6.50
High school student Saito Houjo has married his classmate, Akane Sakuramori, the girl who is his biggest rival at school. The two can't seem to get along with each other, but their heart-pounding newlywed life is about to begin! (Source: Kadokawa, translated)
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Reviewed on 27 February 2025
This volume is the ending to a somewhat mediocre series? Let's dive in.
The writing on this series has somewhat been hit and miss, and unsurprisingly, it also affects this last volume. There are plenty of beautifully constructed and engaged segments, but there are also many issues. Let's start with the abrupt jumps between segments. There's no bridging between time of day, it just jumps, which is rather confusing as the reader. You're at Saito and Akane's house one segment, then suddenly jumps to school, or you're at school, then suddenly jumps to the house, then somewhere else, it's all over the place.
The other one is special for this volume, and that is during the "final trial" chapter 4. In this chapter, Maho played as the bad sister, trying to "steal" Saito from Akane by putting the fact that she (Maho) is better than Akane in every way possible. Maho is apparently smarter in politics than Akane, more motivated to comfort Saito, and able to control the Houjou Group much more effectively. After she makes Akane her enemy, for some odd reason, the author decided to add this line:
After all, Maho cared more about Akane than anybody else.
What in the world is this line used for? The author literally just make Maho "enemies" with Akane, yet they also added this sentence? This is a useless glazing during an intense segment, and is bad writing.
There is also another weird segment in the 3rd chapter about dreams. There's a hairdressing scene where the 4 girls put makeup on Saito and play around him. I feel like this segment would be hilarious in an anime form factor, but in a light novel form? The jokes doesn't really catch on. It's hard to visualize what's going on to begin with, let alone take in jokes like these. Not very fitting I'd say.
Chapter one and two talks about Akane being madly in love and starts regressing on her studying. Chapter three talks about dream. Chapter four talks about choices and the "final trial". Not any of these chapters are bridged correctly. With no pretext or context as to what happens next, they jumped like it's a fresh volume.
The story itself is not what I was expecting when I saw the cover. The cover shows Akane very beautifully in white, but the contents are very mediocre. I really thought it would go with a full sweetness route? Instead there are chapters about dream and Akane's insanity to love. This would be fine if it was just the two of them, Saito and Akane. However, the other 3 continues to stuck themselves to Saito, like a module attached. Why the need to turn this into somewhat of a harem? The answer for that will never be known. The other 3 don't know when to back off, which infuriates me. Kisses and being intimate with Saito is a normal thing for them, and it just doesn't feel right for the series. But to be honest, when I read the first couple of volumes, I already got the gist that this series is going to be mediocre, compared to the significantly better The Angel Next Door or Gimai Seikatsu.
The premise was great, I feel like it was Nisekoi, but upgraded to fit the more modern era, with a twist on the MC personality and background. I do think this is much better than Nisekoi, since Nisekoi was filled to the brim with fillers, but it's still not very good. Would it be a generic romance series like the two I mentioned before if it went the sweet route? I think not. It'll be a good enemy-to-lover series, with great pretext and world building. There's something that differentiates this with other romance series, especially the comedy style.
The grandfather is also badly written. He never showed up in the middle volumes, only showing up at the start and end. There's no development on him. The first time we met him, I deduced that he's a prick who's all about profit and efficiency, willing to throw anything to get it. But in this volume, apparently he's all kind and soft inside, wanting Saito to feel love. Do I just need to accept this jump? Maybe. There's no transition at all, nothing that indicates a change of behavior.
The "final trial" on chapter 4 is also stupid. This is a brainrot chapter. The plan is definitely executed well, since it makes me hate Maho even more. But it has no buildup at all. It's very abrupt. We suddenly see Saito and Akane given a day to choose whether to chase their own dreams or stay together forever. It came out of nowhere. The only buildup we see is Maho meeting with Tenryuu and Chiho, but that's it. I feel like a longer buildup would be nice, so the conflict doesn't immediately escalate to then descalate. I don't want to be slammed with the fact that they may get separated, with no time to think at all, to then suddenly see it descalate at the speed of light. I get why the author added this chapter, it's to make sure Saito character fully developed before the end of the series by him choosing to be together with Akane. Strange way to write it though.
So, is this volume even a worthy addition to the best volume 9? No. Why? There's a lot of unnecessary garbage that is just not worth adding or even reading. If it was going to be sweet, that's a good addition. However, it went the stupid route and became a typical filler, which is dissapointing.
Mediocre series, hit and miss writing, good written characters are literally only Saito and Akane, the rest exists solely for comedic purposes. You can have good main characters and good side characters, but this one did not achieve the latter. Anime may justify the series though, since most of the comedies inside it actually will work in an anime form factor. It just doesn't work well in a light novel form.
The final order of the girls in this series are as follow:
She's a great character and the best one in the series. She's the only one that has humanity built into her, willing to support Saito from the bottom of her heart. She loves Saito dearly and would do anything for him. Sure she's very much a tsundere, but that's what makes her special. She make cute expressions from time to time. A bit of downside is that she's very kind, so kind that the other girls uses this kindness as a way to get closer to Saito, which is why I mentioned her being the only one who has humanity built into her.
She's also the cutest out of the bunch, but that's just my preference to medium sized red haired girl :D.
The "little sister", even though she's a cousin? She's fine, not great, not terrible. She just loves to eat, but she doesn't do massive approaches to Saito the way the next two does. That's why I can somewhat accept her. I feel like she's a great addition and is part of the reason Saito changes.
This first hoe is very annoying. Yes her background is sad, but this is fixed in later volumes. When I read her backstory, I do feel empathy, but the way she's "paying back" Saito is hoe territory. Always sticking her body to Saito, and in general, doesn't give much to the series other than comedies. Maybe her good trait is that she forced Akane to realize her feelings, which is a good boost for her.
The sister of the best girl. Second hoe in the series. I really hate her, and I don't know why to be honest. I guess it's because she's similar to Himari in a way? Always sticking to Saito like they're stuck with super glue. She also has no boundaries, willing to do anything to get Saito. No empathy for this girl, even though she's sick and weak and all. Maybe it's just the bad writing that makes me hate her, but if the author intended her to be hated, then they did a damn good job at writing her.
Do give this series a read if you're interested though!