Yeah, I think we may be done here.
Maybe shoujo romance just isn’t for me. There have been ones I’ve almost loved, but in my recollection even those found ways to royally piss me off. It’s so irritating – Koucha-sensei had me at “hello” with Seihantai no Kimi to Boku. But get her into shoujo and it’s like the writing has been clobbered with the idiot stick. I know I’ve made a lot of the difference in demographic between her two adaptations, but that’s because I really do believe it’s important. But even for me that difference has exceeded my expectations.
Ranting is not the fun part of this gig, so I don’t like to let myself go down that rabbit hole. Let me just summarize why this episode made me want to take a cricket bat to my monitor in a few simple points:
- Someone doesn’t have to be a bully to be an A-hole. There are many different kinds.
- Minato is an A-hole.
- I hate Minato.
- Most of all – by far – KOYUN SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THE ONE APOLOGIZING. And screw the series for taking that exasperatingly shoujo route.
This is where is really gets galling. All the stuff Miki reamed Minato about was true. He is patronizing. He’s a jerk for not respecting Koyun’s space when she clearly wanted to be left in peace. But – because this is shoujo is the only reason I can think – she’s the one who apo0logizes to him. F that. So he feels bad now? Too bad – he feels bad because someone doesn’t worship him for being the super-generous hero he thinks he is. And no, I don’t want Koyun to give him another chance. In any sane world world she should just be with Youta, who respects her and makes her feel safe and respected. But no, she’s naturally going to end up with Minato. Why? Because this is shoujo is the only reason I can think.
This is easily the most frustrating show of the spring for me, because the quality of the writer comes through in some ways and there’s stuff here to really like. Most of the characters are basically fine, even if none of them are especially remarkable. But the balance is tipping way too far in favor of it just being annoying. This is the essence of why I tend to drop shoujo romances – because they usually acknowledge what’s sensible and right, and then proceed to advocate for exactly the opposite. There are exceptions, and plenty of romances in other demographics that are equally irritating. But the fit in this one tends to be the worst for me. I’ll watch at least one more – or start to – but my expectations are roughly nil at this point. And that really sucks.
Sakaido
May 2, 2026 at 5:37 pmThis was a LINE Webtoon later published in print by Shueisha under the Jump Comics imprint. I fail to see how this is remotely shoujo at all. This is overall a strange bit of critique that would puzzle most shoujo manga readers like me.
Simone
May 2, 2026 at 5:57 pmI mean, the show goes out of its way to make it clear that the first four episodes we’re seeing things mainly from Koyuki’s POV, which makes us see Minato with antipathy because that’s how he looks like from her perspective. Then this episode we see the same ending scene as the previous one flipped, from Minato’s POV, where we realise that it was in fact a misunderstanding – Minato didn’t KNOW anything, he merely did the right thing for once, actually catching onto Koyuki’s signals (something we’d seen him not do well before) and that was interpreted the wrong way. It wasn’t some major fault but Koyuki felt like apologizing for it, not because she had been bad (the nurse even reinforces that it’s fine to get angry) but because she’s just the kind of person who constantly second-guesses herself. And eventually her apology simply becomes a moment of genuine communication in which both her and Minato progress. Minato himself through this ordeal questioned finally whether his view of others isn’t too self centered and based on how HE would like to be treated rather than interrogating how THEY would like to be treated.
Like, I dunno, the show explicitly acknowledges all of this and makes the point of it be “sometimes people need to communicate to understand each other and avoid needless resentment”. I really don’t see the point of keeping a grudge towards Minato and I say this as a very Koyuki-like person who found her outburst totally justified. The purpose of that outburst was in fact accomplished – it gave Minato pause, pushed him to self-reflect and eventually they mended their relationship and moved on to have a better understanding of each other. That’s about as good as it gets.
Guardian Enzo
May 2, 2026 at 7:22 pmNot how I see it at all. Miki was 100% right about him being condescending and it’s not jut with Koyun, he conducts his entire foreign policy based on the premise that he’s the greatest guy in the world and everyone should be grateful he indulges them with his kindness. He totally disrespected her space and ignored all her signals because he saw her as a challenge to be defeated.
Simone
May 2, 2026 at 8:15 pmI’m not arguing he’s not somewhat condescending, but what we see is that she happened to push back on him right as he was *already* getting some self awareness and trying to do better. And the push back is useful! It does lead him to reach a genuinely better realization. But at the same time the push back was kind of bad luck – Koyuki boiled over right when the thing she felt offended by was an actual misunderstanding. And her wanting to apologize afterwards isn’t the narrative saying that she was in the wrong, it’s the narrative portraying her realistically – it would be out of character for her to NOT react like that, given who she is. Another person might have done this differently (like acknowledged that perhaps Minato could be worth approaching again to clear the misunderstanding without needing to do a formal apology) but she’s just built that way.
Ultimately the story seems to be about characters overcoming flaws that have to do with “barriers” put up between one and others. In Koyuki’s case, this is an acquired flaw, a defense mechanism built due to having suffered certain circumstances. In Minato’s case, it seems to be just a character thing – his approach was never challenged and never failed so he got cocky while possibly still being somewhat emotionally needy. Neither is optimal for good social relations and neither is a fatal flaw or a huge moral failure, but the problems they lead to look different (isolation and potentially loneliness for Koyuki, being obnoxious/a busybody for Minato). But for both of them, communicating openly (which was triggered by this random incident) helps them along a path to improve. I don’t see the problem.
Bob
May 3, 2026 at 4:01 amDid you see the Polar Opposites cameo in the post-credit scene with Suzuki, Nabe, and Sato?
Guardian Enzo
May 3, 2026 at 9:37 amROFL, not til you mentioned it.
Anikai
May 4, 2026 at 1:00 pmThis episode had a really subtle emotional weight to it, especially in how it handled the quieter moments. The character interactions felt natural, and the pacing gave those scenes enough room to actually land.