Shinigami-sama to 4-nin no Kanojo
Grim Reaper and Four Girlfriends

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I really enjoyed this Manga. At it's surface, it's "just another harem story", and for the most part, I tend to agree. So if you don't like harem stories, you probably won't like this one any more than the rest.

The story follows Kaoru, a borderline social outcast who becomes the target of a grim reaper, who demands he either get a girlfriend or lose his soul. Having only 24 hours to do so, and fearing failure, he asks 4 girls, who all say yes. Then, because harem animes be harem animes, the grim reaper demands he must remain in a relationship with all 4 ... for 3 months or else they will all dump him and he will be killed. A little contrived, I know (at least two of the girls make it abundantly clear they don't want anyone to know he's dating them, so he could have dumped them and made his life a little easier), but either way, I'll bite.

What makes this story different is that the main character starts out by dating all of these girls, and has to keep his relationships separate, even as they continually run into each other. This differs from the standard formula of every girl holding a one sided crush on the clueless and indecisive guy. As a result, it's more like "The World God Only Knows" than "Shuffle", as a character whose not usually a playboy is forced to act like one.

The female characters are surprisingly unique. Yes, they all fall into certain molds. Ones a closet pervert, ones a Kuudere/Tsundere, ones a Yandere, and the final one is a sadist (You'll never guess which is which until they get behind closed doors). It helps each personality pop, and also allows him to play on the girl personalities to help him keep his secret. This felt like an interesting mix of characters, and never felt cliched, even while playing with the cliches.

The genuinely loved this manga, but the main reason i didn't give it a hire score is because it got axed and rushed an ending with only 19 chapters. Half the girls really were under developed, the ending isn't satisfying, and I would have loved for this story to go on another 20 more chapters. There were so many things that could have been done with it.

However, if my biggest complaint about the manga is that there wasn't more of it, I'd say that makes a manga pretty worth reading.

SLIGHT SPOILER REVIEW; THIS WAS AMAZING AND I RECOMMEND it to any fan of comedy, harem, romance, and maybe even ecchi.
This manga was great. I expected a douchey mc and cardboard characters but this had something going. The MC had a familiar feeling but was definitely unique. This had some tropes for everyone! Tsun/Kuudere, Deredere, Yandere, Sadist, Closet perv., perfectionist; but they were all done well. The art is... fine. It's not something great, but it's not something noticeably bad. The story is original and hysterical. Originally, I was going to lower the enjoyment from 10 to 7 but changed my mind due to one ... thing. I was going to lower it because of the horrible feeling of worry whenever the four girls met or saw something I just froze and was like "FUC*FUC*FUC*FUC*FUC*FUC*FUC*FUC*FUC*" but after that I got such a feeling or relief and it was a wonderful trip.

The series is about a No-lifer boy who meets 1 of the grim reapers. A middle schooler looking girl (because Japan), who intends to take his soul since he's a no lifer there will be no one missing him. Even though he has parents and since no depraved backstory was shown I'm gonna presume they are decent parents. So to convince the grim reaper to not take his life he tells her that he is going to be a lifer as he intended to confess to a girl. The Grim Reaper backs off but says she'll give him 1 day to change his life around.

So ... the male lead confesses to the girl of his supposed dreams and to his surprise she says yes. All Four of them. In his hasty attempt to save his own skin he left a love letter to 4 girls but all of them have said yes. Now he needs to keep there relationship a secret and he can't break up with one of them as undoubtedly rumors would spread reaching the girls he is currently dating.
Now he needs to keep this up for 3 months (The time limit the Grim Reaper has set) but what is 1 guy who hasn't had a single friend much less a girlfriend supposed to do.

The series is surprisingly fine despite the relative serious tone and demeanor. The idea is that he could die at any time but there is a lot of great meme material to be had here. Mostly because anytime more than 1 girl shows up he pisses his pants and needs to deal with this situation. Which was very funny to see. The comedy was actually one of the stronger points in the series. It wasn't excessive but there was still quite a lot of it without it feeling the author had no way of dealing with serious issues so he just threw a bunch of jokes (which usually works for some reason). The manga felt well paced in that regard.

All the characters were incredibly wacky in there own fun regard. One's Horny, one's sadistic, one's a tsundere, the other is a yandere. They all have these ridiculous stereotypes while also being funny. The yandere especially was both terrifying and adorable. Which i guess fulfills the category Yandere. The male lead was also quite enjoyable to watch. Mostly to see how to get out of these insane situations. Part of the fun was the fact that he was a big shoujo lover yet become a harem character. He became the thing he swore to destroy. His self depreciation jokes and personality were spot-on and I liked that part about it.

Another thing the series did well was the actual romance part about. It did step forward in the romantic element. Don't get me wrong he is a scumbag (though with understandable reasons) but at least the author actually took that step.

Its quite sad this series was axed. The ending is really bad. Overly rushed as it were. It took a lot of the right steps and it looked it was gonna become something special. Yet it just kinda ends and feels bland. I didn't like how they resolved everything. Mostly because they don't explain jack-shit. Though the first twist was good.

TLDR: Steps in the right direction but the quick axe leaves a lot to be desired. 6/10