KANOJO GA KAWAISUGITE UBAENAI

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

• 

  RoseFaerie

  81/100
  "You can only know love through shoujo manga": A story tragically cut short before its full potential was realized.

  I guess I’ve been going through Margaret magazine’s most recent titles lately as part of my journey through shoujo manga. I’ve noticed a pattern: most of the series aren’t particularly insightful but they’ve all been super engaging high school romcoms, and when Margaret mangaka do comedy, I always find myself laughing.

  That’s the case for Kanojo ga Kawaisugite Ubaenai. I have a lot of issues with the ending, and I wish the characters had more depth, but it was a fun, hilarious read with a clever incorporation of meta humor. It has some wasted potential, but it never stopped being enjoyable.

  The Demon King’s seven sons have been sent to Earth with a test to see who is worthy of becoming the next king. While at first you might think they have been sent to take the souls of their targets, the truth is they must woo their targets and take their virginity. You see, the Demon King is addicted to shoujo manga (Margaret magazine in particular), and he’s hell bent on making his sons live out some romance for his own enjoyment. His son Shion has fallen hard for his target, the innocent Umeko Makimura, but he has no dating experience.

  

  I found myself giggling quite a bit at the jokes. I loved the classic shoujo throwback gag in the early chapters, and I found Shion to be an amusing character. He doesn’t really know what he’s doing and constantly relies on Margaret magazine to help him in his time of need. There’s also the contrast of his dirty mind and comically serious and exaggerated behavior. Another gag I really liked was Umeko’s grandma materializing during every romantic moment in her house.

  And then there was the perfect shoujo love interest guy, which, now that I think about it, may have been poking fun at the popularity of perfect guys, since he was in direct contrast to Shion, who is a literal demon. Their relationship was really funny and super interesting, and I wish their relationship had been explored more. I think the parallels between Shion and the "Perfect Shoujo Love Interest" is fascinating, since they sort of represent two different eras of love interests, based on the popularity at the time. Shion is a more possessive and intimidating guy who may represent the Boys Over Flowers era of mean love interests, though he is a lot nicer and more respectful than any of them (making him more palatable for a modern audience. Meanwhile, the other guy represents the Kimi ni Todoke era, where the kindhearted love interest bloomed. Shortly afterwards, the current trend of "perfect boys" emerged. But this is not the time or the place to be talking about Boys Over Flowers vs Kimi ni Todoke and the two series impact on shoujo manga love interests.

  If I hadn’t seen this series discussed by people whose taste I trust, I would have been a lot more on guard then I was. Demons taking the virginity of teenage girls sounds a bit dubious, and I have a feeling that if the challenge wasn’t about also capturing the hearts of the girls it could have gone into some uncomfortable territory.

  While Shion could be pushy and overbearing, he never allowed himself to make Umeko uncomfortable, and he too was struggling with these feelings. Neither one of them really knows what to do with themselves or their feelings. They’re just awkward teenagers, even if one of them is a demon.

  

  As I said before, I loved Shion’s character. While there were times where I got annoyed with him being too pushy, he was never a terrible character. I loved how over the top and fake-evil he was. As much as he tries to deny it, he is established as the cutest demon in the demon world, a breath of fresh air among his ruffian peers, not like he was very popular to begin with. Even in the human world, he has a bit of a reputation with frequent nosebleed (and general bleeding) gags that only serve to make him look more menacing. He’s too mild for the demon world and too intense for the human world.

  As opposed to Shion, Umeko wasn’t as developed. We meet her grandma and we learn about her hobbies (she likes to play games), and we learn about her struggles with fitting in and making friends. However, I never really felt like the manga went in depth enough with her character and her struggles. I never knew what her internal feelings were, and I never felt like there was much chemistry between her and Shion either. I did love how she was aggressively friendzoning him, and how her comically dense personality put a damper on his plans of romantic progression. She was a fun character, but I felt like there was something missing where she didn’t feel as interesting as her male counterpart.

  In general, I felt like the side-characters were criminally under-developed and underutilized. There were quite a few characters who could have been super interesting, but they never ended up being important enough to focus on. There was the demon supervising Shion, Lilith, Shion’s brother, and the girl from the festival committee. None of them really got fleshed out beyond their superficial traits, except for maybe Lilith.

  

  I also think that the premise with the brothers was wasted. We could have had so much going on if they were introduced. It could have gone in some interesting directions with their family dynamics, since it’s revealed that Shion is only their half-brother. And it could have also done a lot more with the different ways the demons woo human girls according to Margaret magazine, even further with how different mangaka perceive love, and how their individual favorites shape how they go about life with their love interests.

  I feel like the manga was cut short, and that’s why everything felt so underexplored. The ending came out of nowhere and wasn’t very satisfying, since it left little closure. This could have been an amazing super long series, and I genuinely wish it was longer, since the length and sudden conclusion was what is holding it back the most.

  

  The art is gorgeous. I adore the eyes and how detailed they are. The color pages in particular bring out the sparkles, and they use such fun, bright colors. The designs could be a bit same-y at times, but I never had problems telling the individual characters apart. I always knew who was who, which is more than I can say for some other series I’ve read.

  Anyways, it isn’t anything groundbreaking, and the sudden ending leaves it with a lot of wasted potential, but it is genuinely a fun series. If you want to read something relatively short and funny, which lovingly pokes fun at shoujo manga with meta humor, I recommend this series.

  Continue on AniList

SIMILAR MANGAS YOU MAY LIKE

• MANGA

  FantasyMaou no Niwa no Shiroi Hana
• MANGA

  ComedyJigoku no Enra
• MANGA

  FantasyKurenai Ouji