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Akira has come to realize that while she does love how she feels after Higashisengoku makes her up, she also loves how she feels when she’s with him. Is her new makeup-induced confidence boost enough to give her the courage to express how she feels?

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Author

This series was written by Kotobuki Lee. X, Instagram.

Genre & Tropes

University romance.

Info about this series (complete)

This series is complete in Japanese at seven volumes.

TL;DR rating

While I’m enjoying the pacing that this series is moving at so far, I’m a little worried it may grow stale over the next few volumes… As of right now though, I’m enjoying it!

My thoughts on this volume (spoilers!)

It’s been quite a while since I read volume one, so I was a little worried that I would have difficulty remembering the story. Thankfully volume two was a direct continuation of volume one, and all of the main characters were reintroduced right from the get-go. As this series is rather simple plot-wise, I was quick to get back on track!

After the events of the previous volume, Akira has fallen quite hard for Higashisengoku. Though he has the secret self-imposed rule of no dating while studying at cosmetology school, Akira still gives it her best. To start, Akira uses the advice of one of his friends and invites Higashisengoku on a date. She takes him to all of the places said friend recommended should she want to “see a different side of Higoshisengoku”. Sadly, the friend was playing a bit of a a joke on both of them, and only recommended places that he knew he would look uncool at.

The friend’s plan worked spectacularly, as we were really able to see a brand new, super un-cool side of Higoshisengoku. As he’s typically the more calm and composed character, watching him get toppled over by dogs while claiming to be a cat person was very fun to see! As he’s typically in the “helper” role, guiding Akira on how to appear more fashionable, it was very refreshing to see Akira finally get the chance to help him out—she deserves her time to shine. We even got to see the two of them go head to head in basketball!

One of my favourite things about this series is that even though Akira clearly wants to change for the better, she sees no fault in her personality or interests. Typically in glow-up stories, the girl would be forced to give up her more “boyish” hobbies for the sake of beauty. In Higashisengoku-san no Makeup Doll, no one ever even blinks when they hear of Akira’s love for sports. Even after the two are finished at a batting cage on their date, Higashisengoku just takes a moment to fix Akira’s hair before inviting her to play basketball. They really meet each others hobbies perfectly! He loves to make her look pretty, and she loves to play sports.

The two of them officially begin dating in this volume, and I do have to say I think I liked the story a bit better before they started dating. The period between when Akira confesses to him and when they start dating was just so well written! There was just enough tension, and Higashisengoku was clearly struggling as clearly hadn’t thought about Akira in a romantic light up until that point. The scene of Higashisengoku surprising Akira at school just to whisk her away to do some makeup shopping after the confession was probably my favourite in the entire volume… She felt like an animal getting one last perfect day before being put down, while he was just trying to show her his good side after that embarrassing date.

I really wish there was a bit more time spend on scenes focusing on the two of them developing their relationship. While it was clear that Akira had liked Higashisengoku for a while prior to confessing, it didn’t exactly feel like he returned the feelings. While he clearly saw her as more than a makeup doll… I was honestly a little surprised when he accepted the confession and did a bit of a character change. When he became all blushy after Akira confessed she couldn’t even look him in the face becauses he’s too handsome… It just felt a tad out of character.

I want to clarify, I did really enjoy the cuter romantic scenes when the two started dating—Akira literally only being able to talk to the wall beside Higashisengoku because she just couldn’t look at him was hilarious. I just wish there was more character development in Higashisengoku prior to him accepting the confession. While I enjoyed the scenes, they felt out of place.

Check out the series for yourself! (Japanese only)