DOUSEI KARA HAJIMARU OTAKU KANOJO NO TSUKURIKATA

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REVIEWS

• 

  Guinn

  80/100
  the perfect otaku girlfriend is the otaku friends we made along the way

  To be honest, there are a lot of tropes and problems with this light novel, but I still enjoyed reading this a lot. So much so that I ended up reading all five volumes in about 2-3 days. It may be my bias, but I really enjoy stories where the two leads start unexpectedly working together for whatever circumstance towards the same goal, where they would slowly start getting closer to each other without them even realizing it. It's similar to the fake dating trope, and technically this light novel would also fall under that category, but what I appreciate about this story as a whole is the friendship between the two leads and how they ended up becoming closer to each other.

  The basic premise of the story is that through chance, the two leads, Kagetora and Kokoro, end up meeting each other through an offline event which causes them to end up living with each other through certain circumstances. The path towards this premise was a bit rough, but I enjoyed the fact that they were living with each other a lot more than I thought I would, so I don't mind the rough path to get to that point. These two have a common goal, which is to find their respective otaku boy/girlfriend. Naturally, most people would ask why they don't date each other, but Kokoro is too much of a gal for Kagetora, and he's no where near the well put together hot ikeman otaku that Kokoro would want to date.

  The strongest part about this story in my opinion is how Kagetora and Kokoro relationship progress through the story (although it blew up and fell apart near the end, but kind of pieced itself back together lol). It was really fun reading the two leads come up with a ton of convoluted plans to try and find their ideal otaku date, and seeing all of them fall apart in the end. I just really like the dialogue between the two leads and how they genuinely don't like each other at first (romantically, they like each other as friends) and how their relationship is them working together and just being good roommates and friends. They are both really helpful to each other and they both care about each other whether they like to admit it or not. There isn't any weird romantic tension either which is nice (except towards the end). They bicker a lot which is fun and they have some weird fights and misunderstanding sometimes but always make up relatively quickly which I am thankful for. Their chemistry is great and their interactions are always fun to read. I also enjoy how kagetora actually helps kokoro in a lot of ways. I feel like this type of dynamic can end up being pretty one sided, but both offer a lot towards their goals of finding their ideal otaku date.

  Another strong part is the otaku part of the story. It's clear the writer is well versed with all things otaku and it was really fun seeing the characters nerd out about everything and honestly a lot of the advice in this light novel isn't bad at all either. (well from kokoro at least, i would not take anything kagetora has said with any value lol) The afterwords at the end each volume was fun to read, and it's clear that there was a lot of love put into this light novel. It was fun seeing a lot of the events that take place were based on the author's personal experience as they retell their experiences briefly in the afterword. I think the story does a really good job and showing how otakus spend their free time in Japan and a lot of the events they go to, and a lot of the places they visit were really fun to read and genuinely really interesting. The slice of life aspect of this light novel is really good in my opinion and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the daily life of the two leads.

  The side characters is where the story really shows it's weakness. More specifically, the love interests. It was fun seeing the various boy characters Kokoro would end up falling for and how each of them ended up falling apart in their own comedic way, but I can't say the same for Kagetora's love interests. One feels forced and their motives are questionable, one feels completely unnecessary and doesn't serve any purpose towards the story, and one feels a bit more natural, but would have been much better if never a love interest. At the very least, it was nice to see how neither lead was jealous (for the most part) about the other lead's love interest and how they were both genuinely helping each other with their respective love interest and offering good advice that helps push both leads in the direction they think is best for them. There were some weird misunderstanding that would happen throughout the story usually stemming from this as well, but they would normally be cleared up relatively quickly so I won't fault the story too much. The other side characters were fun and enjoyable.

  The final volume of the light novel was a complete mess. Everything I found wrong with the light novel is highlighted in this volume. A lot happens and explodes in the beginning of the volume but things start to fix itself as the volume closes. The pacing could have been a lot better, but it was clear that the author tried their best to wrap things as nicely as they could. Some of the romantic tension can feel a bit out of place and the way things play out could have been done a lot more naturally and executed a lot better, but after finishing the final volume I was still satisfied with what I had read and did not regret picking up the series at all. If anything, I wish the series was longer, both because I feel like the way some things played out desperately needed more time to properly play out and the pacing suffered because of it, and because I just want to see more of the characters. Despite all it's flaws, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story and I'm sad that it's over. I wouldn't say this light novel is the best, I wouldn't be able to argue that the light novel was good either, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't love almost every second I spent reading this story.

  If you like school romcoms / SOL stuff then I would definitely suggest trying the light novel out. There may be a lot of problems with the story, but they aren't big enough (at least in my opinion I'm pretty forgiving) to hinder my enjoyment while reading this series (although some got really close lol). Subjectively I'd give this light novel as a whole a nine but objectively it would be closer to a seven so I'll average it out and score this manga an eight out of ten. If you're like me and enjoy reading dumb slice of life romcom light novels then, this light novel is just for you.

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