Maddies Manga

After devoting her life to oshi culture, Momoka meets her match—a real life boy just as mean as her favourite character. Not one to let things pass her by, she’s quick to make her move and asks him if she can be his number one fan. Shuuto, the new exchange student with an incredibly bad attitude, isn’t quite sure how to deal with someone as upfront as Momoka.

Scroll to the bottom for links to sample and buy volume one.

Author

This series is written by Reida Soragaki. X, Instagram.

Genre & Tropes

High school romance, comedy.

Info about this series (ongoing)

This series has recently gotten picked up by TOKYOPOP, with one English volume out. There are 9 Japanese volumes released currently.

TL;DR rating

I’m not going to sugarcoat it—I really didn’t enjoy this sample. I found the female lead to be a little too cartoonishly obsessed with the male lead, and I found the male lead to be a little too cartoonishly mean.

I think fans of idol stories or oshi culture would enjoy it, but unfortunately I tend to not enjoy these types of stories.

Official synopsis – borrowed from Amazon

This unconventional teen romantic comedy manga features a heartbroken fangirl main lead and a shy easily embarrassed love interest.

Otaku Momoka Kirino has devoted her life to her favorite characters — and Shuuto Kametani, the scary, snappish new boy in class, is just her type! When she catches a glimpse of his blushing face and learns his secret fear of embarrassment around girls, she falls head over heels into… stanning him with all her heart?

But a proper fan is dedicated to spreading their love for their favorites far and wide. As Momoka learns of the protective and gentle nature behind Shuuto’s intimidating front, she finds herself worrying that she might want to keep him all to herself…

My thoughts on this volume (Spoilers! and ranty)

This is actually my third time trying to read this series. As a die-hard fan of Dessert manga, I’m having a difficult time coping with the fact that I dislike one of their series this much. I’ve tried reading it in different places and at different times, all to no avail—this series just doesn’t sit with me. This isn’t to say that this is a bad series, nor am I saying not to read it. It just personally doesn’t align with my preferences.

While I can typically get behind an otaku female lead (I love Kae from Kiss Him, Not Me!, for example), I just can’t stand characters that are unable to separate fiction from real life. The scene of Momoka asking Shuuto if she could stan him was incredibly cringey for me. After she decides to be his number one fan, she also decides that “her oshi can’t be unhappy” and pushes herself to work behind the scenes to help him. At this point in the story, I really don’t think anyone rational would go out of their way to help him as much as she does. It truly feels like she instantly becomes obsessed with him only because she’s able to treat him like a fictional character, something I strongly dislike.

Even if Momoka hadn’t been overstepping from the start, I found her string pulling to also be unappealing. I understand that this is a comedy series and all of her outlandish actions are stretched beyond the point of believability for the sake of comedy, but it just didn’t land with me. If Momoka’s interest in him started because he spoke similarly to her favourite character, but then developed to liking him as his own person, I may have been able to get behind it. However it really feels like she’s treating him as a fictional character come to life, and I have difficulty enjoying that. I almost feel bad for him, as while he’s dealing with his own things he now has to deal with her!

When it comes to Shuuto’s character, he’s a rather complex boy. He has a complex about his face turning red whenever women approach him or speak to him. So, to combat this he wears a face mask. This isn’t enough apparently, as on his first day of class, he aggressively yells at all of the girls in the class to not approach him. He even says this to his teacher. There’s absolutely no reason for him to be so overly aggressive right from the start. I understand wanting to protect yourself, but really…

After this aggressive introduction, we’re shown him being sad about how he’s unable to bond with any of his male classmates. Of course he’s unable to make friends, he just screamed at half the class to stay away from him! I feel like there are better ways to help yourself in such a situation. I understand he’s mean to be a shy boy struggling with his uncontrollable condition, but I really don’t think that excuses a lot of the actions he chooses to take.

Even after he is able to befriend some of the boys in class thanks to Momoka’s interference, he stays just as aggressive to their female classmates. He goes as far as kicking tables when one asks him if he’s gotten used to school yet. I really found his over the top aggressiveness to be off-putting, even for a comedy series. I had similar issues with My Super Cute Black Mage, so overly tsundere male leads may just not be my thing.

Check out a free sample below!

You can check out volume one for yourself below!