Watashi ga Koibito ni Nareru Wake Nai jan, Muri Muri! (※Muri ja Nakatta!?)
There's No Freaking Way I'll be Your Lover! Unless...

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I see there are no reviews yet so I want to write one.

Where do I even start? Do you know the feeling when the person you admire starts adoring you, that is basically this story. It follows a cute relationship between two school girls. One views the other as an idol and wants to become friends with her but her own idol turns into a lover for her. She is in shock and can't believe what just happened.

This is not like a relationship you observe in other Shoujo Ais since it has a unique aspect to it and that is something more than true love. ... Imagine, you like video games and you invite your admirer to play video games with you but she doesn't know how to play, then for the next couple of days, she practices games that you play and becomes better so she doesn't bother or bore you with her gameplay. It is truly satisfying.

If you gave me 1 word to describe this, I would say happy. Why? because this manga gives off a feeling of satisfaction from their relationship. This is the exact example of how relationships should be, swinging between best friends and lovers, because if it's best friends, then it will not have that much affection (unless you are close), and if its soulmates/lovers then things cross the line too much. I believe this story truly reflects what it is like for both people in a relationship to like the majority of the personality of the other person.

You don't need a reason to love, it just happens. That is this story.

Reading this at first was a blast, "I wonder why this Yuri manga isn't talked about?" is what I thought to myself. After reading this for about a week it didn't take long to find out. NTR combined into Yuri... Seriously? The author of this show obviously is a fan of NTR which is extremely controversial in the anime/manga community however, that's beside the point. The problem is that the NTR doesn't occur until later on in the series, which means that they bait you into thinking that it's a nice story between two people. It's not. On top of that it even makes me ... sick how Renako is pretty much using Mai for most of this series NTR aside. If you're into NTR/Harem stuff then this is perfect for you, those of you looking for a nice and sincere Yuri manga not so much. Even though this manga has aspects I don't like I still found it to be decently enjoyable, this manga definitely has good aspects as well which is why I'll have to give mixed feelings about it. If you have free time I recommend you read it and develop an opinion for yourself!

Ahead of the licensed English release of this series, I thought I should put some kind of warning label out there for anyone pulled in by the flashy cover and meme-infused title. If all you’re after is pretty girls and scatterings of smut, this series could be for you! But for any yuri readers with an interest in plot and characters, abandon hope - WataNare is a deranged, onanistic, occasionally problematic series that I’ve read so you don’t have to. (I talk about particular character dynamics here as I nitpick, but not to a point I would consider a spoiler.)

A synopsis of the series should ... raise a few flags already. Socially anxious Renako, having reinvented herself as a cool kid upon starting high school, suddenly finds herself being pursued by her new best friend and the queen of the school, if not the world, flawless fashion model Mai. Mai wants to date (marry, really) Renako; Renako, who’s Definitely Not Gay and terrified of commitment, wants to remain friends. Naturally, they put things to a competition, where they alternate being friends and girlfriends and compare which relationship works better. These kinds of goofy developments (plus a bunch of ridiculous gags, such as the pair surviving a fall off a several-storey building because Mai is “naturally lucky”) require a suspension of disbelief that I can happily accommodate for a comedy series; and the series is at its best in volume 1 while it’s wringing the comedy out of the odd-couple dynamic and Mai’s raging libido. But its subsequent attempts at sincere human drama, let alone sincere romance, are completely undercut by the absurd foundations of its universe.

The writing, at least in the original Japanese, is fairly cringey, the flow of conversation often derailed just to insert a witticism or show off some obscure turn of phrase. Nobody here talks like a teenage girl, and most of the characters’ backstories are flimsily built on passing allusions to tropes. Peak moe blob Renako is somewhere between an otaku self-insert (self-identified socially awkward “average girl” who’s actually beautiful & incredible at everything) and an otaku fantasy partner (big tiddy gamer girl). Her social anxiety and people-pleasing inclinations, which should be sympathetic if not relatable, stem from years-long ostracism by her entire peer group... for politely declining a party invitation, once. No, really.

Mai is a psychopath. This isn’t inherently a bad thing, and it’s actually played well enough for comedy in the first volume, but then the sobering reality kicks in that she’s really just like this and we’re supposed to side with her for the whole series. She’ll occasionally launch into a monologue about the pressure she feels to be perfect and no-one knowing “the real her,” but there’s no discernible difference between her private and public personas (Renako even roasts her for sounding like an emo kid, but this plotline still gets played straight). The chemistry between these two leads is largely chalked up to “destiny”, shorthand for the writer’s shallow intention. Mai falls in love with Renako in the span of one chapter and that’s just that; Renako spends every second chapter complaining about how horrible Mai is, but still finds herself inexplicably attracted to her.

As a result, Renako’s emotions are completely incoherent. A surface reading of events may hold up: it’s a classic slow-burn 'what is love' affair, where she slowly realises her feelings for Mai were actually love all along! The thing is, she realises this 10 chapters in, and yet somehow the story keeps going, with Renako continually double-thinking herself through a myriad of compromising situations. It’s not just difficult to follow; her ambiguous feelings lead to a classic “saying no but meaning yes” scenario in volume 2 that comes off incredibly assault-y. (She later confesses that she really did want to have sex - and then, when Mai comes on to her again, she defaults to her hollow catchphrase, “I just can’t!!”)

This 'no homo' shizz is exasperating and wildly anachronistic. By point of contrast, earlier Yuri Hime works had their fair share of internalised homophobia, but it mostly came out as its protagonists rammed directly up against their desires and were forced to confront it. Renako, on the other hand, will just do undeniably gay things - kissing Mai, admitting she wants to sleep with her - and in the very next breath claim that she’s not into girls. (She screams that she’s never once in her life fantasised about girls the very same page she fantasises about a girl.) This is a recurring pattern in modern yuri, increasingly explicit physicality paired with increasingly homophobic denial, and a source of no end of grief for me. It only works as comedy when queer relationships are treated as a joke. (Ugh. I miss the old yuri.)

Homophobia and harems go hand in hand, so though Mai and Renako are clearly the main route, volume 2 tip-toes through a flirtation with the demure Ajisai, and volumes 3-4 veer wildly into a dance with fellow psychopath and 'strong silent type' Satsuki. God knows what terror awaits us in the inevitable Kaho arc. At least I found I could relax when Ajisai was around; she’s the only sane cast member, and her route is a cute little side-story about developing a crush on your friend that could’ve been its own decent stand-alone. If I give this series any points, it’s for her, and for Musshu’s art. These girls are certainly cute, and certainly sexy - but even this polished, industry-standard moe is missing the charm of the artist’s illustrations / earlier manga.

Overall, this series is a slog, upholding all the problematic dynamics of straight harem manga while masking itself as a queer romp. The occasional well-executed joke and Musshu’s attractive artwork might numb the pain, but I can’t say this is worth more than the effort of skimming. If you’re after something similarly comedic and smutty but unabashedly gay, I’d recommend Dore ga Koi ka ga Wakaranai by Oku Tamamushi for more honest, respectable yuri harem hijinks.