This was unexpectedly good.
Seems to strike a balance between the two main characters in a way that keeps things interesting so far.
It's also a nice blend of the "character improvement plan" and "shojo princess banishment" tropes, with a dash of gender inverted roles to keep it fresh, since the common tropes so far are usually "banished evil princess" and "guy helps unpopular girl be accepted." I hope the character arcs are nice and long. It would do the series a disservice to have the male MC improve too quickly...