Manga Update: Kiss Him, Not Me!
Volumes: 14
(Anime: 12 episodes -- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, AS WELL!!!)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Favorite Characters: Kae Serinuma, Mutsumi-senpai, & Nishina
Favorite Pairings: Kae Serinuma x Asuna Mutsumi-senpai
Pros: Hilarious, heartwarming, charming, absurd, and just bloody entertaining AF
Cons: Okay, so..... the weight loss subplot is problematic (mainly with the casual fatphobic rhetoric), but.... speaking as someone who had her own fair share of body image issues, I found this series' take oddly refreshing (more thoughts below)
Recommended for: FANS OF THE ANIME SERIES. And any current or former BL fangirls, otaku, nerds, etc. Y'all will relate to the madness within, methinks lol
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I cannot believe it took me six years after falling in love with the anime to FINALLY finish the manga, when I literally devoured volumes 3-14 (the end) in just a few days. Only a handful of manga titles make me laugh out loud, and Kiss Him, Not Me! is firmly in that category. The anime references, fandom/shipping lore and madness, and overall shenanigans are just a joy to consume.
And though I adore this series with every fiber of my being, and I say both the anime and manga are more-or-less on equal footing (with the anime being only slightly objectively "lesser" because the manga has more story, but I digress), I will say I do "prefer" the anime, but ONLY because the dubbed cast did such a fantastic job hamming up every single line of dialogue. But I definitely want to own BOTH the manga AND anime one day!! It's just so much fun and sweet and adorable and hilarious!! What's not to love?!
That aside.... let's address the elephant in the room.
So. Let's talk about the Weight Loss thing. Semi-spoilers ahead (TW: weight loss and gain, unrealistic eating habits, fatphobic reactions, etc)
The anime also covers the basics, but here's the breakdown:
Kae Serinuma is an overweight otaku who has her bestie to fangirl with, but is also mostly satisfied with remaining perpetually single, as long as she can indulge in her BL fantasies in fiction and reality.
one day, her favorite anime series kills off her favorite character, sinking her into a week-long starvation depression period
when she finally emerges, she is skinny, glowing with gorgeous skin, and Hot AF
(yes that is VERY problematic, but stay with me)
she returns to school, everyone is Shook, and immediately gains a harem of boys seeking her affection
standard harem shenanigans ensue, but with a lot more Self Awareness, which makes it even funnier
then Kae enters a chocolate character contest, eats up the leftover pieces over the weekend, and..... gains weight again
(yes, that means she literally fluctuates between Thin Perfection and Comical Fatness at the drop of the hat. Yes, that is problematic, MOVING ON)
half of her harem is horrified and demands she lose the weight (gross); the other half accepts her and is fine either way, and one member actually gains Character Development and moves up from shallow fuckboi to caring love interest (no, he's not the chosen one)
Kae is encouraged to lose weight and WANTS to, of her own volition, and doesn't seem to mind either way (important)
and so Kae loses weight again, this time a bit more realistically (albeit cliched) with exercise, and a good dosage of humor because it is fake BL shenanigans that motivate her lol
Okay. So here's the thing.
Yes, the way weight loss is literally addressed and resolved/relapsed is unbelievably unrealistic, problematic, and fatphobic AF. But that's only if we don't account for Kae herself.
Because the crux of it all is...... Kae literally does not give a shit.
She's happy in any body shape.
She never feels shame for being fat, and when others shame her, she dismisses it. If anything, she ironically feels more uncomfortable when she's thin because of the unwanted Pretty Privilege attention she constantly receives.
Two of her love interests, including (spoiler) the guy she ends up choosing and marrying, literally love her both before and after the weight loss/gain, and don't see a problem with her body, other than a vague "you probably shouldn't lose/gain weight so quickly and drastically," but still support her decisions.
The weight thing is not to be taken too seriously, even while it's still important to unpack. She's not LITERALLY gaining/losing that much weight super quickly (the series even makes jokes about how that's even possible), but she is fluctuating between what is deemed by Society as what is Attractive vs Not. Maybe in a real world setting she switches between make-up vs no make-up depending on her mood. Maybe she does gain weight, but it's actually minimal, because society is extremely fatphobic and considers anything a smidgen higher than The Perfect Thinness as Fat Slob or some sort of nonsense. Or maybe it's something entirely different, some of innocuous societal norm of Attractiveness that Kae doesn't maintain, for whatever reason.
Except....... that's also not the case? Because Kae IS abnormal, a deviant with her interests, hobbies, and fangirlish obsessions. And the best part? WEIGHT DOES NOT PLAY A FACTOR INTO IT.
Whether she's fat or skinny, she is a shameless, passionate, loud, and insane fangirl, who literally drools over hot guys and literally has "ugly" thirsty facial expressions even when she's supposed to be "hot." And that is SO GOOD.
Too often in Problematic Media that features weight loss, there's a feeling of shame vs confidence, nerdiness vs normality. And though people AROUND Kae certainly react with all kinds of fatphobia, SHE HERSELF DOES NOT AND THAT IS KEY. Her weight does not determine her worth nor her love for otakuness. He weight only ever influenced her surroundings, and before long, the shallow pettiness is set aside and her harem grows to care for her PERSON, not just her Sparkling Perfect Skinny Bod.
I completely understand why some people cannot get past the blatant fatphobic reactions of Kae's peers, but for me, Kae herself is what makes it palpable. And her friends/love interests who don't care either.
(And another important note/spoiler: her future husband literally happily marries her when she's overweight and, back when she first regained her weight at school, literally tells his fellow harem members that Kae is beautiful either way. SO LIKE. I THINK THE SERIES IS ACTUALLY TRYING TO MAKE SOME LEGIT COMMENTARY AND NOT JUST BE FATPHOBIC FOR THE LULZ, Y'ALL.)
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Kiss Him Not Me/WGMD Pairing Themes
So I put together a list of songs for Kiss Him Not Me pairings — just for fun. :P
Mutsumi x Kae= “Lucky” by Jason Mraz fr Colbie Caillat
Igarashi x Kae= “Safe and Sound” by Capital Cities
Nanashima x Kae= “Can’t Stand It” by Never Shout Never
Shinomiya x Kae= “Can’t Blame A Girl For Trying” by Sabrina Carpenter
Nishina x Kae= “Kaleidoscope” by Great Big World
Takeru x Kae= “I Want You to Want Me” Major To Minor Cover by Chase Holfelder
Takeru x Akai= "Russian Roulette” by Rihanna / “Love the Way You Lie Pt 2” by Rihanna and Eminem
Nanashino= “Disgusting” by Miranda Cosgrove
5 x 7 or 7 x 5= “I’d Lie” by Taylor Swift
Mutsumi x Shinomiya= “I Do Adore” by Mindy Gledhill
Nishina x Shinomiya= "Fairytale” by Alexander Rybak
Igarashi x Nishina= “I Think I’m In Love” by Kat Dahlia
Igarashi x Kotoha= “Realize” by Colbie Caillat
Mutsumi x Yashiro= “Treat You Better” by Shawn Mendes
Feel free to reblog with other ships and songs!
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RANT
(Note : M/M = Male x Male | M/F = Male x Female | F/F = Female x Female | wlw = women loving women | mlm = men loving men)
Is it just me? Or Anime fandoms just.... avoid wlw ships?
Like, there are so many M/M and M/F ships in an anime fandom. But F/F ships? You rarely find any
When you look for fanfictions, you will find many M/M & M/F ship ffs even when the male characters aren't well written or have less screentime
Anime fandoms just ignore that wlw ships exists like, like when you go to search for fanfictions, the amount of fanfictions for these ships, where the ship is the main pairing will be very less as compared to other ships
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Take AOT/SNK for an example
Why are there so many main works of RiRen, a ship with such a huge age gap and hardly any chemistry but not many of the cannon ship, YmiHisu ?
Don't tell me about Mikannie. I feel the same way about it as Ereannie - IT HARDLY MAKES ANY SENSE
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'Kiss him not me'
"OMG! MUTSUMI SENPAI IS THE ONLY ONE WHO LOVED SERINUMA BEFORE SHE BECAME SKINNY" but no one notices that Shima also fell in love with Kae before that. And when Kae gained weight again, Shima supported her while Mutsumi didn't had any opinion on it. Also, Mutsumi was just friendly to Kae. He started having romantic feelings for Kae after the beach episode.
Also, if y'all be like "But Mutsumi was the only one who recognized her after weight loss" then,.... WHY do I see more Nanashima x Kae shippers than Shima x Kae shippers ?
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Now, look at Kiyoyachi. Yachi had such gay panic when she saw Kiyoko for the first time. And she is usually found blushing or getting nervous around Kiyoko. Also Kiyoko acts differently with others than she acts with Yachi. In my opinion they have the best chemistry among all Haikyuu ships bcoz Neither Kiyoko nor Yachi shows any interest in other characters.
Why is it that "Obviously *insert any Karasuno first year name here* x Yachi is canon!"
Why Yachi's most obvious crush on Kiyoko is ignored by fandom but there are tons of fanfics of two male characters who just had one proper interaction ?
If the same thing happened in case of an mlm ship in HQ the whole fandom would've gone crazy over it.
Now don't say "KiyoTana is canon!" No one saw it coming. It was such a surprise for the fans.
If any of the HQ boy who is heavily shipped with another HQ boy, would've ended up with a female character. The whole fandom would've been SO MAD
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What I'm trying to say is : Ship whatever you want but don't ignore wlw ships.
I know y'all love mlm stuff. I'm myself fond of some mlm anime (YOI, Doukyuusei, etc) AND I also have many mlm ships.
But wlw anime and wlw ships also needs some love.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk (What an original joke, Right ?)
Edit : The irony is that most of my posts are about mlm ships.... BUT I would try to make more posts about wlw ships. Also, I'm going to watch a bunch of wlw anime after my exams ends
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