Day 2: Home

sometimes it's hard to think of the shadow of a castrum as "home", but... it's much harder to deny the effect the Shroud and its people have had on him.

Salt over Harem Manga ft. Gotoubun, Bokuben & Nisekoi

Well, well, who would have thought that the thing to finally inspire me to want to rant/talk again about stuff that interest me would be harem manga LOL. I guess waifu wars can get pretty serious. Lol, jokes aside, this post can probably be seen as a form of bitterness for the usual “my favourite girl didn’t win” rants, but honestly, my favourite girl won in Gotoubun and I’m still dissatisfied! Yes, this post will probably be full of salt, so I guess be prepared? XD Oh, and this is something obvious but ending spoilers ahead, so don’t read if you don’t want to know who the “winners” are!

Gotoubun and Bokuben are probably the most popular recent harem manga and honestly, I enjoyed Bokuben more because I felt the girls were so much more fun and friendly, as well as having better character development with their respective story arcs, but I have to say, the both of them fell off the cliff near the end imo. For Gotoubun, what was enjoyable was the mystery of who Futarou would end up marrying and how intense the wars between the sisters got when they fought for the guy they liked. But, I think after Negi completely ruined Ichika’s character and any chance of her ever being with Futarou, I got a bit annoyed lol. I think what I enjoy the most about harem manga is how each girl presents a different personality, a different look, a different feel and just a type that each reader can fall in love with and you kinda cheer for the one you like the most even if they may not necessarily be the “best girl” for the guy, and I think what Negi did to Ichika nicely presented how jealousy can affect relationships, but it also destroyed what I liked about harem manga and the “unity” between the sisters. I’ll admit that Ichika was my favourite girl until that point and I was so disappointed in her character afterwards. Oh, btw, my order of favourites are (most to least) Yotsuba, Miku, Nino and then Ichika and Itsuki tie lol. 

Anyway, although the girls never clicked as much with me as it did with other readers due to me feeling like rather than romance, the girls really needed to focus on themselves more and I think Futarou provided that, so I guess I was happy lol. But, I always felt that even though Ichika is called out for being the most selfish, I thought Nino and Miku also really selfishly pushed their feelings on Futarou all the time rather than thinking about his feelings. Their thoughts and feelings were always more hindered by themselves rather than Futarou and I feel like Futarou was more of a “goal” to them than an actual romantic interest. Like, I know they cared, but I think overall, in the end Futarou really just represented them being able to overcome their respective problems and insecurities more than romance. 

So yeah, I always cheered for Yotsuba even though I honestly thought he wouldn’t choose her because I feel like even though they had their moments, they still overall lacked communication. So yeah, colour me surprised when he really did pick Yotsuba lol! I was shocked but happy for her UNTIL the confession chapter ended, because after that towards the end, the chapters were quite the drag. Not only did the characterisation for the sisters feel like it dipped back into the hole, I felt their “anger” towards Yotsuba was really...awkwardly shown, and I was so annoyed that all Yotsuba could say to them was something along the lines of “I won’t go out with him until you guys approve”, which is understandable, but the way she did it was just repulsive. Mainly because she just shoved it in the other sisters’ faces that yes she won, but she wants to be “considerate” to them by getting their approval first and it just annoyed me. Getting approval doesn’t mean just begging them to approve of your relationship, but proving to them that you guys really love each other and that you know it’s going to hurt them but you really love this guy or whatever. Anyway, the way that was handled was disappointing and I felt the ending was really rushed after the confession, because even though I was a fan of Yotsuba, I never really felt how much they clicked as a couple and how much Futarou loved her. Sure, he appreciated her for always being the one that kept him going but not seeing much of their romance develop after as a couple really made the ending bland imo. Regardless, I’m more disappointed in Bokuben.

I had really high hopes for Bokuben and I honestly thought it would be more of a steady progress of the cliche with every girl getting some sort of mini arc before their respective confession or his choice BUT it throws that all in the bin and instead chooses to just have Nariyuki think about who he really loves after Uruka properly confesses to him. In which at this point, okay, fine, I’ll accept it, not all romances get to end with each girl telling the guy their feelings, a lot of them get rejected by understanding who he’s going to choose. But I think the most insulting thing that Bokuben did that I frankly disliked the most was the flashback story of Uruka being there for Nariyuki back when his father died and he was struggling with his family situation, but Uruka was there for him as the sunshine girl she was and that really helped him get through his middle school years. Having that flashback just completely negated all the relationships he built with Fumino and the rest of them, because in the end, what was the core to winning his heart was already established before the manga even started, so in the end, the other girls never had a chance to begin with. The whole harem was just Nariyuki becoming friends with the other girls and them helping him realise in the end that he liked Uruka and that honestly pissed me off. I didn’t like Gotoubun’s ending but I liked that Negi kept to the story that what was presented in the story and the respective girls’ arcs was where Futarou made the choice to choose Yotsuba. He chose her because she was there for him and not fighting or causing problems the whole time, it was because she was supporting him ever since the beginning, and even though I had problems with how it was portrayed, it kept within what was shown. However, with how Nariyuki ended up choosing Uruka, it really showed how useless everything happened was in terms of the romance, I’m glad Nariyuki still helped them all improve in their studies and supported and improved their outlooks on life, but the romance that was supposed to be at the core of the story really kills it.

Honestly, although my favourite was Sensei, I didn’t mind who Nariyuki would end up with because I actually really liked all the girls, and I really liked how they all supported him in different ways just as he always supported their dreams. And it’s because of that, that I’m all the more disappointed in how this “choice” was handled. It was especially dissatisfying to see all the girls heartbroken in such an anticlimactic way tbh. Like, it’s nice that it’s showing how unrequited loves can end just like that, but it is so dissatisfying for a harem manga to do that. As a reader, you become invested in each girl and have your favourite, so getting a clear ending for each of them even if it’s a rejection, or even if it’s their own mini arc of them coming to terms to their feelings would be so much more understandable and satisfying. To be fair, Bokuben hasn’t completely ended yet so maybe Tsutsui will do that after, but I honestly doubt it, because the moment Tsutsui decided that the way for Sensei to come to terms for her feelings was to have one panel of her wishing that she could be a student alongside them, then maybe she could have expressed her feelings annoyed me. I just found it terribly dissatisfying for the rest of the girls even though I do love how cute Uruka is as well, I just found it extremely unfair to the others. Life is unfair but my harem manga shouldn’t be! Like seriously LOL.

As someone who absolutely hates Chitoge (well, maybe just dislike lol), I have to say Nisekoi actually presented the most well rounded ending of the three. They did my girl Marika dirty by making her be the one pushing Chitoge to face her fears and confess to Raku but I still accepted it, because Marika loved Raku so much, she would have done that. Anyway, what I really loved about the Nisekoi ending was that Komi really put in the effort into giving some sort of conclusion to each girl that was part of the harem. I remember that even though I was sad, I felt satisfied because truthfully, it was quite well established how the fight for Raku was really only between Onodera and Chitoge, and as the manga was rolling near the end, it was quite obviously shown that Raku would end up with Chitoge because of how well they connected and how well they got along together. And although I know a lot of people were annoyed that the whole promise girl wasn’t important anymore when it was throughout the whole manga, and that Raku didn’t choose Onodera even though she was the girl, but I actually liked that. I liked that even though it took him a while to realise, I liked it that he realised that looking for the promised girl wasn’t important anymore, and that the most important thing was you yourself choosing the person you like in the present rather than relying on fleeting feelings of the past. I mean, if it was so hard for everyone to remember and do something about it then it obviously shouldn’t matter imo lol. Anyway, yeah, I just wanted to say that Marika is best girl LOL. But yeah, seriously, I really liked how Nisekoi built up to the conclusion with Raku and Chitoge finally being honest to each other, because even though I was annoyed that it was cliche and obvious, and that the whole battle for Raku always favoured Chitoge rather  than any other girl, I understood through the story how much they both liked each other. And I wanted something like that for Gotoubun and Bokuben. Oh well, I guess lol. Salty rant over loll.