Why does every Rom Com always dedicate so much time on “The Contest”, or “The Play” or “The Pageant”?
My theories:
1. Like a tournament arc in a battle manga, it allows characters to compete against each other in a way that feels organic (writing-wise)
2. A pageant setting allows the author to draw things that they normally wouldn’t be able to draw in romcoms - swimsuit competitions, having girls confess to the judges, what have you
3. It allows every girl to compete, even the ones you know have no shot at all normally (which makes this one even weirder, since half of the contestants were introduced solely for this competition and now like three of them are eliminated)
4. Because it’s all a competition, the author is free to reset all progress as need be (flashing back to Medaka Kuroiwa where the ultimate goal of the whole arc was to confess to Medaka as a judge without consequence)
It’s probably a mix of all of them.