Sekret Panny Watanuki tom 4

Watanuki-san ni wa Boku ga Tarinai #4

by Ema Tōyama

Orihime, była przewodnicząca samorządu liceum Koyomino i narzeczona Owaru, wkracza do akcji! Kiedy Leila się o niej dowiaduje, zbiera się na odwagę i prosi Owaru, żeby przestał chodzić do łóżka z innymi dziewczynami poza nią. W międzyczasie młodsze rodzeństwo bohatera zaczyna mieszać się w jego sprawy. Po ujawnieniu sekretu Owaru, Leila czuje, że się od siebie oddalają… W dodatku Orihime rozpoczyna praktyki w ich szkole?!

Genres: Manga

150 pages, Paperback

Published March 5, 2020

About the author

Japanese Name: 遠山 えま

She made her debut in September 2003 in the monthly manga magazine Nakayoshi with her story, Tenshi no Tamago ("Angel's Egg", no relation to the anime movie of the same name). Gokkun! Pūcho is considered her best representative work. Tokyopop has licenced it under the title Pixie Pop. All of her works are published by Kodansha, and they are enjoyed mainly by preteen and teen girls. None of her series have yet become anime.

Reviews

[Bibliothecat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review for complete series



Leila has worked hard to become head girl and enjoys a spotless reputation. Given her school's strict rules, it's an image she must uphold. That means she must keep her home a secret at all costs, for her mother runs a love hotel which also connects to their apartment. Leila's classmate Owaru finds out about her secret and makes a deal: let him live rent-free at the love hotel and he will keep her secret.

Watanuki-san ni wa Boku ga Tarinai is a tricky one. I will start off by saying that I liked it, but there's a lot of bizarre and unsettling content. Given that the plot includes a love hotel, one can imagine that sex is a topic. And I have to say that the matter of the love hotel was actually handled really well. Leila used to love her home because she thought it looked like a castle. It was only when she got older and started to understand what exactly is going on in her parents' business that she began to feel ashamed of it. And I can fully understand that - who would want to brag around at school for living in and running a love hotel. On the other hand, this story reminds us that obviously people who run love hotels - or similar establishments - are just regular people. They live regular lives like anyone else and also have children. Leila, who loves her mother, also comes to feel a certain pride and eventually learns that her living conditions shouldn't be considered shameful - this is noting that her home is attached to the love hotel, she doesn't actually live inside it and her mother originally keeps her away from the going ons in there.

I found Leila to be a very likeable main character. In fact, I loved both her and Owaru and they are a big reason why I enjoyed this series. They're an opposites attract kind of couple and, while Owaru starts off with a bit of blackmail, I genuinely enjoyed how their relationship developed. They had a few funny moments, a bit of bickering, but mostly they were really caring and looking out for each other despite all their differences. I think Owaru was an important character for Leila to relax a bit more around her family situation and being less rigid in her role as head girl.

Owaru starts off as an overly happy and optimistic character but it's clear from the start that something isn't quite right about his situation. He ran away from home which is also his main motivation to get a room at Leila's love hotel. He has a bit of a strange approach to sex, mainly in that he thinks that he can't fall in love with someone without having a physical relationship of sorts beforehand. He also states that he doesn't believe he'll ever find genuine love. A lot of what is behind his thoughts and behaviour is left obscure until the end, and I guess that's where we start getting into the icky side of things.

But before we go there, I enjoyed the supporting characters, that is to say the rest of the school council and Leila's mum. It's another one of Tōyama's best works in terms of art and I love Leila's design. There are lots of funny moments, weird misunderstandings, and I just generally enjoyed the school setting.

On the downside, though, Watanuki-san ni wa Boku ga Tarinai incorporates one of my most disliked manga tropes: odd body reactions when touched by someone from the opposite sex. I've never liked this and I don't get why it's so common. I'm talking about someone having just the briefest physical contact and suddenly developing a skin rash or something similar. When it comes to manga, there's always a certain amount of disbelief to be thrown out the window but I always found this trope hard to accept. This manga could have gotten it right but didn't. Leila becomes extremely nervous around men and breaks out in a sweat - nothing unusual there, some people really can sweat excessively if they are nervous about something. But Leila's case is so over the top that it's simply unrealistic, I mean, she's practically sweating a big puddle at her feet. I think toning it down a bit would have had the same effect while still keeping it believable.

As for the less savoury parts of the story, I'll keep this vague so as not to spoil things, but there were some surprisingly heavy themes running in the background. Nothing is ever spelt out but it's heavily implied that there's been sexual abuse and neglect of some kind. Some characters were treated horribly and while the plot does highlight that these are criminal activities, it's kind of brushed under the rug. Even though it's all very vague, the things that were happening were really disturbing and the consequences should have been better addressed. There's also some incest implied which comes across as quite casual.

I found that these darker themes didn't go all that well with how the story started out. On one hand, it actually made me care even more about the characters in the sense that I really wished them happiness. But then it just also felt very wrong and awkward - a mash-up of things that simply didn't go well together. Had I not liked Leila and Owaru so much, I think I would have enjoyed this manga a good deal less. I guess that just comes to show what you can achieve with a good set of characters.

[Anna_hct · Rating 5 out of 5]

A bit weird with the whole fiancée thing but interesting story

[Shiritaku · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es tauchen neue Charaktere auf und mehr aus der Vergangenheit und dem Umfeld von Owaru wird bekannt. Es gibt einige ernstere Themen. Und der Schluss ist ja mal ein fieser Cliffhanger 😄

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me voilà arrivée à la moitié de la série et je dois dire qu’elle devient de plus en plus intéressante.

On apprend beaucoup de choses sur le passé d’Owaru ce qui m’a bien plu puisqu’on ne savait pas grand chose sur lui.

On va également faire plus ample connaissance avec la famille Nanase, en l’occurrence avec Hochihiko qui semblait déjà bien étrange dans le tome précédent mais aussi avec sa sœur Orihime qui est aussi l’ex-fiancée d’Owaru !

On sent aussi que Leila fait un travail sur elle même et que malgré les épreuves qu’elle doit affronter, elle devient plus forte !

Le tome suivant est déjà en ma possession et je ne vais pas tarder à le découvrir et à vous en parler ! ♥

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