Tokyo’s Most Affectionate Chapter 70 Discussion

It's basically one of those novels like Something Something Salted Fish where a guy gets a system that gives him various skills (e.g. Playing an instrument, martial arts, painting, whatever) as he makes progress with different girls, except that it's set in Japan instead of in China.

My overall impression is that it's okay. For once, the author writing a harem novel seems to actually have experience with women. Well, it's clear to me that there's still a lot he doesn't know, and he made a few dumb claims and showed that he misunderstood some things that would otherwise be good advice, but recently I've realized that I got to know women too well to enjoy most of such stories (because they feel too far removed from reality regarding women), so maybe it's my personal bias ruining my enjoyment of reading, something most readers won't experience.

An example of what I mean in the previous sentence:

Spoiler

While on a date, the protagonist asks one girl where they should go (for their date), and then goes on to explain (well, the narrator does) that it's important to consider the girl's feelings. At other times, he also says it's not good to give in too much as a man and let the girl decide everything.

What is actually true is that the guy should lead, and he should make decisions on the date (like, where to go), BUT he should make decisions while taking the girl's feelings into consideration (i.e. Make it a factor in his decision making), but NEVER ask her to make any decisions (at most ask her for details so you can decide better). So at other times he understands that he ought to lead, but he doesn't quite do it enough in practice.

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So anyway, the story is a mishmash of good and bad examples, and it's precisely because of the bad example that it's very realistic that he got dumped as is written in the synopsis. Except he thinks he did nothing wrong, but when I read the description of his interactions with the girl who "sold" him, I sensed some simp energy from it. What this means is that you will not enjoy this story very much if you are very experienced with and knowledgeable about women, because you will probably criticize the MC in your head like me, lmao.

Explanation what was simp-like about what he did:

Spoiler

He agreed to go out with a girl online without ever meeting her or touching her (guys, women can decide when to have s*x, but it's us having the power to decide when to upgrade relationship status, and if it's not, it means you got manipulated or were too thirsty for P) and was desperate to meet her (not much, but it was enough for her to sense it). I'm pretty sure there were 1-2 things more, but I can't recall. Anyway, it may not seem like much, but women are sharp when it comes to sensing this.

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This aside, the protagonist is kind of okay. I like his approach to the system and its missions. It's just that he's a bit bland. He just wants to study well to earn lots of monies in the future, and that's the extent of his passions and aspirations. His personality isn't very strong, but we can see some of it through his behavior, but his physical attractiveness makes up too big a part of his character. Also, it was said earlier that MC had some relationships in his past life, but not in this one, and he often acts like a virg*n anyway (yes, a virg*n with a high resistance to women, for a virg*n that is, but nonetheless a virg*n).

Also, can the Chinese f*ck off with the foot fetish already? It was several times that MC said "I'm not into feet" and then stared at "beautiful, sexy jade feet" of some chick. Like bro, I really hate this thing. Japanese and their "erot*c zone" that they think the nape of the neck is at least is normal, if also quite random.

It's a bit too early to talk about other characters. The love interests and their friends (I think there's literally one dude that is neither, everyone else is chicks and their friends or acquaintances) are okay so far. They do need a lot more depth, but it's early on in the novel, so there's plenty of time for it. The love interests aren't particularly to my liking, but they're not bad per se.

The setting is okay (I mentioned it earlier), while plot is also okay, but I feel like the pace should've been slightly, slightly faster in terms of developments. One thing I don't like is that MC doesn't really have his own life except for working, studying, and hanging out with love interests as per system missions. It'd be nice if it was at least hinted that he's doing other stuff.

Oh, and one more thing. I think it'd have been better if the system missions had some penalties or forced the protagonist to make some choices like in Absolute Choice. It'd have been more fun.

Overall not a bad novel, but while I hesitated, I ultimately won't look for MTL. It's not that good.