Maddies Manga

After moving on from pretend crush to pretend dating, Chigira now wants to be pretend newlyweds!? Where does it end?

You can check out volume three of this series for yourself below!

My thoughts on this volume (Spoilers!)

I’m happy to say that I enjoyed volume four quite a bit more than the previous one. We finally see some character growth, specifically in Maaya, and her relationship with Chigira finally deepens! Unfortunately the annoying Tezuka is still a thorn in everyone’s side, but thankfully he hasn’t caused all that much drama.

While technically Tezuka is introduced to be a second male lead, he really doesn’t qualify in my eyes. He’s nothing but disrespectful to Maaya, and he only interacts with her to get a rise out of his old friend Chigira. Sure, he eventually sees what a good person Maaya is and begins interacting with her because he genuinely wants to, but that doesn’t change the fact he was bossing her around not one volume ago. Side note, I still don’t understand why Maaya allowed herself to be treated like that, but I digress.

His presence, while annoying, causes some progress to be made between Chigira and Maaya, finally. Both of them clearly like the other, and while Chigira probably has already recognized this, it doesn’t seem like Maaya has. So, with Chigira clearly seeing Tezuka as a threat, he has no choice but to be a little more romantic with Maaya. This causes him to have to straight up tell her to let him be sweet to her—Maaya is rather oblivious when it comes to romance—and we get a few cute scenes here and there once she agrees.

We also learn some backstory about Maaya in this volume, again, finally. While the backstory is meant to explain why she has difficulties being needy or depending on others, personally I didn’t really feel satisfied with the explanation. I don’t really see the connection between growing up with siblings and being able to dote on a boyfriend. Likewise, being raised to be independent doesn’t mean you are incapable of depending on those around you. Both can be true, but I don’t think they directly cause each other. I was glad to see Maaya put effort into depending on Chigira after he asked her to, but I was a little frustrated with the fact that she needs to have every little thing explained to her. She’s such a sweet and caring character, I just want her to be able to act without overthinking everything.

While the two of them are still only pretend dating in this volume, it’s only a matter of time before they actually begin dating. I mean, if Maaya freaking out when Chigira suggested they pretend to be newlyweds wasn’t an indicator that she likes him, I don’t know what she’s doing.

My favourite parts of this volume (spoilers)

💛 Chigira running after Maaya in the rain, and getting her a taxi! He’s so dependable! I just don’t understand why she didn’t wait in a nearby store until the rain stopped… There’s a convenience store every few blocks in most neighbourhoods…

💚 Maaya visiting Chigira’s house! I think this whole chapter was so sweet, and did absolute wonders for their relationship.