Sep 8, 2024
I have been reading this for a while now and the series as a whole developed into a full on disappointment. Recent Ran possibly being the weakest part (more below) together with the story falling flat and most interesting aspects being dropped and shoved aside suddenly.
As the other reviews being "mixed" might indicate, there is some rather divisive themes and writing in this one.
It starts off as a not so usual shoujo with an actual real delinquent (incredibly rare) turning into Ran's brother. There is not many usual tropes and characters are complex, it is pretty hecking interesting and enjoayble.. until it just isn't
...
anything of the aforementioned anymore.
It turns into a below average generic manga with the FMC being completely changed into a sad husk of her former self. Spoiler: She now sucks. She is useless. She is clueless. She is weak. She is quite honestly the most disgusting depiction of a selfish damsel shoujo female lead.
All these more complex and deep themes and characters just went "fuck it", and the story devolves into this 100% drama soap opera cringe trope/cliche galore formulaic shoujo abomination. It now is !SHOUJO!. That's it. Just !SHOUJO!, nothing else. Drama for the sake of drama, baby.
The sibling/borderline romantic relationship also was brushed aside by the whole cast pretty much- it actually went something like "haha lol u guys did something like THAT as siblings? crazy, lol, anyways..". It now is a fleeting thought coming up every now and then, baiting fake importance and urgency. It was picked up and dropped across 5 panels like 4 times already. No need to act like the author had any deeper thoughts about it other than ~fetish~.
As for the characters, most of them are consistently good. Well, almost everyone but Ran. Ran in recent chapters (THERE WAS NO ACTUAL CHARACTER PROGRESS/DEVELOPMENT BTW!!! it was more of a one chapter to another change) is NOT a "depiction of social anxiety" as another review mentioned. She also isn't "awkward" or "incapable of speaking to others". She is in a way a master manipulator, playing around with, leashing and dragging along two horny high schoolers for such a long time. I honestly do not get how anyone could characterize her as such.
Ran now is first and foremost selfish. A glutton. She wants it all and lies as she breathes to achieve just that. She is of incredibly weak and shallow mind. Ran is holier-than-thou. A self proclaimed savior. One that promises the world but give an inch.
She altogether is in many ways a relatable and real depiction of a high schooler and I would call her a damn good character.. if she wasn't exaggerated times infinite with her wildly inconsistent and overly plot convenient behavior and feelings. It makes you question if the author meant for her to have been diagnosed bipolar or a pathological liar. It unironically would've worked beautifully in this particular work.
But, as it stands, she just is a poorly thought out tool that is filled to the brim with just about any asspull to be conveniently called upon when time is ripe. It just never feels like the real FMC Ran is standing there from like ch20 onwards.
Yeah, sure, you can look at this as a whole and go "sure, this a bog-standard shoujo and a ~6 would be fair" BUT the first ~18(?)chapters were so incredibly good, it is a shame that this series as a whole was slimmed down to almost less than bones.
Tbh, there is an insane amount of sibling/step-sibling/sibling dynamic works that are worth your time and just plain better than this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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