Giji Harem

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This is actually a pretty quick read despite the chapter count. It's relaxed, nothing crazy, just a silly little romance story with a good ending. I don't really have much more to say about it, honestly. For people who dislike the basic boring harem trope, this is a good breath of fresh air. It's like the Saiki K of the romance genre, if Saiki K wasn't already the Saiki K of the romance genre.

The characters were fun and entertaining, and I wouldn't say I latched onto any in particular, but I didn't dislike anybody. It's a wholeheartedly pretty calm story, and worth reading imo.

I'll do ... my ratings. First number is my rating, second number is my expected rating for the average person.

Main characters: 10/10 | 9/10
Side characters: 8/10 | 7/10
Plot: 9/10 | 8/10
Art: 8/10 | 9/10
Romance: 10/10 | 9/10
Comedy: 8/10 | 8/10
Ending: 9/10 | 9/10

Giji Harem or Pseudo Harem is probaly one of the most heart-melting story I have ever read and I biasly thing it's the romcom that every romcom want to be like with very compelling story and yes, very shocking, an actual plot and an actual ending.
It's a manga that give you everything you want in a romcom manga without the extra steps of drama or love triangle. At the start, Giji Harem got me with its beautiful artwork and the very creative take on the genre (a girl pretend to be a harem) but after 10 to 30 chapters in, I actually got invested in ... the two protagonists cause their chemistry is just so great and as time go on you can actually see the development in their relationship.
The plot point of Giji Harem doesn't require any drama (as mention before) but get delivered to the reader in a very gently and subtle way cause you know what is going to happen through the build up that the author give us through everysingle chapter. However, it doesn't feel forced but very sastisfying and heart-warming.
Eventhough, Giji Harem is kind of a short read, I enjoyed it throughoutly and it sure one of the less popular manga that deserve more attention

This review will include some spoilers (though I think it's predictable).

Firstly, I should say that I'm not the target demographic and I only started reading it because the concept sounded so bizarre. It's a quick read too since the chapters are mostly short interactions taken out of context. But despite the lack of plot, the characters do make strides in their relationship. The art style is cute, and the author does a good job at depicting Rin's "personas". The humor was more of a mixed bag for me, as were the characters.
This manga follows Rin, who is infatuated with her senpai and flexes her acting ... skills on him. This also allows her to say anything to him because she's just "acting". On the one hand, this manga mocks some romance tropes, but on the other hand, it falls into a bunch of others. The author tries to make Rin as cute as possible (she blushes all the time, gets flustered easily and is scared of ghosts), which makes her feel more artificial than Eiji. We also don't get to see much of Eiji's side of the story.
What I like about this manga is that it doesn't end with the characters getting together or with senpai graduating; it follows their relationship for a significant amount of time after that. They have a really nice chemistry when they tease each other, but most of the time it's one-sided. Rin starts to pretend less around Eiji as the story progresses, but she later relapses into it for some reason. She says that Eiji should love "all sides of her", but she literally talks of herself as a different person...

If anything, this manga made me realize that I should read more mangas about acting. It would have been more fun if Eiji was an aspiring actor too because there would have been room for more of their skits. Despite some "questionable choices", most chapters were still pretty wholesome, including the epilogue.