THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS This manga is very different from most. In a way it’s a reversal of the typical harem, in that instead of having a protagonist that has girls falling in love with him for no clearly apparent reason but development later on, rather the case is that he protagonist is unable to get into a relationship with a girl despite having so much going for him. The reasons for this are very clearly developed later on in that he is incredibly socially awkward. As someone that it also incredibly socially awkward, I could certainly sympathize with him to an incredibly degree. But atthe same time, he tries to overcome that at an extreme level. The social awkwardness is cringe worthy but I could sympathize with it, but him trying to get around it through extreme aggressiveness and desperation went well beyond that into often being pure cringe. It was a complete train wreck, but one that's written incredibly well, and hence difficult to look away from. Still, at some level, he's a good at heart, though incredibly lonely and just trying his best to get over that, which I totally get. Seriously though, he needs to learn better when to back off. He also seems to have terrible luck, actually terrible luck, not just standard manga terrible luck, but something that felt a lot more heavy and realistic where the reader can feel the pain of being screwed over by thins beyond your control. All of this leads to there being a lot of really heavy raw emotional moments, especially towards the ending to each arc. This is in part because his romantic interests are also written quite well and fleshed out. The arc with Haruka and Hino was especially amazing, and I was really hoping something would finally happen there. Unfortunately, that was not to be and the ending was weak.

I feel that talking about the ending at all is impossible without spoilers, so I'll just go at it. In the end, the main character does feel like he's grown. Not in ways that tremendously impact his actions or improve his chances of success, but it feels very much like his outlook on the world has improved. But he still doesn't get a girlfriend. I got pretty heavily emotionally invested in him, so him in the end getting nothing was a pretty big blow. In many ways, it fits with the manga quite well, in that that's what had been happening up to that point. But still, as it's the end, I feel something should have happened. After all of that, he deserved something. As it is, the ending simply felt depressing and left me feeling hollow. It's a manga that seems to have a strange sort of dark comedy at its core, but in the end, it just felt sad. It wasn't badly written or anything, so I can't say it's a bad ending exactly. Rather, it feels like it's meant to be intentionally unsatisfying and to evoke those sorts of emotions from the reader, which I can't say I'm much of a fan of, and ultimately can't look beyond. The art overall was quite good.

A very interesting premise that is written quite well, but that seems to make the choice of intentionally having an unsatisfying and hollow ending, for better or worse.

8/10