Shimotsuki-san Likes the Mob (WN) Chapter part5 Discussion

This novel has a interesting way of using the matter of perspective, since the main character is thrusted to the role of a"mob", or more of a secondary character, equivalent of love rivals of the MC of a romcom, like Mikawa Kai from Seto no Hanayome (not personality-wise, position-wise). There are reasons for this and why characters' viewpoints are twisted to that they're viewing it under the lense of romcoms and their character development are tied into it (especially Kotaro, Kirari and that other "heroine")

Spoiler

The character comparing themselves and their situation to LN romcoms is part of the problem that gets solved later. It was intentional to have the character think that way. Kirari and Azusa arcs were pretty good. Kirari tackles of the issue of being true to yourself while Azusa tackles the idea of replacing a lost loved one and the pain of turndown and moving forward past her heartbreak.

Kotaro's arcs were also pretty nice too, tackling mainly on self-worth and growing out of the romcom perspective and negative viewpoint

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Now for its flaws.

The story has some pretty big problems. I think the author drags some of the arcs too long and some of past events keeps being dredged up. You don't need to repeat it like 3 times, people get the idea as to what happened. Frankly those events should've been covered only in the "recollection" arc. Filler arcs also gets dragged out WAY too much, it was honestly annoying and painful to read them.

Spoiler

Also characters like Yuzuki really needed more fleshing out, I know her character development was brought about by Ryouma (since she is framed as the central heroine for Ryouma's "story", her character development is more or less off-screen which is why Kotaro left it to him to fix her arc/problem), but quite frankly it's still the weakest, just chalking it up to "she has a strong core" in the end, the other two "main" heroine arcs were better. It probably would've been better if she had a big "fall" arc too like the two (probably tackle on that personality of her wanting to be needed but it seems like Ryouma already fixed that during those off-screen moments, at least for now. It would be interesting if Ryouma didn't choose her and chose Kirari though, I can picture the author making scenarios about it). I think Shimotsuki herself could also needs a better fleshing out too. She's a bit too "developed", leaving only little to expect something more from her and whenever there's a development for her, the pace is kind of rushed.

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Overall it has a pretty interesting take on the RomCom perspective and had a lot of potential, but it failed to deliver or messed on certain parts a lot. Also, did I already mention those fillers were annoying?