Love decided or created.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Musawo
Translation/Adaptation: Jennifer Ward
What They Say
“Love is forbidden. When you turn 16, the government will assign your marriage partner.”
Yukari is dull. He doesn’t even stand out enough to be bullied – he’s just a generally lower-middle-class kid. He’s in love with Misaki, the most popular girl in school. There’s just one problem: He’s 15, one year away from receiving his government-assigned marriage partner. He normally wouldn’t have the courage to defy the law, but his sickly classmate Ririna still believes in love, and won’t stop goading him into confessing his feelings!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Due to a declining birth population, the government has decided to assign a person their future partner by the time they are 16 based on their genetics. This seems to be a popular way to secure the future, but Yukari and his friends are not very on board with the idea. Yukari has a crush on classmate, Takasaki for a long time and days before his sixteenth birthday; he musters up the courage to confess to her. Amazingly enough, it’s mutual.
Takasaki suggests they kiss and just as they are having a moment, Yukari’s phone alerts that he has important government notice. At first Takasaki shows up his future partner, but government officials show up with documents that indicate someone else and later an email correction arrives. Yukari and Takasaki may have mutual love, but it isn’t possible for them to be together.
The day comes that Yukari is to meet his future bride, Lilina. He tries to get out of it, so he can talk to Takasaki, but she coldly informs he’s making trouble for her and he should just go meet his new partner. Yukari is surprised that Lilina is so pretty, but she’s equally not interested marriage. Even though the families are getting along, Lilina makes her escape and Yukari is forced to go after her.
When he finally finds her they clear the air, including why Yukari was so aloof. Surprisingly, Lilina is very interested in Yukari’s situation with Takasaki and is willing to help him figure out why Takasaki has acted so inconsistently. He meets Lilina at her school at her requests and discovers Lilina is not well liked at school. She’s smart, but is a loner. They go out and run into Takasaki, which give Lilina the perfect opportunity introduce herself. The two of them spend time together talking about Yukari, but Takasaki’s reasons for liking Yukari seem a bit superficial.
Lilina invites Yukari over one day and without telling him she has also invited Takasaki, who she now consider a friend. She encourages the two of them to kiss again, since they love each other. Takasaki takes the lead and they kiss again. Lilina’s face betrays her and Takasaki privately says to Lilina she has to learn to love Yukari, because she’s not the one for him, and that her kiss with Yukari really did trouble Lilina.
In Summary
I really don’t have a strong feeling about this story. The premise is decent, but the story moves a bit slowly. There is some angst, which gives the story the likable but uncomfortable feeling, but it really just didn’t grab me much at all. I’m still curious to see where this story is going but is it really worth it to purchase this book? I’m 50-50 on whether to recommend. I’m sure a niche audience would like it a lot, but for my tastes, it really isn’t my thing. I think, to be honest, the way the girls were drawn bothered me the most. I’m sure those that like the female form wouldn’t complain about how they were drawn purposely in sexy positions (all the time), large breasts and an over-voluptuous figure. I don’t mind sexy women and I’m even 100% okay with a few gratuitous fan service scene, but eh, this manga was just okay.
Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: B-
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Older Teen
Released By: Kondansha Comics
Release Date: August 22nd, 2017
MSRP: $12.99
