Hima-simps! Do not give up the ship! Hold your faith! There is still a chance.
Hima just needs pull off the most powerful move in all Manga....
C O M A S T R A T S.
I really enjoyed the first 3/4 or so of this story, and it's not like I hated the end, but when the gravure girl shot her shot and got unceremoniously shooed off stage it made me feel that the author didn't really have much care for the heroines. It's not like I even disagree with the outcome of the story. I just feel like there was a huge build up of tension that got let out very weakly in comparison with how well the rest of the story came together. Hima's resolution was better by comparison than the gravure girl, but it seemed somehow hollow.
I know there's been some speculation about how the author changed the ending to match the popularity polls, but it doesn't really change how weak the writing is when before I was very emotionally invested in the stakes of the story.
In the end, I'm not sure what even was the central theme of the story. It seemed like it wanted to be about how support and love go hand and hand. In that way, a Kanai ending is very fitting, but I think you could have really made a bigger clash between Hima and Kanai at the end with Hima being more desperate to give Iemori the support that Kanai was giving all along. It would have made a more impactful end than the weak deflation we got.
It's a shame really. There's so much to love about the story, but the ending just was half baked regardless if you had Hima or Kanai win in the end.
110%. You summed up where I am perfectly.
Especially "shot her shot and got unceremoniously shooed off stage it made me feel that the author didn't really have much care for the heroines".
I was a Honoka simp from the get go, but he had worst chemistry with her over all (when they DID interact it was lethally cute, but they couldn't manage to look each other in the eye more than once a quarter despite him knowing where she worked and her knowing where he lived) and while honor dictates I support the Childhood Friend every time, he was just so much better with Hima.
(I loved Kanna as a character and I loved her actually being assertive and her shoot down was fucking bullshit, the reason she liked Iemori was "He
watered the flowers at school helped her out and didn't know she was a model" so it was very shallow and she can find another nice guy)
You can tell the plot changed a while back, and its not quite as good or planned as the intended Hima ending.
And what you said about the theme being completely lost is spot on. It would be one thing if this was going to be.. Tenchi and Honoka get together, and then we see 10 years on CEO Hima is reminiscing about her time in highschool, realizing too late that she had been in love, but still being satisfied with how her life turned out and moving on in a bittersweet way.
or if it had been about "what you think you want isn't really what you want". Kanna's assertiveness has her win, they date, but both of them realize they really aren't that compatible and relationship was something both of them rushed into too early; Kanna still wants to "keep him as a fan" and sends him 'speicial service' selfies. Then Tenchi dating Honoka as he cleans for Hima, and he and Honoka realizing they are TOO close for it to be really love. And Hima wrestling with her feelings the whole time, maybe she finds a guy but it doesn't work out becasue she's still hung up on Tenchi.
Honestly if this was less light hearted, I'd have liked to see Hima fully declare war on Honoka and not in the "so we aren't allowed to get ahead of each other because we're friends" bullshit, I mean full cutthroat CEO to win over Iemori and or even just not let him get on the elevator; don't just dump your feelings, make him take responsibility.
It's weird, normally I'd be up for something like this but Hono just never really developed much of a personality beyond being a cute girl. The entire series their dynamic is that they have both liked eachother for a long time, but it falls kinda flat when you spend so little time actually developing their bond beyond that. Which is a shame because I felt the character/relationship writing was decently strong with a certain other girl.
The issue was she never got much screentime, because the "dilemma" keeping them apart - they both love the other but are too terrified of rejection to make a move and see the other person also loves them - was dumb and the more they interacted the less you could believe both them were too utterly retarded to pick up on the signals from the other person.
Due to this lack of ability to have them interact, all of Hono's actions that made her attractive had to be in the past, so that made the current Hono seem dishwasher and shallow.
When the author DID allow them to interact (The scene of him visiting her at Starbucks was just so cute, her sacking up and asking him to come clean, her arranging an entire class trip so he could have a redo) it was great but then it made the slack times between those events that were filled with the other girls feel so off-putting.
I agree with you, I felt like the story had a good pace with their relationships building organically, but at some point like 20 chapters or so he kinda rushed, Himarin (my personal favorite) like suddenly realize she was completely in love it looked very forced, I think she had all the reasons to like him, but she couldve realized kinda in their scenes or "dates" together but it didnt look like that at all to me. Like you said he completely forgot the other girl like he didnt cared, and him choosing Kanai at the end is fine but again it looked insanely rushed like the manga was Axed, he didnt reflect on who and why he kinda just chose her. I don't know if I made much sense but thats what I feel, crazy forced like it was axed when the manga had a great pace imo it. At the end it didnt look like a clash between anyone it looked like the first girl got shot down for no reason, and then he went with the one who actually confessed like he didnt have no choice
TBCF Hima was aware she was catching feelings several chapters ago when she told Iemori she "couldn't root for [him and Honoka] anymore", but was playing it off.
Honestly I thought we were heading for a "Honoka and Tenchi get together, but realize they are too close and what they feel for each other isn't romantic love, Hima helps him pick up the pieces."
