boys. Nana because… Well… Just LOOK at him. Quite nice, quite nice indeed. But personality-wise he’s a dick, so he’s not actually BEST boy. That title belongs to Igarashi, hence why he’s the poster boy for the banner I made for this review. Speaking of which—HOW FREAKING EXTRA AM I!?!? I made a freaking banner for this review, for frick’s sake. Also I took the time to Photoshop all the images together to create the anime-manga comparisons. I never cease to amaze myself, like I seriously need to calm down. *Edit*: Photoshopping the banner for this review was so fun that it actually spurned a new tradition for my reviews: all my reviews of the first volume of a manga now have a banner I personally photoshopped for it (even my old ones)! Click here to see a gallery of all of them.✧ Bonus: Click here to see this review's original banner (the one you see now is an improved version I made after I gained more banner-making experience)! My username was Lizgigler back then, teehee

So yeaaah. I found this series very enjoyable and funny. I read some discussions about episodes as I was watching them weekly, so I know that there are other people who somehow didn’t get as much enjoyment out of it as I did, which is unfortunate. I think that if you’re out of the target demographic you won’t like it as much. Like, if you’re a straight male. I think there’s just something about this series that doesn’t appeal to that group as much as it did to me. It won’t give them the giddiness that it gave me. By the way, this is NOT a yaoi series, if you thought that’s what I was implying (especially since this is made by a yaoi author). But anyway, as a teenage girl I thought this series was very fun.


Please consider giving this review a "Like" if you've made it this far, it helps me out a lot! And follow me if you want more!
Click to read my other Kiss Him, Not Me! reviews:
Volumes: 1*, 2, 3-8 (N/A), 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

*Current review
798 reviews123 followers
February 25, 2017
"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 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
Profile Image for Elysian.
232 reviews71 followers
August 27, 2019
solid one star, because it was A MESS

You guys might wonder: Vincent, why the hell are you reading manga? Well, I decided I show the world that I enjoy reading them. Sometimes. Are you new to manga? WELL DO NOT READ THIS ONE!

General

As I already said, it is a huge unrealistic mess and it spreads unmoral messages that never get questioned. The MC is a girl named Kae. She is obsessed with homosexual boys being affectionate to each other. She prefers stalking boys falling for each other rather than seeing boys falling for her.

1. Shipping gay couples in books or Tv- shows is NOT activism or empowering!
2. 'Boyslove'/ 'yaoi' is not a realistic representation of a healthy real life relationship between gay men.
4. Fetishizing gay people is by no means sweet or hot.
5. Gay men are not a porn category or masturbation material, but real people with feelings.
6. When you are a Fujoshi I hope you stay away from gay couples, because this behavior is utterly creepy.

So. Some important things said. Kae being a hardcore Fujoshi is never questioned by ANYONE except her brother, who thinks it is sick. (which it is) After her favourite BL(boyslove) character dies she is frustrated she looses an EXTREME amount of weight. After that four boys fall in love with her.

1. Loosing so much weight in a short time period is unhealthy and unrealistic. Kae would have loose skin tissues and many stretch marks.
2. It promotes having an eating disorder as a good 'option'. When you are fat, you are ugly and not lovable for boys. Boys prefer skinny girls.


Characters

Well. Do I have to mention that I liked none of the characters? They were all plain boring and typical arche-types of manga characters.

1. Asuma - gentle giant
2. Hayato - child
3. Nozomu - 'Behind a rough exterior there often beats a heart of gold'
4. Shima - rich & talented
5. Yuusuke - popular boy next door

None of them got any character development through the whole series and they stayed the same whatever happened to them. The only thing that developed was their friendship, because all the 4 boys (and one homosexual girl) started as rivals for Kae's love.

The MC Kae is well. She is a lot. She is more complex character than the others, because the reader never sees them interacting without being surrounded by Kae or their friend group. Kae is represented as very kind hearted and sweet girl. Her actions show that she is actually selfish and pretty much self- centered. She forces her love interests to do things they do not want to do and is somehow guilt tripping them, when they do not give in. For example: wearing clothes she made or kissing each other. Also they confess to her and she lets ALL OF THEM wait for MONTHS, because she cannot decide who of them she should date.

The ending is utterly disappointing, but I have no motivation to continue writing.

Profile Image for It's Jess✨.
103 reviews448 followers
December 22, 2019
Yo this manga is problematic but the characters are so much fun and as a person who loves manga and anime I love the story! So fun :)
Profile Image for riri.
126 reviews1 follower
June 12, 2024
I love this😭 its so funny and shes just like me 🤭
Profile Image for IM.
147 reviews8 followers
January 10, 2025
La historia inicia con Kae, una estudiante otaku fanática del BL que no llama mucho la atención. Tras la muerte de su personaje favorito de anime, Kae se sumerge en un cuadro depresivo, pasando una semana encerrada en su cuarto. Al salir, descubre que ha bajado dramáticamente de peso lo que, aparentemente, la hace muco más atractiva delante de sus compañeros quienes se disputan por invitarla a salir. El conflicto inicial es que nuestra protagonista debe mantener en secreto sus obsesiones con el anime- manga y el BL para causar una buena impresión en sus compañeros, Igarashi, Nana, Shinomiya y el senpai Mutsumi.

Qué más puedo decir? Es una historia que no se toma en serio así misma, presentando escenarios hilarantes y cómicos. Lo que más me gusta es que los chicos que pretenden a Kae poco a poco van perdiendo sus prejuicios y comienzan a apreciar otras cualidades de la protagonista, más allá de su físico.
P.D: Aquí los team Mutsumi senpai ✋🏼y los Igarashi x Nana 🤭
Profile Image for Quirky Omega.
446 reviews75 followers
January 2, 2017
Be prepared to bombarded with ridiculous situations. An overweight girl miraculously bevomes svelte after being cooped up in her room, not eating anything. And the was because she went into mourning over a character's death in her favourite Yaoi manga.

Then her ridiculous fascination imagining her handsome school mates in gay relationships.

And the four guys. Yikes!

Basically, if I hadn't stopped reading after volume 1, I would have definitely torn my ab muscles.
Profile Image for Elisa Fumis.
Author 10 books53 followers
May 25, 2019
Ciò che colpisce a primo impatto è il titolo insolito di questo manga: pur essendo adolescente, la protagonista non sembra interessata a trovarsi un ragazzo; in realtà, preferisce immaginare i suoi compagni di classe in una relazione omosessuale.

Kiss Him, Not Me è un’esilarante commedia scolastica, originale e romantica. Si legge in meno di un’ora e conduce il lettore nel “magico” mondo delle fujoshi, fan incallite dell’amore tra maschi.

Il cambiamento esteriore di Kae le permette di uscire con quattro aitanti compagni di scuola: Nanashima, Igarashi, Shinomiya e Mutsumi.

I quattro giovani decidono di aiutarla nello sport o nello studio. Penso che molte ragazze sarebbero contente di avere intorno così tanto ragazzi, pronti a sostenerle e a invitarle fuori.

Una domanda sorge spontanea: hanno iniziato a interessarsi a lei soltanto perché è diventata carina? Il ragionamento è superficiale, seppur comprensibile data la loro giovane età. L’unico che sembra apprezzarla per il suo modo di essere è il senpai Mutsumi, compagno di scuola più grande nonché membro del Club di studi storici.

Per paura di non essere accettata o di essere presa in giro, la ragazza cerca di celare le sue passioni, creando situazioni ancora più assurde e divertenti.

Un primo volume che invoglia il lettore a continuare la serie per poter conoscere meglio i protagonisti e immergersi di nuovo nelle disavventure della simpatica Kae.

Insomma, le risate sono assicurate!
Profile Image for Chantaal.
1,301 reviews253 followers
April 16, 2023
Yeah I think maybe I just don’t get this.

The hard core real life shipping that veers into fetishization, the fat girl somewhat magically becomes a thin gorgeous anime girl and ONLY THEN do all the boys like her…….wow. No thanks.
Profile Image for Szybki  Zum Zum Traktor.
57 reviews
December 13, 2023
chcę mieć dziś tyle odwagi co 10-letnia ja, która podeszła do swojej mamy, pokazała tytuł i powiedziała "kup mi, proszę" 💀🤚
Profile Image for Rebecca.
1,442 reviews84 followers
July 30, 2024
3.5 stars

This was pretty funny. I'm not taking it too seriously yet, but it's also not taking itself seriously, so I'm having fun with it.
Profile Image for Meepelous.
662 reviews53 followers
July 20, 2019
Hello and welcome everyone, my name is Meepelous and this is Literally Graphic.

And today we're talking about my initial thoughts about a manga series that really took me by surprise, namely Kiss Him, Not Me! by Junko. While I've fallen way off the bandwagon for Manga Hoarder's 2019 Reading Challenge, this book does seem, to my mind, to count for challenge number 17 "A manga featuring manga" (or other otaku culture).

Originally published in Japan by Kodansha comics from 2013 - 2018, it appears to have been published on crunchyroll in english simultaneously. As usual, however, I'm reading physical copies of the book which have been published, once again by Kodansha, from 2015 - 2018.

Without much easily accessed english language information, the following was what I was able to dig up on the author artist Junko aka Clip Clop. They identify as female, live in Tokyo and are a Sagittarius blood type A. Besides Kiss Him, Not Me, she has also been the author/artist on Rough Boyfriend/Rowdy Boyfriend, Under the Umbrella with you, Your Note/Your Scent, Mr. Mini Mart, Manga Sake, My Bodyguard/I shall protect you no matter where, Ouji no Kikan, Prince of Recipe, Star like Words, Walking With You, Youthful Love, and a lot of Yaoi Doujinshi based off of sports manga. Needless to say, as we dive into the synopsis of the series itself, Junko seems to have a lot in common with the main character of Kiss Him, Not Me.

Flipping to the back of the book, the description from the publisher as is follows: " Hi there! My name is Serinuma Kae. I’m the kind of girl who loves checking out boys and fantasizing about them getting friendly (and more) with each other—I’m what you might call a fujoshi. One day, my beloved (yes, he’s an anime character) died, and the shock of it all was more than I could have ever prepared for! My grief over his passing resulted in some ridiculous weight-loss! And you won’t believe what happened next! Soon after my change, the four most divinely gorgeous boys in my school asked me out on dates! I accepted them all, and you’d think I’d be happy with my sudden popularity, but the truth is, my heart only yearns for a prince to be next to his prince. Ahh, yes, boys, I’d much prefer that you turn your affections elsewhere and KISS HIM, NOT ME!"

And if you were paying attention to all of that you may have noticed that one of the major plot points is dramatic weightloss. While I would certainly not tell anyone who doesn't want to read about that that they have to, I do think that the way in which it is handled in this volume is much better then other weight loss plots I have seen or read and wanted to talk about it. While it's only briefly at the very beginning that Serinuma Kae is "overweight" we still get the chance to see her interact with many of the same people she will become more involved with later in the volume. While there's the obvious change of how interested her attractive male classmates are in her, but people are still generally nice and conversational before. She is not a social pariah (either because of her weight or because she's Otaku) which feels like a really important point to me. The other big point is just how accidental her weight loss is, never before it happens does Serinuma wish she weighed less, and she's pretty confused after it happens. Trying to think of this critically, beyond it simply existing, I guess the wieght loss is generally framed as a positive thing. And while there's no one else shamed for still being fat, in this first volume at least there are no other people who are the size that Serinuma was before or larger. Which is probably the weakest point on this front.

Looking at gender representation in this volume, since it's a male harem story of sorts the high school boys represented do tend to fall into various tropes, although I think this is more good then bad. Because tropes used well, give creators a precreated list of knowns, and lets stories explore different things. In this case, flipping the idea of women wanting to be attractive to men on its head in yet another way.

As far as female representation goes, it's nice that unlike fat representation (which disappears when Serinuma loses weight) Serinuma does have other female friends and she's not even in competition with them. Drawing wise, Serinuma definitely has boobs, but I can't work up any sort of offense. I assume they jiggle in the anime, which can be rather eye roll inducing at times, but in this case we have yet to even hit any cleavage shots so... I have boobs, she has boobs, they aren't ridiculously unbelievable and don't place the female character in as any sort of automatically subordinate space like crotch shots often do.

As far as representation goes, unsurprisingly for better or worse, class and race are not really touched on in this volume. I am very exited about the upswing in translated representation of female identified otaku like Princess Jellyfish.
Profile Image for Merb.
629 reviews66 followers
July 28, 2019
~ 3.5 stars ~

Serinuma is a shy otaku who prefers shipping boys at her school together, rather than having crushes of her own. But when her favourite anime character dies, she spends a week curled up in bed and loses a bizarre amount of weight. When she returns to school, all the boys she ship begin noticing her and things get a bit more complicated.

This story is meant to be cheesy fun, but the message is rather shallow. One of the boys 'interested' in Serinuma clearly respected and liked her before losing weight, and values what is inside rather than on the outside, which could redeem this story. It is also the kind of story that even if you extend your belief, you still can't help but shake your head a little. It was fun and I think you could very easily get addicted to this if you try not to concern yourself with the message it is sending.
Profile Image for Elizabeth.
398 reviews54 followers
March 18, 2018
Actualización: Los especiales han hecho que este manga suba de 2 a 3 estrellas! Guiño guiño yaoi guiño...

Estado: todos los tomos leídos.
Este manga me frustró mucho, especialmente la protagonista. Si no me vuelvo a topar con otra Kae seré muy feliz. El único punto favorecedor, de verdad, es Senpai y por él seguí leyendo.
Para ser el primer manga shoujo de Junko, lo hizo bastante bien, se nota el esfuerzo,
sin embargo lo sentí muy genérico y superficial (de nuevo, la excepción es Senpai). La autora se dedicó a seguir todos los clichés de la Biblia shoujo y varios le jugaron una mala pasada: no había fluidez entre los arcos, los personajes secundarios eran acartonados, Kae es insoportable. Pese a ello, sentí que le faltó el corazón de un shoujo; tenía todos los tópicos y aún así se sentía carente.
Sinceramente, espero que Junko se siga dedicando al BL (yaoi) y le deje el shoujo a autoras más capacitadas.
Profile Image for ✮Octjillery✮.
718 reviews10 followers
July 3, 2024
First read: September 2019
Second read: July 2024

I only read the first five volumes of this the last time, but I just reached the halfway point in Naruto (furthest I've ever gotten in the series after over 20 years) and wanted to get back to some romantic manga. I've been reading a LOT this summer; I hit my 120-book reading challenge goal six months early and am pushing 160 now. I finally read Demon Slayer (23 vols.) and I'm up to vol. 38 of Naruto, plus other stuff in between. I'm honestly surprised I haven't burnt out yet since it's what I've spent most of the past month doing, just enjoying my summer break. Fingers crossed, because I refuse to set Naruto down again after all these years.

I just needed a break from all the shounen, so I did a mental dice roll to determine which of the series on my physical shelves that are complete would be my break-read. A lot of them are much longer, and I remembered what I read of this series being pretty quick and not super text-heavy or with ultra complex art (like a Tanemura work would be).

There's not much to really add to what I wrote below in my original review. Kae's expressions and antics are really funny. Great reaction image fodder.

Mutsumi is still the only deserving guy here.

________
So, if you can ignore/aren't bothered by the non-satirical depiction of someone losing a ton of weight from a week-long period of mourning and suddenly getting a lot of attention from the opposite sex, aaand the fact that fujoshi are most known for fetishizing gay men...

This series is hilarious, with beautiful art and an interesting cast of characters.

Three of the four guys might not have the best of reasons for suddenly developing an interest in our heroine, but they're pretty accepting of her quirks as they discover them. That being said, it's also quite possibly because of their attraction to her and the obvious competition between them, but...I just kind of want to give this a few more points to offset the ickiness of the stuff I started my review with.

I don't think those things would have bothered me as much as a teen reader, but I'm 28 now, and a bit more aware of the negative impacts of those themes. (Kind of like how one might claim to be an otaku, but the implications of that are wildly different in the States when compared to Japan.)

All of that said, I still liked this a lot. It's an easy read, it's cute and funny, and there's definitely room for Kae's character to develop and blossom.
Profile Image for Kaesa.
251 reviews18 followers
January 19, 2023
I started watching the anime adaptation of this series mostly out of morbid curiosity -- the premise as was presented to me was suuuper fatphobic -- but then I fell in love with it, and since it probably isn't getting a season 2 I figured I'd read the manga. I still have some issues with the way fatness is presented in the story, but the way the guys in Kae's unwanted harem talk about her sudden transformation is pretty telling about their character/personalities, and aside from that I can put it aside and enjoy this very silly story about an awkward fangirl in high school suddenly having a reverse harem she doesn't know what to do with and doesn't want. She's recognizable -- I was kind of a gen-only snob in high school but I had friends who were super into m/m and awkward about it in similar ways, and back then the shaaame of being into fandom generally was pretty prevalent especially if there was any aspect of shipping in your fandom (one of the reasons I was a gen-only snob!) but also oh nooo, honey, you shouldn't ship people you actually know, that's a bad scene. (While I was never as bad as Kae is in this affectionate parody of fujoshi culture, I will confess that in high school I did come up with a FictionAlley-style ship name for a couple of friends I knew who were actually dating and it did not last but the breakup was amicable. This is probably the best-case scenario for shipping your actual friends and it's still awkward af. High school... is a time for bad ideas that will make you cringe about them for the rest of your life.) Anyway, because of the terrible knowledge of what it's like to be an awkward fangirl in high school, to some extent this straddles the line between humor and horror for me, but in a good way, and I'll probably keep reading.
Profile Image for Judyth.
1,724 reviews41 followers
March 2, 2016
~3.5-4/5

"Who decided the prince should be with the princess?"


First of all, I was a little wary of this book when I heard about the weight thing. That is an issue that’s not okay to handle badly, or too blasé like Let’s Dance a Waltz did. But in this book, it took a more comedic route, and it wasn’t ignored. Which, at least for me, made it okay (or at least standable).

Especially since, while the boys weren’t flirting with her when she was bigger, at least she wasn’t being bullied over it. It was just part of who she was then. No big deal. Much like her otaku side, it’s just part of her.

As soon as Serinuma gets smaller waisted, three boys in particular start clinging to her, plus one who’s just her friend. She doesn’t know how to handle it, especially since she just wants them to fall in love with each other, not her. But she agrees to go on a date with them all at once. Then some of them agree to help her practice soccer and study.

I like how open Serinuma is. She doesn’t hide her otaku side, even when told she should. She doesn’t decide on one of them, she gives them all a shot when she can’t decide. When she finds out how out of shape she is, she still keeps practicing like crazy for soccer. She doesn’t hide who she is, and only makes the boys like her even more.

I think I’ve already got a favorite, or two, out of the boys, but I’m still not sure who’s going to get closer to her. They’re all fighting pretty hard at this point. And I like the humor, the heroine, and the characterization so far. I’m looking forward to reading more.

[Read more at my blog, Geeky Reading!]
Profile Image for Mariam.
129 reviews
February 16, 2019
I thought this manga was pretty sizest and wasn't a great message for young adults. First of all, the protagonist loses a large amount of weight in one week because she refuses to eat because she is in mourning for a fictional character. Yes I believe you can lose your appetite while in mourning and I don't have a problem with mourning over the loss of a fictional character, but one week? No. Then all of these guys suddenly notice her in an attractive way. Yes, it's flattering but also extremely irritating that they only fine her attractive and want to spend time with her when she is skinny. She says yes to going out with all four of these guys who continue to make it a competitive game against one another with her as the butt of every joke. I'm sorry. I thought it was offensive, sexist, sizest and it's not a series I'm interested in continuing.
Profile Image for Emily.
326 reviews3 followers
February 17, 2020
This was an interesting Manga. I related to parts and had a fun time reading it. It made me laugh and progressively got better as the chapters went on. Excited to pick up the next one

My big complaint would be the message it sends at the beginning of the manga when Kae became skinny by crying in her room for a week. I wouldn’t have minded a glow up in a different way, maybe where she changes her hair or decided to wear makeup (like True Beauty for example) because in this case it starts to send the message that boys only like you for your looks.

I would say to counteract this, one of the boys seemed to care about her from the start and cares about the person she is on the inside so I like him.

Overall, this is a fun fast paced quick read that was enjoyable and comedic. It’s pretty feel good and happy which are the kinds of stories I like.
Profile Image for Christine.
574 reviews8 followers
March 10, 2020
Super cute!! I’m excited to read more!

A pretty notable controversial element that kept this from being 5⭐️ was the unrealistic and offensive (and completely fantastical on purpose because it comedy manga) situation where she loses a ton of weight and then becomes unbelievably beautiful to these boys.
Profile Image for Stefania.
287 reviews33 followers
February 19, 2017
Man, I'm laughing sooo hard! This manga is amazingly funny, and I feel so similar to the main character in tastes and behaviour that it's almost scary xD
A comic union of shoujo manga and (only dreamed) BL, a light and entertaining reading.
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