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Wakaume Sahoko does not like good-looking guys. She hates them, even. She has decided she doesn’t need a boyfriend either. But one day, her best friend’s bias, Kirigaya Kouta, comes to the tiny diner the Wakaume family runs. She asks for his autograph for her friend, and learning that Sahoko isn’t a fan, he promises to do his best to make her a fan. With time, Sahoko gets to know the top male idol in Japan, and she can’t help but begin supporting him. But are her feelings really just those of a fangirl?

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“The fact that you hate them instead of merely being indifferent means you care a lot. So in truth, all it would take is the right circumstance for you to find yourself falling head over heels for that final boss of all gorgeous men—the male idol!”

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THOUGHTS

It certainly feels like it’s been a while since I reviewed anything that wasn’t BL, Chinese, or both, but here I am with some Japanese manga to spice things up! Or, I guess, sweeten them?

This is a teenage fantasy by Koda Momoko, originally published in Bessatsu Margaret It’s about a girl who finds herself befriending an idol, who she ultimately falls in love with. And it’s really rather sweet, with Kouta being precious and Sahoko adorable. Their relationship is quite wholesome and I haven’t seen any red flags, per se.

There’s just this one thing that gives me incredibly mixed feelings: Kouta is 22 years old, while Sahoko is 16. It makes me cringe every time I think about it.

As I said, this is basically a teenage fantasy made into a story, and that’s fine. But reading this when you’re 33–34 years old, it does hit quite differently than it might for a 16-year-old girl. If I, who will be 34 in four weeks, were to date someone who was 6 years older than me, that person would be 40 this year, and that is fine. We’d not only be in the same phase of life, but we’d likely also be at the same maturity level.

But a 16-year-old and a 22-year-old in a relationship just gives me so many mixed feelings and it doesn’t feel quite morally right, and that’s despite living in a country that has no laws against a 15-year-old dating a 50-year-old. The two characters are in vastly different phases of life and their maturity levels aren’t close to each other. If she had at least been 18, I would have felt far more comfortable with this. But dynamic between them makes them quite equal, so it sort of balances it out?

It’s such a shame to read it and think, “Aw, that’s adorable,” while simultaneously thinking, “Please, no.” I guess I’ve reached the point in my life when I look at teenagers in media and connect it to my own children instantly, and it just makes me want to protect Sahoko from bad people.

But, as a story that fulfils the fantasies of people in their teens who have idol crushes, I think this is a really nice pick. It’s sweet, with Sahoko acting quite mature about her boyfriend being very busy all the time, and I think Kouta is a pretty decent guy too. He has a very sweet and emotional character, which is nice to see in a male lead. I’m a bit eh about the forehead kiss he gives with the autograph because consent is key, but maybe all his fans expect him to do that. I don’t know. Otherwise, I don’t remember him overstepping any boundaries.

So, with some reservations, because I’m clearly getting kind of old now, I would say that, as far as I’ve read, this is something worth reading. It’s not a bad manga. It’s a fairly classic shoujo romance type of title, and not much different than what I would have found in Bessatsu Margaret in 2006–2008 when I had a subscription.

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