I'm the only one feeling the manga is taking the right track again?
I feel the same way - and I just binge read all of it for the first time, it feels like it was good in the beginning, went bad for a while, and is now becoming good again. I wanted to drop it at chapter 44 tbh, but if it keeps going in the way it is NOW then I will be damn glad I didn't. When in the **** will Super Mina come back!?!
It feels like the author had something good until chapter 25, then that chapter was where it started becoming worse, and worse, until it became all about the robot club for a while, which was when it was at it's Absolute worst, and now that it's refocusing on the relationship it's getting better again.
This is a romance manga, it got way too complicated, had far too many B plots, and now I hope that they can just focus on the romance and child raising. That being said, I do hope that the Mina arc with her hiding the other Mina to serve as her replacement gets a proper ending, because amidst the chaos it felt like that was the only compelling B plot.
It is my sincere hope that if the anime gets a second season, that the story has an overhaul with input from the author to improve it so that the story stays more consistent and doesn't become so overbearingly complicated. That is something I did not think I would ever say.
Beyond that I think it mainly just needs to refocus on what it was originally, and might legitimately want to retcon a non insignificant amount of things - namely, the Ghost. This should be a Sci-fi story, adding supernatural elements is not necessary at all, and beyond that it only shows up once has since been entirely absent, which shows that it was entirely unnecessary in the first place and probably just put in to try and spice up the story where it should have leaned more into something like say - SUPER MINA, and the fact that she has seen normal Mina's locked up memories.
The side plot with the robot company wanting to study Mamoru is fine, but should be made perhaps a little more tactful. The plot with the sales woman caring for her robot assistant should also be perhaps expanded - Humans having relationships with robots is the main premise, so having their relationship be a B plot would be vastly more acceptable than the action with the robot club. To this end the short strip with them in the mountains was great - it needs more of THAT energy.
To this end I don't want my review to be purely negative, as I came here after watching the anime - which I THOROUGHLY enjoyed. This series has incredible potential, and if it focuses more on developing the old characters for a bit it could course correct. If the author wants to have a more action packed side to the story they should make a separate side story manga that is not the main one - that way they can make the stories they want to make without altering the original in ways that it is not geared to be.
I say all of this being a lover of wholesome slice of life manga in the vein of Senko-san or Onimai. This series has MASSIVE potential, it truly did feel like it was lost for a bit, but the last couple chapters seems to actually be making a recovery. Lets hope that that recovery doesn't falter.
Edit: To that extent I do like the child raising side of the story, and having the story split between the two main plots of the child in school, and the family romance at home could be a good way to split the romance side of the story, and the non-romance side of the story - if it doesn't become too extreme or have too high of stakes.
