Rottcodd

This series has really been a surprise.

It doesn't feel like any of this was planned. It feels like the author just started with the gimmick of a young witch who's too earnest and naive and kind-hearted to become the manipulative and self-indulgent sybarite she's expected to be, and who meets a boy who's just as earnest and naive and kind-hearted as she is, so what was supposed to be just a callous initiation into a life of debauchery becomes an endearingly awkward story of young love, with the added twist that the young witch, raised as she was, has no conception of things like modesty.

But all the way through, the author has been rearranging and expanding the cast and providing background and context for the situations, and with a few fits and starts, it's really started to come together well and become much more than it was.

I'm impressed.

Yeah - he's normally just an ID on the other end of a text message exchange.

I'm pretty sure we've never seen his face.

That was a great chapter.

That was my reaction too - she was rescued without further incident, her remorse was apparently sincere, she formally apologized to both of them, the villains were punished and the mains reaffirmed their commitment to each other, the end.

Wait a minute... not the end after all? Which means...?

Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on here, but it's not good. For whatever reason, the author is revealing too many disparate plot points too quickly.

It makes sense that they don't (yet) add up to reveal the secrets behind everything - that's just a fundamental part of how mysteries work.

But they have to be connected in some way and they have to be revealed at a reasonable pace and just as part of the unfolding story, so that everything flows naturally, and that's not what's happening.

I still have hope for it, and if nothing else, the central mysteries are still intriguing. I just really hope it settles down.

Himemiya makes me laugh every time.

That was sweet.

I followed this pretty much from the start, and always enjoyed it. It was fairly low key, but it was always cute and often funny, and they had interesting chemistry. And nobody draws blushes quite as well as Tachibana Roku.

And... another chapter at the end of which I was just going, "Mm.. okay. Whatever."

I think the problem here is that the author has a really convoluted story in mind and is afraid they're not going to get a chance to let it unfold slowly (which is a very real possibility - the axe is ever-looming). But so they're erring in the opposite direction - trying to reveal too many enticing details and hints and mysteries without enough context or breathing room. Which unfortunately also ups the chance that it'll get axed before the whole story is told.

Hoping it settles down to a reasonable pace. And doesn't get axed before the story gets told.

Ahh...

They're going to fondly remember that dinner party for the rest of their lives.

Another wonderful chapter.

Even though it's late to the genre, this series is setting a standard for romcoms that damned few, past or present, can even begin to match.

I had forgotten about her too.

Should've expected to see her in this chapter.

Broadly, that's a good part of what I like about this manga - it's so wholesome, except that it's really not, except that it somehow still is. It's a strange balance, but somehow it works.