@korsik No you're not actually, the japanese received it quite well for the most part and plenty of us on non-asians are fine with it too. The ending's rushed and perhaps over-the-top/romanticizied but it's quite thematic.
Natsuo returns Hina's Aishiteiru 愛してる(she uses those words in the letter when breaking up if you check the raw) with his own in ch 275, the photo that was used to break them comes back in the climax and leads to the incident that's used as catalyst to reveal Hina's feelings & more by Kiriya & Marie, a.k.a. what separated them now brings 'em together in a sense (that photo is from when H x N have that fireworks kiss in ch 54 and the mangaka tweeted once that she'd have to re-write FROM around vol 6 to change the ending!" , here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DomesticGirlfriend/comments/ilv1l9/if_id_have_to_change_the_last_id_have_to_redraw/
More of Sasuga's tweets and I love how she's low-key savage towards the haters who misunderstood her story a.k.a. as we say in the DnK community, lack of READING SKILLS 😂 ( raging Rui stans salt turned out to be an initial nuisance, but ultimately pointless, lmao ). She's content with what she wrote, DnK was an overall success where it mattered most(ending too!) and a new manga is coming in 2021:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DomesticGirlfriend/comments/kio7zt/yall_have_probably_seen_the_news_well_more_of_it/
More things that come together but some chapters earlier: Natsuo starts writing again with Hina by his side, and his main motivating factor MUCH early on in the story for writing seriously was to be with Hina, then his career gets kickstarted after writing the award winning novel where she's his muse. There was never any plan for a Rui x Nat ending, she was a rebound lover who's purpose was "the fulfilment of love" which she does by getting in the way of the main couple (H x N) so they don't get together soon after Hina returns from the island. Also, if anyone ever feels like checking this, here's an actual in-depth analysis of Hina x Natsuo's writing connection + other things, present from start-to-finish:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DomesticGirlfriend/comments/j54c74/how_connected_hina_is_to_natsuos_life_journey/
