2.5 Jigen no Ririsa

[Aelthar]

Wanted to like this series but the harem and romance tags are bait. It's not even a slowburn. Mangaka started off as a decent harem romcom but clearly wanted to write some sorta softcore yuri battle series with a cosplay backdrop. But then he backpedals back to harem/romance after 100+ chapters because people were probably sick of the yuri bait. It's not like you can't have a good harem romcom series with the male MC as a deutaragonist for the girls' dreams. Mato Seihei no Slave, Mayonaka Heart Tune and Go-Toubun no Hanayome all do it well while remaining faithful to the harem romcom theme. Nobody will see this but I recommend you skip this series and read something else.

 

[evbil]

Tags is false advertising this isn't a harem and barely a romance. It's more like a slice of life with a majority girls cast and a side of yuribait. Like many others I think the cosplay battles incredibly boring and can drag at times and the most enjoyment I had were when it focuses on okumura. Okumura is sidelined way too much when he's supposed to be the MC. Also the yuribait was getting insufferable at times, I don't dislike yuri but it felt like the author was just shoehorning yuri at every opportunity (to gain a shipper fanbase I guess?), feels like the author wanted to create a yuri series but had to bait non-yuri readers. But what really ticked me off was Tsubaki × Mikari, it felt extremely forced. Mikari is only devoted to senpai, so that ship genuinely felt like character assasination. Some parts genuinely got so boring I speedran through a couple of chapters. Wouldn't recommend if you're looking for a romance or a harem. I'd give this like a 4/10