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Feb 24, 2025
Overrated, edgy, and misogynist tryhard take on the magical girl genre.
So the initial premise and worldbuilding is good and interesting and the aesthetic, art, and music direction certainly helps make this world memorable.
However once certain developments pass you begin to see the edgy writer Gen Urobuchi's obsession with meaningless misery. For instance, one of the "plot twists" is just these middle schoolers reacting drastically negative as to the location of their soul, a metaphysical concept they have never thought about once in their majority-atheist-country, middle-schooler lives. On top of all of this is the reason why only girls are selected to be magical warriors, which
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is an extremely misogynist take that amounts to "girls are emotional lol" which stands out in an anime that has quite the air of subtlety and promise of nuance around it. Then there's the ending. There's nothing explicitly wrong with it, except for the execution in how the anime is very clearly trying to make you feel. It's supposed to be bittersweet, yet the fault lies in the protagonist. It's her fault that she's in the state she is in, because despite the power she was constantly hinted to have, she just had to solve the story's problems in the most convoluted way you can imagine, which of course worked and now everyone eats this anime up, hailing it as a masterpiece.
While the very strong, carefully-crafted atmosphere does indeed hide a lot of the show's flaws, it's these things that add on top of each other that reveal how superficial this anime and its "deconstructive" aspects are, especially when there was a lot of potential for expansion of feminist themes, such as the exploitation of women and the general misogyny of society all across the world; naturally, these potential thematic points all get handwaved away because Madoka Magica and Urobutcher ultimately skew in favor of shocking plot twists and shallow character archetypes.
At least the ending makes the bare amount of sense despite the emotional discrepancy, something a lot of works fail to achieve.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Feb 23, 2025
The romance (how their romantic feelings develop) and relationship writing (how they become attached to each other) is believable which is impressive in such a short manga, but the conflicts nearing the end are just so terribly contrived. MC isn't sure she likes him even though he makes it so obvious, and then what, she doesn't attend his concert that he invited her to because some random plot device character who appears once said she's a normie? Also the "second" ML (who doesn't play much of a role in the story) has some awkwardly shoehorned in moments that really mess with the pacing.
The art isn't
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anything to write home about as a lot of panels are very wonky.
Still pretty good if you want something quick to read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 22, 2025
Has the potential to be one of my favorite high schooler x adult romance manga, currently awaiting new chapters
The main glaring issue though is that right off the bat in Chapter 1 the ML kisses MC. Why? Well this is vaguely explained like 10 chapters later for some reason through flashbacks (I don't recall if ML even explains why he even loves her especially since their first meeting...?) and MC doesn't think much about being kissed. Come on. Sure the ML is clearly in love with MC which is a refresher for age gaps in modern settings but you can't just narratively brush away something
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like a kiss on the lips.
But beyond that, the interactions are natural and sweet, and the side characters shine, too.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 22, 2025
A cute, addicting read for such a short manga.
MC and ML are both well written and impactful, which stands out in a manga of this length. MC is very cute as expected, and ML is hot but his face was something that had to grow on me as it was... too doll-like for my tastes.
Almost as equally impressive are the side characters.
There's a side female character whose existence wedges in problems for the couple but whose reasons, view of ML, and story is compelling and refreshing, and the second ML.
Now the second ML had a bit of a writing issue, because at
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first you thought "oh he's just going to fall in love with MC huh" but then there are signs that his feelings are platonic and he even refers to his affection as "like a sister," so you thought he was rooting for the main couple, but then out of nowhere it's romantic again because of le plot? So I didn't find his deal well written or clearly conveyed.
Unfortunately there's also a little story problem as it falters after the couple gets together. MC wants to receive more affection from ML so she tries to impress him by doing girly things after the story annoyingly reminds us of Japanese beauty standards for women with MC overhearing a news show saying "your husband not kissing you and instead treating you like a maid? well maybe you're letting yourself go you lazy bitch!" But finally he states that he was holding back because of the age difference? It was never brought up before in any way, and mind you this was almost the penultimate chapter. Weeee.
I guess this manga is good if you want a really condensed version of Tsubaki Chou Lonely Planet, but Ouchi ni does do better at least in a few aspects.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 16, 2024
This is one of the most overrated anime I've ever seen.
It does start out good, with the set up to the overarching plot and drama and the establishment of characters that would contribute to this. However, as more characters are introduced and the story has increasingly less reason to focus on MC all the time, the anime runs into the all-too-common problem of, not being able to tie up any loose ends and half-assing it at the end by using said increasingly irrelevant MC to act as an anchor.
As always I will review this from a perspective of looking out for women's interests. The character
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designs were completely uninspired, especially at the end, because every female character must be beautiful, while male characters are largely unattractive, whether good or evil, making me immediately dislike the anime. The female characters' motivations are at least explored somewhat.
I can't say the same thing for the main character, Odokawa. His personality invites a strong feeling that there will be consistent exploration of his character and how it changes with the people he meets. However, despite the entire cast fawning over him in particular, he remains a static character who doesn't seem to have much presence in the world besides "cool taxi driver." He has no meaningful relationships, no contribution to any theme, no well-written reason to be so involved in the plot. I mean sure, he gets somewhat attached to one character in particular, but that nowhere near explains his zeal in getting involved in increasingly dangerous situations, including working with a criminal guy that he kinda-sorta hates (even though this guy namedrops the title in his fucking honor) that he attempts to murder but not really even though he has this sense of justice and fairness...? It is because of all of this, besides the obvious "ugly guy gets the hot younger girl" trope pushed on us over and over, that he comes across as a self-insert character for a certain male demographic. And his only memorable "gimmick", which gets fully explained by the end of the anime, makes absolutely no sense, because his view of the would should have been made fairly obvious in his behavior if he'd lived with that so long, and so many convenient steps were made to reach that discovery, like finding a hospital that managed to keep a fucking DIARY (not even medical documents) of his from elementary school that conveniently explained everything. I mean these side characters were DEVOTED to figuring him out, but in the end, none of this was acknowledged by Odokawa, because again, relationships with others don't affect him, and Odokawa rests well knowing that he doesn't have to put in any work to doing anything besides being cool and coming up with plans because the narrative caters to everything he does.
This all leads to an extremely lackluster ending. In a very cheesy, extremely contrived, and anticlimactic slow-motion scene, everyone's problems are resolved and they all receive some philosophical awakening due to the poorly animated actions of the MC. And of course he is saved by a female character girlbossing her way to save him... somehow, despite having absolutely no training in anything and doing something physically impossible. And to further rub salt in the wound, the "secret" he's hiding... turns out to be a completely trivial thing, and there's no explanation as to why this was being hidden in the first place and why so much narrative focus was placed on it. Oh yeah, and this "trivial thing" was red herring to hide some other plot point about a missing girl and the true situation behind that, which also ended up being nonsensical because the antagonists involved in said plot are strangely passionate about their craft, a detail the narrative never cares to address or convince you that this doesn't clash with the down-to-earth tone of this work.
Overall, the anime is only worth watching for the opening and ending AMV's. Don't leave it to a single cour (or five fucking volumes of manga) to deliver a multi-layered plot with fleshed out characters and motivations without completely collapsing on itself.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 4, 2024
So you look at the synopsis and the character design of the MC. And you say "is ML a fucking lolicon?" It makes you think "well, stuff like that is obviously not exactly for my demographic," except this is pretty clearly shoujo with the old-school cover and all and with no hints of showing the child in that light. And if you're anything like me you give this a read solely to see how a shoujo manga will develop a romance between a 14 year old loli and.... this entity.
The first thing that really helps make this relationship make sense is the very straightforward setting.
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The typical Japanese understanding of what a "demon" is exists in this universe, and they come from Demon world and have bat wings, but they don't really do anything like murder humans or cause them to sin or whatever. They just do magic and fuck around in their high-class societies. And because of this, shenanigans ensue, like the ML being bored and deciding to live in the human world, and other characters bothering him and trying to bring him back. In the midst of all this is Hana-chan, found as a baby by ML and raised in his mansion, and she often gets caught up in these "conflicts," which is lucky for her because they cause ML's feelings about her to change from being paternalistic to more romantic. You see, there's this "potion that makes you grow up" gag, and MC often takes this or has a spell cast on her like that, which causes the ML's heart to get all fuzzy when young-adult her gets close to him. But do not be alarmed, even after realizing he in in love with her he continues to only feel attracted to her physically whenever she is in that form. Even so, he still has romantic feelings regardless because he gets annoyed at being referred as her brother and gets jealous when she is with other guys even as a loli. That's why I think their relationship was possible because of the setting, as the idea that ML was able to develop romantic feelings for MC in part due to seeing her adult form made the way the romance developed to my taste. Although be warned, something that might raise an eyebrow is that ML kisses Hana-chan on the lips a few times in her loli form in dramatic moments, but as mentioned before, he clearly is only attracted to her adult form. And speaking of MC, she is rather obviously in love with ML the entire time as she gets jealous specifically when he is around other women, which was cute as many chapters were devoted to her realizing the difference between platonic and romantic love, although this manga is not free of the "the person you marry is the most important person to you" spiel.
Then towards the end there's a 3 year timeskip where MC is no longer a child, and they live happily ever after. But it's not your traditional "happily ever after." The ending addresses a key aspect of their relationship, which really hits you hard in the end when you get there.
Although the main couple is great, the side characters... not so much. I mean, the human side characters are good, but the demon side characters are so cartoonish, and one of them falls in love for an obviously retconned reason which goes against their entire character.
Overall, if you can enjoy (or at least tolerate) the rampant shoujo-isms that permeate this manga and aren't turned off by the premise, then give this a read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 2, 2024
How the fuck did this steaming pile of garbage get an anime adaptation? Every character sucks, the plot sucks, the "romance" sucks. So fucking angry from reading this.
Lets see. You have overprotective borderline yandere ML who has the creepiest faces ever in every damn situation and the most ill-timed punchable chibi version. Sure whatever, not enough for me to drop it. But he never evolves past this trope-indulging premise and drags down the setting along with it especially when MC makes somewhat of an effort to be some sort of a character. And MC gets groped and almost raped he doesn't even live up to
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his stupid unlikeable premise and doesn't do his damn job and beat the shit out of that guy meanwhile he'll "all men are wolves" and interfere with MC building bonds with males that aren't him.
The romance is truly fucking atrocious. It's so obvious that ML is into MC romantically but she's so fucking stupid and says "he's probably not even conscious of me >m<" even though he makes it abundantly clear over and over again in very boundary-violating ways. None of this is helped by how the MC is a piece of cardboard who can barely react to the situations that transpire around her. A lot of this has to do with the fact that the whole "yakuza" thing could have taken out and nothing would have changed at all, except ML would have no justification to be creepy and hover around her everywhere and sexually harass her. Yeah if you haven't noticed by now ML is also a piece of cardboard outside of his quirky tropes. No wonder there's no POV or internal dialogue because I swear there's nothing in his godforsaken head.
I'm not even going to talk about the second ML imfaooo it's that bad and he's so poorly handled
Don't waste your time on this like I did
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Sep 2, 2024
I mean. I want to rate it lower, believe me. But I also walked right into this one, so I can't rate it low for having tropes I don't like when that's literally the premise.
What I meant was, I really wanted it to go in a different direction. Like come on. It's cute that a middle school boy has puppy love for this woman. It's "healing" as stated in the beginning. But if the author really wanted the end result to be romance, then I would have preferred less lines about seeing him as a man when he clearly is just a kid, and for
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the woman to stop "ba-dump"ing when he gets close, that's so sus. Maybe a time skip to at least high school would have been better. So do not read this is you want a relationship between the two that is a one-sided crush on the boy's part while the woman hangs out with him with no sus behavior and things change once he gets older, and especially do not read it if you want no indication of a future romance at all.
Read this if you're actually a shotacon and want the woman to feel attracted to him as self-insert. You do you I guess.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 1, 2024
Really good and worth a re-read one of these days.
Well-developed romances and also nice platonic relationships between unexpected characters, even with the ML. They never feel like they detract from the story though, even if it is about the titular couple, as it always relates back to them in some way.
Towards the end though is where you will really feel the pressure as conflicts arise, especially for the main couple. Be relieved to know that this conflict is handled maturely and with much thoughtfulness and will not ultimately leave you with a bad taste in the end. This is especially helped by ML trying his
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best efforts not to hurt MC and using strategies like saying "I will leave the conversation before I say anything irreversible" and MC standing up for herself and her needs. There is also a moment that was about to turn sexual (but not for good reasons!) which was handled really well and does not leave you thinking "wow so in the end this was just a shallow trope-indulging manga that doesn't care to build a genuine relationship between two people trying to work together." Although you may be put off by second ML's role in this and say "she should've been with second ML instead," I'd disagree, because I'd argue the ML deserves to have his bad moments even if he is older as he's human too, and it's well written (plus I already have my 100% heartwarming, closely-bonded romances that are also age gap so it's not like every age gap romance has to be the most transcendental, happy-go-lucky bond ever).
There are some aspects of this story that make it not quite perfect though. First, comedic moments are often ill-timed and provoke questions as to what's actually going on. For instance, far into the story when the main relationship is established the MC saying that ML "treats her like he's her guardian" because of a lack of advances seems to be something that's not to be joked with, especially with a manga that deals with heavy themes and generally tries to address many aspects of their age gap relationship (a process that is expected to be uncomfortable and thought-provoking). Luckily, this doesn't happen very often to be a glaring issue. Second, while I appreciate a rather "heroic" MC it can be puzzling as to why she cares so much for certain characters. And... that's about it honestly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 1, 2024
A page-turning read from start to finish. The way romance was woven with family issues for both the MC and ML was very natural. You could see why they're special to each other in ways besides their developing romantic affection for each other.
The side characters were generally lovely. Everyone has nuance to them, even the ones you'd hate initially. Although I'd say one character is held in too much of a sympathetic light, but it's not that much of an issue because MC was allowed by the narrative to make her own decision regarding that character. MC's female best friend is also a welcome part
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of the story, and talks about important issues with her and actually makes her think. I also like that MC treasures her relationship with her and gets jealous when she "gets stolen" by a guy. Her BFF is clearly very important to her and I like that the story takes the time to establish this. And the second male lead(s) were likeable without outshining the main guy in the "she should end up with him" department.
Although this manga is not without some puzzling problems. First, a lot of the times the panels look as if they're drawn in MS Paint, and I'm not one to complain about art. Characters often look similar to one other so it's hard to determine who's who, and designs are often inconsistent. Most importantly, everyone looks so young, especially the women. For example, MC is a teenager but often has loli proportions, and the times when she's shown to be 10 years old she looks like a toddler. This is a little off putting sometimes, especially since the "working adult" women are also portrayed this way and especially for scenes when they're treated as women.
MC is rather tsundere and often calls ML "creepy" for no good reason (like being emotional). I also wish her housekeeping skills developed more, as hinted with her practicing with other characters, because it becomes strange to see ML see her as a woman anyways even if he often has to take care of her like a little sister, I just don't see how that's attractive. Romance to me really requires both people to see each other as a member of the opposite sex and while ML shows some initial attraction and MC tries to contribute more it just becomes more puzzling given how childish MC acts. On a similar topic there's a lot of "finding the person you love" spiel and how you'll be lonely without a romantic relationship, a message I really don't like.
Finally, the conflict at the end I feel was wrapped up a little too quickly, and I didn't really get closure for the character that caused it, especially since they were so important in the life of the MC.
I would tentatively recommend this for the drama with a good focus on a plethora of relationships that are not romantic. I just couldn't really get past the art on top of the fairytale romance message.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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