Manga Review: Isso Anata ga Todome wo Sashite / いっそあなたがトドメを刺して (2)

I waited quite a while to read volume 2 of this manga because volume 1 made me SO angry. I hate the ML of this series, and I didn’t want to see his face for a while after reading volume 1… I will say that volume 2 sucked me in quite a bit more than volume 1 did, and I’m going to read volume 3 soon – I need to find out what happens next.

Haven’t read my review recap of volume 1 yet? You can read it here!

Info about the manga

What genre is it?

College romance
Drama

If the title was in English…

The title of this manga could be translated as “you might as well be the one” or “you should be the one”

I borrowed a description from MangaUpdates about volume 1:

I want you to never stop smiling.” Ichika, a college student, just wants to have a normal romance for once, yet because of her flashy appearance, she is often misunderstood. Not ready to give up on a romantic encounter, Ichika joins a drinking party and meets a kind boy named Kosei. They immediately click and Ichika has a great time talking to him about their mutual interests and other things, and she finds herself falling for him after he tells her that he likes her for who she is. However, he has a secret.

How many volumes?

As of right now, there are 3 volumes released in Japanese! I’m unable to find info about volume 4’s release at the time of writing this.

There is currently no official English translation sadly.

If you want to try it out before buying, you can download a free sample of volume 1 from Amazon here.

Why I like this manga

The main reason I’m enjoying this series is because of how realistic it is. While I think both main characters suck in their own way, they suck realistically.

Our female lead, Ichika, just wants a serious relationship. She can’t help it that she’s attracted to Sanari, who just so happens to be a playboy. What she can help, though, is how much she chooses to hang around him. In the very first chapter of this volume, Ichika wears him down until he begrudgingly goes on a date to an amusement park with him. She then gets upset with him when she notices that he’s clearly not having a great time.

While I think that she kind of is doing this to herself, it does feel very realistic. It’s clear that she thinking something along the lines of “I’ll make him like me by forcing him to have fun with me”, and very much feels like something someone in high school would do.

I also find it interesting how she defends him from her friends who clearly only want the best for her, but still gets hurt when she sees him hanging around other girls. I did find it hard to feel bad for her at times, but the constant drama due to her actions had me absolutely enthralled.

Sanari also just straight up sucks in this volume, and continues to send Ichika mixed signals. He also feels exactly like an asshole guy in his early 20’s, so I do like the realness behind his character.

He accuses Ichika of giving up on him (when he told her he would never be serious about her!!!) when Ichika finds a beautiful girl waiting at Sanari’s house. It feels like he’s keeping her on the back burner, which is awful, but again, feels rather realistic.

All in all, while I don’t like either character, I am enjoying the story.

Themes found in this volume that I generally enjoy:

protective friends

Is there drama? (we’re generally not a fan of drama)

This whole volume was just pure drama. Some was relevant to the plot, and some was just drama for the sake of drama.

The amount of pure drama has me not loving the first volume, but I was able to enjoy the second! It almost has me feel like i’m reading a k-drama.

I will say, I have to be in the right mood to be able to handle the sheer amount of emotions this series puts me through.

Maddies Ratings

Romance

There really wasn’t any romance in this volume. I hate Sanari, and I will never acknowledge him as boyfriend material. There really weren’t any cute moments between them in this volume, and while there was almost one, one of Sanari’s seemingly past hook-up’s ruined it.

World building

Because of the type of manga this is, I don’t feel like realistic world building is all that difficult. It is a dramatic, romance manga, that takes place in modern day Japan.

Characters

While I don’t like either main character, I do really enjoy how complex they both are. Both do good and bad things, and neither is all good or all bad. I’m really enjoying following them along their journey, and am excited to see what they do from here.

Is it entertaining?

This was as entertaining as watching a K-drama is for me. It had me feeling so many emotions that I almost had to stop multiple times. I have a feeling that a new male love interest is going to be introduced in the following volume, and I just know it’s going to put me through it.

Have you read Isso Anata ga Todome wo Sashite yet?

Maddies Manga