Kakafukaka is basically a debate between following society's expectation on the milestones you have to reach as an adult, to the detriment of one's personal desires and wants and most importantly dignity, and learning to rely on one's self in a way which will better allow you to pursue those goals without being forced in a compromising position. At least that's what I took away from it at the end. The way it goes about it is a bit unorthodox, as can be inferred from the summary, which I appreciated. The above theme takes a while to become apparent, so in the beginning it might appearas a more traditional romance focused manga. But underneath the romance and sexual themes, is a story about life humbling us, learning we're not hot shit, and after accepting that, trying to better our lot and not relying for external validation. This is not accomplished in a traditional western narrative, but the underlying message is very self-empowering and somewhat individualistic, which is rather common in western stories. Maybe you could say it has an underlying feminist theme about acquiring agency through work and as an extension financial independence.

To be more specific, the story starts with our main heroine at her lowest point in life. She just got cheated, is forced to move out and in a place with three other people, therefore showing her financial difficulties, as well as her failure to take off in life. In a way it's a rather humbling portrayal of the average person who kind of stumbled across life without much thought, and this much is also made clear in her case through various flashbacks and thoughts the protagonist engages in.

It's important to mention that the protagonist is quite flawed and maybe not as polished or likeable as other protagonists and certainly not dignified (at least initially) in the least. She's easily swayed between the guys with her own needs and wants hardly mattering or her making a case for those (until much later). Which is why another reviewer complained about this specific thing. Although personally I cannot say I espoused her values or views, I could definitely relate or understand a lot of her thoughts and behaviors, regardless whether I approved it or not. I felt she was a very honest portrayal of a lot of thoughts and feelings that make people do a lot of stuff and quite unglamorous, which can stick out in an uncomfortable way in a sea of manga catered towards wish fulfillment.

There are some aspects I do find a bit unrealistic regarding the male character with the sexual dysfunction only finding solace and virility in the main character and no other women ever, especially considering he's quite popular with women, which does as a result play a bit into the soulmate/one and only type of fantasy. But that is my personal opinion.

The rest of the messiness that occurs due to 4 people living under the same roof and displaying various degrees of interest towards each other is to be expected but does maintain quite a civil character at the end of the day.

The character I disliked the most was the landlord as it felt like he had the most power in part due to the ownership of the apartment and very often abused it for his personal gain which I found quite unacceptable and inexcusable. I haven't been angered, not just annoyed, by a character in a manga/anime in a really long time. perhaps cause this is quite a realistic problem that can happen to people in the real world and it hits a bit too close home.

I have tried to refrain from talking in depth about the plot details so people can go read about it themselves. I personally enjoyed it quite a bit and did get invested in it. I started it back in covid times but it had not been uploaded online after some initial chapters and after five or so years since then I still had interest to finish it. So that is a testament to it. It's definitely not for everyone, but underneath its surface, it's trying to make a case about whether following society's ideals of the "correct" way of life blindingly is the right thing and I quite appreciated that, maybe because I'm at a similar age and it resonates now quite strongly.