Minamoto-kun Monogatari: Manga Review/Reflection (1/6/2023)
This manga is a close second to the most degenerate thing I've ever read, with the first being Golden Boy. In short, this story is just about this dude named Terumi who ends up needing to seduce 14 girls in order to complete some kind of research study done by his aunt, who is a hot college professor.
Some of these girls include his own family, people more than twice his age, and even a few underage girls. There's a lot of weird and honestly pretty fucked up stuff happens in this series, but it's actually pretty self aware about it.
But I'm going to set aside the premise of the story, and talk about what this manga is really about. This manga is actually just a way for the author to complete 14 relatively short romance arcs in one manga. With 14 being such a high number, almost every romance trope is covered, which means that this manga can serve as a sort of one manga dose of any love story that you desire. So, in other words, this manga is a story about almost every love scenario possible.
And this is something I had a bit of a problem with, which the manga. I had my favorite girls, and I would want the MC to stay with them, but then eventually the plot would dictate that he must move onto the next of the 14 girls. I admit that there are a lot of highs in this manga located whenever he has a relationship that I like, but there are just so many more lows whenever there is a relationship that I dislike.
From here on out is a bunch of spoilers, because I'll be taking some time to reflect on each individual girl that he has a relationship with.
(Ex him going after his cousin, his aunt's behavior, stalker girl, him not being with that waitress girl even though she's SO GOOD, that one girl that cheats on her bf with him
Girl 1: Asahi, the cousin
This was very fucking weird. I get that she was supposed to be and important stepping stone for him to be able to talk to girls, because she is someone that he is already comfortable with. That being said, I hated how they eventually developed feelings for each other, because that is just straight up incestual and it made me very uncomfortable. I am glad that nothing actually happened between them though.
Girl 2: Aoi, the rich girl with daddy issues
I didn't think much of this girl. It really felt like I was just reading a porn plot and so I accepted it as a porn plot. Aoi is this older figure girl who literally makes him her slave, and then takes his virginity. She also has really strong daddy issues. It's ok, I didn't really dislike her or like her.
Girl 3: Hanada, the waitress
Man, I really loved Hanada at first. I thought their relationship was pretty wholesome, and I liked the character of Hanada in general. I just felt attracted to her for some reason (perhaps some of the reason is because she reminded me of Hana, which I don't really like admitting).
When they broke up, I was really mad because I didn't really understand why, but after reading some forum posts I did understand why. Terumi breaks up with Hanada because she didn't actually love him. For example, she didn't want him to pick her up from work because there was this faceless molester little shit of this kid that was really into her, and she didn't want him to feel bad whenever he saw Terumi and her together. Also, it turns out that she just likes him, maybe she doesn't actually love him. Hanada as a character is someone that wants to be nice to everyone, but that is impossible sometimes. Being nice to someone can mean that you are hurtful to someone else, and in this case she wanted to be nice to the little molester kid and that hurt Terumi.
An interesting take I saw from someone online is this:
Minamoto is actually just like the kid. He's early on in "his development to become a man" and his affection for Hanada is like a kids affection also. He just likes her, but he doesn't really understand what he is feeling.
Girl 4: Rokoujo, the yandere
I understand the need for Rokoujo to exist, but that doesn't mean I like her. Because Terumi just got out of a relationship with someone who wasn't actually romantically into him, he gets with someone who is very, very into him. Also, in a meta standpoint, the author needed to include the yandere trope in here somewhere. So, in comes Rokoujo, the professor who is a crazy yandere. I don't really like yanderes, but I thought that this arc was ok. Terumi realizes that Rokoujo is pretty fucking dangerous and creepy (as yanderes tend to be), so he gets scared off. What I didn't like is how Rokoujo just kept showing up in the story. I wanted her to disappear or change or something honestly after this arc, but it just didn't really happen.
Girl 5: Shian, the ten year old (I refuse to say loli)
After Rokoujo, Terumi's aunt takes him to the beach, where he tries to pick up a bunch of girls and he fails. Then, his aunt introduces him to this tiny 10 year old girl so he isn't as scared of younger girls because he's only talking to older girls the entire time I guess?
I hated the inclusion of Shian. She's 10 fucking years old! It's literally insane. Thankfully nothing actually happens between him and Shian, and also the manga is somewhat self aware about how weird this is, because Terumi does think a bunch that it's really weird for him to ever be attracted to a ten year old. That being said, I really just wish she wasn't in this manga at all.
Girl 6: Semi Iyo, the one night stand clerk
After this, he meets Iyo, this girl with glasses who is 27 and is a clerk. I didn't like her. She has this long term bf who she doesn't actually love or something, and then she gets drunk and has a one night stand with the MC. Then, she finds out that feeling loved feels nice and she wants to be with her bf or something?
I really didn't understand what this arc was about. I do know that it really irked me however. Cheating is never justified and it's a fucked up thing to do. I also don't like how the mc was complacent in helping this girl cheat on her bf just because he was really horny. Everything about this arc I think is just better if I wiped it from my mind.
Girl 7: Yuu Tokonatsu, the sporty girl
After this, he gets into an actually good relationship with someone he actually likes and also likes him. Even though there is a sus age gap (she is 22 and he's 18), the couple was wholesome and I liked that, especially after how bad some of the other relationships were.
But, she get's jealous because the MC is into his aunt (stupid plot point btw), and then they eventually break up because she gets a job in Osaka that forces her to move away. It's some plot armor bullshit but I must accept that because none of these relationshits in this manga are meant to last anyways.
Girl 8: Hana,the short voice actor
Basically a one night stand with some short girl who wants to be a voice actor. They do it because she wants to have experience to help with her voice acting or something. It's just another porn plot. It also helps him get over his ex I guess.
Girl 9: Dr Gennai, the milf doctor
After this, he is told to go after this 40 year old doctor. I didn't really get this one, but the age gap kind of weirded me out. Kind of felt like a porn plot too, but she had this weird quirk where she only liked to have sex with herself because she's so narcissistic or something.
Girl 10: Ruri Tamakazura, the sheltered driving school girl
This one was really, really weird. The girl is cute and I liked her, but she thought that Terumi was a girl the entire time, and then Terumi had to save her from getting raped? I was really confused in general by this. It was just really weird.
Girl 11: Tsukiko, the goth girl who is besties with Asahi
I was a bit uncomfortable by this because Tsukiko is Asahi's best friend, but I think they had an interesting relationship. I did also like that Terumi managed to help her get over her fear of men, even if the method was kind of weird.
Girl 12: Otome Mitsumiya, the middle schooler
This one I am actually a little bit ok with, because Terumi never acted towards her or anything. All that happened was that she eventually got feelings for Terumi, which never developed into anything. Also, I liked that Terumi actually did some good for once by causing her to stop being a NEET.
Girl 13: Akashi Mutsuge, the horny fortune teller
I actually kind of liked this one. She's basically just a summer fling type girl, and they do the deed a lot over the summer while they are both working at this secluded family inn. I think it played out pretty well.
Girl 14: Kaoruko Fujiwara, the aunt and the mastermind
Well, the last girl of course had to be his aunt. It was pretty foreshadowed from the very beginning. Doesn't mean that I have to like it though. Most stories like this have a main girl that you can kind of tell will be the final girl the MC ends up with, and in this case it was pretty much destined to be his aunt. Like I said before, I still didn't like it, but I guess it works within the context of the rest of the manga.
Spoilers end here.
I heard the manga is really just a retelling of the Tale of Genji. I still don't really know anything about the Tale of Genji, so I don't know for sure, but I can tell the author did put thought into moving things around so everything would fit the story. It feels artificial, but that doesn't mean the manga is necessarily bad. It definitely accomplishes what it wants to accomplish. I still don't like the mana though. Some of the relationships just pissed me off too much for that.
The only reason the scores aren't lower is because I did actually really like some of the relationships. It's not all bad, but you are better off reading something else if you want actually good romance.
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