Let’s face it, there’s something really fun about reading a story with an absolutely terrible man playing the role of love interest. While of course, if it was real life, one would be smart to stay far away from these men. But, this isn’t real life! Manga is an escape from real life! And so, I wanted to share a few of my favourite manga with absolutely terrible male leads.~
Fundari, Kettari, Aishitari
Akira from Fundari, Kettari, Aishitari is literally scum. But he’s beautiful scum. While he does have a somewhat sad backstory to explain exactly why he acts the way that he does, it’s only briefly introduced in volume 5 – meaning there’s no explanation for his actions for the first 4 volumes besides “he does what he wants”
While he is indeed trash, he has a really fun relationship with the female lead, Kaho. She calls him out on his scumbagness, but that doesn’t change his behaviour at all.
Want to learn more about this series? Check out my review here!
Ojou to Banken-kun
As this is a yakuza manga I can forgive a lot of what it does, but still, the ML, Keiya, is so so so awful. He’s 10 years older than the FL, raised her since she was young, allowed her to be kidnapped even though he’s her bodyguard, and still constantly is making moves on her.
The FL’s crush on Keiya is the first trait of hers that we learn about, and its veeery clear that he knows and takes advantage of it.
Keiya acknowledges that he’ll act as both of her parents so she’ll never feel lonely again when she’s a child – a super sweet moment – and then moves on to trying to be her boyfriend? And doesn’t let any other guys even try and get close to her…
As it’s a crazy manga with so much happening all the time I do enjoy turning my brain off and just going along for the ride but… The second I snap back to reality I feel a little bit weird for having read it.
Ijiwaru Oniichan
The author of Ijiwaru Oniichan has a talent of writing controversial romance manga, and I eat them right up. While all of her male leads are at least a little bit toxic in their own right, I think this ML definitely belongs on this list.
After having what was most likely going to be just a one-night stand, they learn that they recently technically become step siblings. While our FL is rightfully horrified, he just finds it funny, and then spends the rest of the volume acting incredibly strangely towards her.
He teases her quite a bit whenever they run into each other, but when she tries to approach him, he turns her right down. I found him very difficult to understand the entire time I was reading this manga – I still have no idea what he wants, whether he likes the FL, or whether he actually has a girlfriend or not.
How about you?
Have you read any of these manga? Do you have a male lead that you find especially toxic, but you kind of like them anyways?
Maddies Manga 
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