[Spoilers]There's No Way a Side Character Like Me Could Be Popular, Right? (vol 1)LN discussion thread
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This is a slice of life romantic comedy in a high school setting. There's already a topic about the publisher (Tentai books, this being their first release) General information about the book, and a sample can be found here. I wanted to have a place for folks who have actually read the book to discuss. As this book is not serialized, I'm going to assume that whoever is a guest on this thread has read to entire volume - so no need for spoiler tags
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as @EmpactWB noted in the other thread, the relationship began with Yuuki being a 'fake boyfriend' as bug repellent; she's annoyed about being hit on all the time, even more annoyed with being in her brother's shadow. Our protagonist (who see's himself as a side character) is oblivious to the genuine feelings that she is developing for him, he's also oblivious to the crush that the tennis idol has on him. He isn't dense, he doesn't have crippling low self esteem either, he's just grown accustomed to everyone being afraid of him and avoiding him, so he doesn't see the signs. I don't see this developing into a harem comedy (I might be wrong) yes, now two girls have feeling for him, but he really only knows one of them (beyond her name ) and he's developing a genuine friendship with his 'fake' girlfriend. I predict some drama next volume when they drop the 'fake' from their relationship (and Miss Tennis star, gets the nerve to confess) A triangle does not a harem make. The 'hot teacher' I think is a red herring, she's looking out for him like a good teacher would, but I haven't seen anything that would indicate there's anything else 'there'.
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It’s actually pretty cute when Touka gets blindsided by Yuuji’s honest feelings time and again. I can also sympathize with the whole “constantly compared to big bro” thing, though it never felt as serious as she’s had it. I’m kind of hoping for a scene where Touka meets up with the teacher and says something to the effect of “He’s pretending to be my boyfriend, but I’m no longer pretending to be his girlfriend.” It should really settle the issue of the synopsis claiming the teacher has feelings for the MC.
Speaking of the synopsis, he hasn’t figured out that the girl from the tennis team likes him and even the readers aren’t sold on the teacher’s motive. I was expecting a much more hectic volume. It still had plenty of action and drama, don’t get me wrong; I’m actually glad it didn’t go right into the tri/quadrangle and just hinted at that while developing the characters and relationships introduced early on. It was way more chill than I expected, and it works pretty well.
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It was a decent read but I've already seen a lot of the the tropes in this book before such as the male character looking like a thug or how the girlfriend starts off as wanting a false boyfriend. That being said there were some genuinely funny moments and I cared enough to finish it so I guess I'll give future volumes a shot.
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@EmpactWB
I'm curious as to what she intends to beat her brother at? (or be first to achieve)? A relationship (boyfriend/girlfriend)? Being in love? losing virginity?
We know that lots of girls fawn over Ike, but the story so far (ironically) has him as a side character, we don't see what he does day-to-day. Does Ike have a girlfriend? -
@Jon-Mitchell I’m thinking “getting someone to fall in love with them,” since there’s no mention of Haruma having a love interest. The only girl we see him hanging out with is the one that likes Yuuji, and all the shallow girls seem to think they have a shot with Haruma still. If he was in a serious relationship, I think there’d be a lot more conniving instead of the overt measures we saw.
EDIT: Just checked, and one of the irritating first-years who were pestering Touka explicitly says Haruma is single when asking to be introduced. Chapter 8.
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volume 2 is up
kindle version is up on Amazon, of direct from tentai
