Having the desires is completely fine. Expressing them, unsolicited, to someone who's not attracted to you is inappropriate. He understands this - great! There's a difference between shutting up about it and pretending you're a desireless monk, though - and the misunderstanding over "being uncomfortable with sex stuff ('not good with erotic stuff')" and his continual suppression of any outward expression of his attraction to her provides the fuel for the comedy in the whole series I guess. Fine.
What makes him a hypocrite is the fact that the dude literally says "I want her to think 'this guy isn't like other men, he's not looking at my face or my body, but at my personality.' And then I'll ask her out." It's a different kind of cynical as the guys who are hitting on her because they think she's hot, but it's equally motivated by selfish desires.
That's the joke that the manga's making. There's no other way to read his little mantra to himself than that he's full of contradictions and more than a little hypocritical (after he has her put on the shorts,) "Yes, my human rights awareness is proper. I am a sincere man. [
Panty-eyes.]" And it's a funny joke. The whole thing is relatable on a certain level, and I'm glad somebody's writing this story.
Like, it seems like what it wants to mine for humor is the tension that comes from trying to embrace new and unfamiliar progressive values in good faith, but feeling like you're walking on eggshells while doing so. The characters are mindfully trying to be better people in a conscious way and also
performing (both senses of the word) the kind of "sensitivity" that's expected of good people in the "modern era." The way the author's trying to do that is by latching onto how doing that requires a kind of self-examination that feels unnatural, leading to them getting all in their own heads and doubting everything they do.
There's a lot to laugh at, there, in a sympathetic kind of way. And I think a lot of it is a look inside the author's own head, which is why the characters feel authentic. Thus, I think it's coming from a good place - "laughing
with, instead of
at," as I said previously.
... and that's why a couple of moments stick out to me where the story wants to have its cake and eat it, too. Yes, it's hypocritical of him to think he's earned a Special Boy cookie for putting in the bare minimum to control his "baser impulses" when he lives in a "reiwa era where looking at someone's panties without their consent isn't permitted" and
everyone else is also controlling those impulses. The joke relies on the MC internalizing equally-outdated sexist tropes about all men being wolves and to a lesser extent, women basically being property whose value is diminished when looked at lewdly by others. Not what the author was going for.
Similarly, one of the punchlines in the safety shorts bit is her DESPERATELY wanting to know whether his interest comes from him desiring and wanting to be possessive of her before she talks herself out of it by saying basically "no, he said he's not good with sexy stuff, so he must just be a 'gentlemanly sir' looking out for me." Thank GOD we were spared the usual dialogue where the man lectures the woman that "as a girl, you need to value your body more" and she gets all heart-eyes over it.
But it still requires the idea that it's an okay thing to do to demand that a girl adjust her perfectly fine wardrobe just to accommodate your weird sexual hang-ups. She didn't thoughtlessly wear those undies - she specifically picked them out because she was excited to go out with him. By "correcting" her behavior, he's either implying she's an idiot who didn't know better or a slut who did. Yikes. That sucks. Again, not what the author was going for.
I say all that to get to this point:
While I really appreciate what the series is doing in making the humor the people, the above bits highlight that it's a really short walk over towards accidentally making the joke that they're trying to be sensitive at all, when it "sucks all the romance out of romance." (for example, this is a world where your romcom can't have an earnest kabedon for its own sake, because that would come across as super rapey in the real world - the joke needs to acknowledge that in some way or the premise falls apart)
It makes me a li'l nervous, and feels like maybe author's playing with fire. I like how it's handled so far (two whole chapters lol) but... yeah.
