Back to WisestofWolfies's Profile WisestofWolfies's Profile

I used to love reading this story. Week to week the drama it presented was realistic and in character, every conflict made sense, and was emotionally compelling. However, since Chapter 268, the story has fallen off the cliff in the most contrived nonsensical way imaginable and it's made me vehemently hate this story.

Before anyone asks, I was never part of the waifu wars involved with this manga. I related to Rui the most and wanted her to be happy, but I loved all the characters. What Kei Sasuga has done with the most recent chapters is fundamentally disrespect her characters, her audience, and this story, ... and I refuse to finish reading it because of this.

Whatever you do, do not read this. Stay away as far as possible. The ending messes up that badly.

1/10

Note: The synopsis of the story is very misleading. That plot point is almost entirely dropped within the first 10 chapters to focus on more interesting things.

Watari-kun no xx ga Houkai Sunzen is a Romantic Drama for Seinen audiences that takes a strong look into the mind of emotionally and psychologically unstable teens in a "harem" story.

I put "harem" in quotations because the actual harem elements are too few and far between for me to confidently categorize it as such, and many of the potential harem characters are pushed aside for the main two girls, Ishihara and Satsuki. Note that I don't call it a ... comedy either, which is objectively not anywhere remotely what this series is. Not even a Dramedy. It has funny moments, but rarely are they laugh out loud funny moments and often times an awkward and unsettling "humor" meant to showcase the nature of each characters' psyche.

Almost nothing that happens in this manga is played for laughs. There's no overly comedic style for what would be punchlines, no emphasis or dwelling on anything that could be potentially considered a joke. Instead many of these moments are shown in very unsettling ways and awkward circumstances. They're meant to assist with making you feel uncomfortable, not relaxed. Sadly a lot of people I've spoken to about this series only read it as if they were getting what was advertised. This has lead to many criticizing it for lack of comedy, and the noticeable absence of harem elements.

People have also been criticizing the work for its deeply flawed characters. This is to be expected as, while fundamentally flawed characters make for good writing (especially psychologically flawed), they aren't very good for widespread appeal. Many people will find such things annoying, in fact most people find it annoying. It also doesn't help that many people are looking for a bloody fun time with a story. This story isn't what most would consider fun. As such, I don't believe this is for everyone. It's characters aren't very appealing to a general audience, and may genuinely put off others. It's not meant to be a comfortable read.

After dropping the facade it puts on for the first handful of chapters, the manga takes a very serious and dark turn, highlighting and focusing on the psyche and emotional stability of the characters. Right now its focused on Ishihara and Watari's relationship and how it's being difficult on them. I call this the Ishihara arc, and its been some of the most terrifying, chilling, tense character writing I've seen in years. Every chapter threatens that someone will break, and the art/scene direction emphasizes this 100 fold.

The Characters are all wonderfully flawed on a deep, psychological level and this lends itself to some genuinely tense character writing when put in relationships. This allows the reader to become intimate with their deepest insecurities and better read what a character is thinking based on expressions alone. The visual story telling at play here is excellent, and on top of the wonderfully drawn, expressive character art the emotional and mental struggles of each character come through perfectly. The only thing that'd make it better is if the paneling was more creative.

Overall I give the manga so far a 9/10. Things develop naturally and there's nothing that breaks the logic of this progression. I give the series props for actually putting the main character in a relationship so early in the story so it could tackle the themes it wants to as soon as possible. There is chemistry there between the main couple, but it will take a lot of work for it to work out. The likely route is the relationship will fall apart, or mistakes will be made that continue down the path of a psychological romantic drama.

Chapter 51 Update: The story has continued to be extremely compelling through its exploration of the character psychology. This has made Ishihara my favorite character so far as her extreme possessiveness and insecurity is something I had to deal with when I was in high school. This extra connection to me emotionally has me now awarding the manga a 10/10, and I hope the story continues to progress down this direction.