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「理久に恋してる」自分の気持ちに気づいた天。そんな天を好きな千秋。そして、天を好きだけど踏み出せない理久。それぞれが想いを抱えて…。一つ屋根の下、気持ちが動き出す第5巻!
【収録作品】ショートケーキケーキ 特別編4コマ

167 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 2017

28 people are currently reading
198 people want to read

About the author

Suu Morishita

101 books753 followers
MORISHITA Suu
Name (in native language): 森下suu

Blood type: A
Zodiac: Taurus

Mangaka duo: Story: Makiro (マキロ), Illustration: Nachiyan (なちやん)

Favourite food: chicken nanban

Assistant: Aizawa Yuki-mei

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5 stars
264 (32%)
4 stars
341 (41%)
3 stars
185 (22%)
2 stars
29 (3%)
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6 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
Profile Image for Dani ❤️ Perspective of a Writer.
1,512 reviews5 followers
November 23, 2019
Ten Serizawa has a two-hour commute through the mountains to high school every day, so she can’t spend much time hanging out with her friends in the afternoon. She decides to move into the local boardinghouse, where one of her friends and three other boys are living. Ten’s friends consider her to be as oblivious as a rock when it comes to noticing boys and falling in love, but will she be able to keep her calm and steady heart in her new living situation?


The Premise

In Shortcake Cake vol 5 our love triangle gets quite tense. Our clueless Ten has made a major revelation but she isn't sure what she wants to do with that knowledge. And you know she has a right to be worried. She's at the boarding house to go to school, and has to be there until she graduates. To throw a bomb in her home life isn't smart since they are all quite young and a relationship isn't likely to last. She decides to take steps toward the boy she likes, while Chiaki decides to be bolder with both of his friends, Ten and Riku.


The Buzz

Since Chiaki already knows the way feelings are leaning I think he really wants to make his friendship with Riku real. In fact I'd hazard to say he's pretty desperate for that bromance to blossom... So while he makes a pretty underhanded choice in Shortcake Cake vol 5 I felt like it really showed his willingness to go after that friendship. Riku is also feeling the guilt and doesn't want a friendship holding him back. I can't blame him even though I think its just what Chiaki needs from him. I enjoy this relationship but I also want to see more of the others in the house, even if that means they get in the way of the romance!


The Feels

In Shortcake Cake vol 5 I felt like we were less focused on Ten and instead spent a ton of time with Chiaki! Which I don't mind at all... He is a sweet boy who is a lot more perceptive than others give him credit for. He takes time to think things through but as a bookworm I expect no less. I love, love, love when he finally reveals the truth to Ten and when he shares a quote with her. I am who of those hopeless readers who roots for the underdog and wants to see them at least try to win the one they like! So I really applauded Chiaki's go get 'em attitude and thought it was so adorable when Ten did too.


The Visuals

There are quite a few cute and humorous moments in Shortcake Cake vol 5. I kinda love when the art devolves and goes cartoonish! Especially when it has to do with our bromance between Chiaki and Riku. Still my favorite aspects of the art are the glowing portraits whenever the guys get serious and we pause and get that flower boy look! And look at the cover!! I do love the solid color backgrounds of the previous volumes but come on... you've got to admit that the cover art for Shortcake Cake vol 5 is even more gorgeous! Definitely one you want on your shelf...

Shortcake Cake vol 5 has some shocking moments that totally bowl you over and through them we see Chiaki, our little bookworm, is a real boy who is sweet but also willing to fight for what he wants. Ten has made her choice though and takes tentative steps to upset the house and her life... How will it turn out?! We'll have to check back in the next volume of Shortcake Cake!!


⋆ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Authenticity
⋆ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Tension
⋆ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Plot
⋆ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Art


This is a multi-volume series and there may be references to the plot of those volumes... SO READ WITH CARE! Here is my review of 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |


Thanks to Edelweiss and VIZ Media for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. It has not influenced my opinions.

Please like this review if you enjoyed it! *bow* *bow* It helps me out a ton!!
Profile Image for Lauren.
1,011 reviews923 followers
September 1, 2019
3 stars

I suppose this is what you get when you fall in love with a cover and believe it to be another 5 star read...

To put simply, this volume wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be :/ The main reason for this is because of the change in Rin's character - she's not the spunky and sassy girl we meet in the first couple of volumes, instead she keeps mooing over Riku but still doesn't tell him her feelings. She doesn't really do much in this volume which resulted in me being increasingly frustrated by how placid she was. I was actually pretty bored with her character.

Elsewhere, Chiaki seems to have undergone a character transformation too, and now he's more conniving and deceitful and outwardly lies to Ten and Riku which I'm really not a fan of. I always thought Riku was the roguish one and Chiaki being the "straight" character is now deemed far worse than Riku.

I don't think I even ship Riku and Ten anymore :/ I think Riku deserves someone a lot better.

Ah, I'm a bit of a mess but this fifth volume has left me seriously doubting whether I am going to continue with this series.
Profile Image for Kesa.
580 reviews62 followers
December 11, 2022
Chiaki's actions towards Rei and Ten ruined this volume. If Ten ends up with him ... then I don't know.
Profile Image for Laura A. Grace.
1,984 reviews312 followers
December 12, 2025
YOUTUBE VIDEO REVIEW: https://youtu.be/BVD99nvqgvs

Updated Review 5/12/25: The highlight of this volume is definitely Riku and Chiaki going out and all the fun banter that takes place! However, I love how Ten worked up the courage to give Riku a gift and love how she is having these super cute panels of her blushing because she's thinking about him! I also forgot how brave/upfront Chiaki was at the end! :o

Original Review 6/18/22: CHIKAIIIIII!! 😤😤😤😤😤

Excellent volume but GAH, that ENDING!!

Super upset and VERY unhappy about it, but I LOVE the progression of Ten’s feelings for Riku! I feel it is such a beautiful and natural progression and that she is so adorable in not knowing what to do/how to act around him! (Them exercising together was SUPER cute!) Absolutely here for it!

I was surprised at how much we saw of Chiaki and Riku together! It was a lot of fun though! Lots of laughs and a few awww moments that made me smile.

However Riku really is better the guy here and just desperate to know what happens in the next volume!!
Profile Image for Rereader.
1,447 reviews209 followers
July 30, 2019
Welp, I'm officially dropping this series. But I'm going to drop this series properly: with a rage-filled, rage-fueled rant. Strap in folks, this is gonna be rough.

First and foremost, I want to state for the record that this volume is not the worst thing ever and I have read (and reviewed) worse. The reason why I'm going to tear this volume (and by extension this series) a new one is because of how disappointed I am with where the story is now and worried about where it will end. We good? Good. Time for rage.

There are two big issues that I have with this volume and what ultimately killed it's enjoyment: Ten's character change and Chiaki's actions. First, Ten's character change.

Ten's character throughout this volume was uninteresting and unengaging. Why? Because all she did the ENTIRE VOLUME was think about Riku, think about how she likes him, and try to decide how she'll proceed with these newfound feelings. THAT'S LITERALLY ALL SHE DOES. Gone is the fun, plucky, spunky, sassy Ten who would occasionally question her feelings and her thoughts on love, this Ten only thinks about Riku and how much she likes him. FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC! I love seeing a fun character become an over-analyzing and uninteresting person when they discover love!

What makes her character change so awful is that there are MANY female romance manga protagonists who can change thanks to or because of their love, BUT maintain their strong personality traits. Kaguya from Kaguya-sama Love is War, Hori from Horimiya, Persia from Boarding School Juliet, hell Anise from Kiss of the Rose Princess is a reverse harem protagonist like Ten and she maintains her spunky, sassy spirit throughout the entire series even when grappling with love. Those are just a few that I could come up with off the top of my head, but you get the point. Her change is even harder to swallow for me because she was really the only reason, other than Rei, that I was reading this series. Unfortunately, these two can't carry this entire series, especially since I can tell that they won't end up together, and if Ten is going to continue acting the way she is I have zero interest in continuing. That being said, she's not the sole reason why I hated this volume and am so disappointed in this series.

Chiaki's behavior throughout this whole volume was awful. Considering he was the one I was originally rooting for Ten to end up with, this volume completely soured my opinion of him. He admits that he refuses to give up on trying to win Ten over EVEN THOUGH he knows that Riku likes her. Is this supposed to be karma from the last volume? If it is, that would make sense, but Chiaki doesn't frame it that way and it makes the whole situation uncomfortable to watch. Chiaki also LIES to Riku about the mug Riku broke being a memento from his dead grandfather (not a memento and grandfather's alive) to guilt Riku into spending time with him. If that isn't reprehensible enough, Chiaki REPEATEDLY reminds Riku how important that mug was to him to convince him to stay when Riku wants to leave. Wow, emotional manipulation just so Chiaki can spend time with his "friend" (I'm honestly starting to question whether they were actually friends or not. I LITERALLY can't tell at this point). The cherry on top of all of this atrocious behavior is that when Ten confesses to Chiaki that she likes Riku, he kisses her. Without her consent.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!

I don't care if this is a common trope in romance, I don't care if Ten doesn't end up being bothered by it, KISSING SOMEONE WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT IS A SHIT THING TO DO, ESPECIALLY TO SOMEONE USE SUPPOSEDLY LOVE! What makes this worse is that he kisses her AT RIKU'S SCHOOL, where they're watching Riku compete in his school's sports festival. I will say this again, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! In what fucking universe did that seem like an appropriate thing to do?! What makes this worse is that I can already imagine the characters' justification for this behavior: oh, he's a bookworm who's never experienced love, but this is what he read about in books and thought it was okay. Guess fucking what? IT'S NOT FUCKING OKAY!! I have no proof that Morishita's going to go with that as an explanation, but I don't fucking care because it was a shit thing to do regardless of the reasons. The only time I'm okay with nonconsensual kissing is if it's in a comedic context with the right variables, but I don't agree with it in a romance setting unless it was an accident. Maybe I'm being too harsh, I don't know, but I had a huge fucking problem with it (obviously).

If I'm being completely honest, what bothers me the most about this volume is that it effectively ruined any promise this series had. Bare in mind that this series was not five star quality from the start; it was really Ten and Rei who carried most of it, but they can't carry a series by themselves nor should they have to. While part of me hopes that maybe it was just this volume that was bad and maybe the series gets better, I'm not interested in investing time and money to find out. It just really sucks because this is the third romance manga series I've dropped this year and I was so hoping this series would stay strong. Granted, I'm not being held at gunpoint to drop this series. I'm aware that I'm making this decision on my own despite hoping that the series gets better. The problem is that I can't fathom spending more time and money on a series that was just okay in the beginning, had some high points, but has now tanked spectacularly in my eyes. Yes, I could continue, but why would I when I can either invest in new series or simply continue with the series I already enjoy? Life is way too damn short to hold on to something with the hope that it could get better. But me? I'd rather focus on the stuff that's good NOW or has ALWAYS been good.

Okay, that's enough ranting for one review. To summarize: this volume sucked, I'm dropping this series, I only recommend it to people who want an average at best reverse harem series, but I'd recommend Kiss of the Rose Princess before this.
Profile Image for Mary Emma Sivils.
Author 1 book63 followers
December 23, 2024
Chiaki’s friendship with Riku is so funny and weird. 😆 Really hoping this love triangle doesn’t leave any hard feelings between the characters.
That ending, though. Was not expecting that! 😳
Profile Image for Julie.
2,642 reviews197 followers
August 26, 2020
oh man idk how to feel!! Like I like Riku as Ten's love interest, but I LOVE Chiaki. Honestly it feels like Chiaki has more of a crush on Riku than Ten. Idk there's just not much chemistry between Chiaki and Ten, but Riku and Chiaki?? Now there's something.
Profile Image for em!.
135 reviews6 followers
April 1, 2024
if you know she likes someone else maybe??? don’t??? kiss??? her???
Profile Image for Rachel Rowe.
34 reviews1 follower
March 15, 2022
I love Chiaki and Riku’s quirky relationship! Right now I’m rooting for both guys! Probably the best love triangle…I like not rooting against one of them!
Profile Image for JW.
636 reviews6 followers
August 30, 2019
Extremely slow burn! The story was cute and there was *some* forward momentum, but the entire volume focused on the triangle.
Profile Image for Jessica.
234 reviews58 followers
January 27, 2020
I still really like the story but Chiaki and Riku were being really annoying in this volume. And Ten was being super stupid.
Profile Image for Becky (romantic_pursuing_feels).
1,295 reviews1,733 followers
June 4, 2022
This one was cute and funny, but it was missing something I thought the prior books had. Lots of time spent on Chiaki and Riku. Some funny parts. Storyline is making me wonder....
I really disliked something dishonest that Chiaki did! :( That was a big disappointment.

Steam: kiss between Ten and Chiaki
Profile Image for Carla.
976 reviews
March 5, 2022
This continues to be a fluffy love triangle romance exploring jealousy, friendship, independence, and romantic feelings. The characters are almost a bit flat, but they’re just developed enough to be fun and lovable. It does have some of the problematic elements I’ve always disliked in romance stories, like kissing someone without their permission. Loved the mug story, that was an adorable chapter.
Profile Image for  ⛅ Sunny (sunnysidereviews) ⛅.
363 reviews106 followers
April 4, 2021
I hate to be the barer of bad news, but this was extremely disappointing. First off, the main character Ten has no personality. She has no hobbies, interests, quirks, spunkiness, or anything. The only things she does is think about if certain guys like her or not. (I'm not going to mention who because of spoilers.)
Yes, there are some funny moments between Riku and Chiaki. And yes, the art style and panel layouts are truly astonishing. But that's about it. Furthermore, Chiaki and Riku are starting to become hard to root for.
I also dislike that for the past five volumes the focus has only been on these three characters. I'm genuinely interested in all the other boarding house students.
Also, I believe that one of the chapter cover arts displayed cultural appropriation as Ten was dressed in Indigenous clothing, specifically North American Indigenous peoples' clothing. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. If this is the case, it made me uncomfortable, and I really don't think they should have included it.
Overall, aside from the stunning artwork, this novel was so disappointing. I will continue the series though. I just hope it'll get better.
Profile Image for Ruthsic.
1,766 reviews32 followers
July 1, 2019
The love triangle intensifies in this one, as Ten realizes she likes Riku but isn't sure if she wants to pursue it and change the dynamics in the house. Meanwhile, Chiaki himself knows about her feelings for Riku, and is deciding whether he wants to tell her of his own, anyway. Riku knows of Chiaki's feelings for Ten and is a bit irritated by it, but as he doesn't know Ten's feelings, he isn't able to interpret her newfound shyness around him.

Riku and Chiaki are a hoot together, because the former rebuffs the latter's advances of friendship towards him, as he considers him a rival for Ten's affections. Chiaki, meanwhile, has no jealousy towards Riku and instead considers him his best friend. Ten, unsure of how to behave around Riku, gets him a souvenir from the school trip, similar to Chiaki which causes a mild hilarous misunderstanding (Chiaki is so cute honeslty!) and at that point, I was like I don't want this love triangle to resolve because they are so awkward that it is adorable; I was blushing as much as Ten during this volume. And the ending, with Ten and Chiaki sneaking to get a glimpse of Riku at the sports festival? That was an interesting development!

Overall, it is so cute and makes you bask in young love.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review from Viz Media LLC, via Edelweiss.
Profile Image for Ana.
144 reviews
Read
January 31, 2024
can’t the 3 of them end up together???? i don’t think chiaki would be opposed to the idea 🤔 and they could actually make it work.

also ten has finally realized that she likes riku so yay some progress. worth noting that she has realized thanks to chiaki’s advice 😌

chiaki is actually so fun and nice to his friends it makes you want to root for him; he even asks his “love rival” riku for advice, then tells him that he will get him a souvenir, and uses an excuse just to go shopping with him, like pls riku just be his friend already. he is adorable and i’m just like him with books in the special comic strip of ch. 26

the only thing i’ve disliked is the kiss, it was too forward considering the context
Profile Image for Melima.
77 reviews
September 16, 2023
I'm a person that who normally doesn't like love triangles, because in most cases it doesn't stay balanced and everything only leans to one side.

I still like Ten, but the change in her character is awful to me, it's being increasingly frustrated by how placid she was. I was actually pretty bored with the triangle. So much so that my favorite part was the two boys interacting.

I'm a bit tired about this story, but I'll keep reading, because I like Suu Morishita-sensei, I hope and believe this can be improve and for now, I prefer Ten doesn't to end up with any of the boys, because her being with any of them is bad ending for me.
Profile Image for Moriah Venable.
1,374 reviews30 followers
October 16, 2019
I am so in love with the art style of this manga.

Ten realizes that she has feelings for Riku and debates whether to say something after she previously turned him down.

As the same time, Chiaki is still trying to win her affections though he knows that she likes Riku. While I feel horrible for this love triangle, I do love Chiaki and Riku still being close friends despite having feelings for the same thing.

Once Chiaku confesses, I wonder how Ten is going to react and how it will change their relationship if she turns him down.
1,815 reviews
Read
November 2, 2020
Ah, I really wanted Ten to go with Chiaki, not Riku. It’s early days yet, so I guess things might change, but... The same goes for her falling in love with him that I said about him falling in love with her - There doesn’t seem to be enough in their interactions for this to happen, so it feels very forced. It would make more sense for her to be interested in Chiaki, who has occasionally touched her heart with his habit of quoting books. I feel pretty sorry for him since she’s so dense about the girl he likes...
Profile Image for Kat.
1,636 reviews16 followers
February 3, 2022
Ten realizes she's got it bad for Riku...who now that she finally likes him, can't seem to see that!! (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞ meanwhile, Chiaki doesn't give up and tries to get Ten to look his way.

What a flip - I do think that Chiaki and Ten seemed to have an initial, electric attraction...but her and Riku are a sweet slow burn that is very cute. But honestly, Chiaki and Riku's friendship is the best thing about this. Chiaki's sweet aloofness paired with Riku's prickly, but good-hearted self is ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

Art continues to be excellent. I'm invested!!
Profile Image for ChelseaFace.
899 reviews7 followers
March 1, 2020
OH. MY. GOD.
This volume really packs a punch with the love triangle. I am IN LOVE with this series now (officially). I love the art style, still very beautiful and consistent. I love the characters and how they are learning more about themselves and growing. I cannot even tell you how many times I was screaming or gasping while reading this one. Highly highly highly recommend for fans of shojo and love stories!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews

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