Title: I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School Vol. 7
Author: Ui Kashima
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 200
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Publication Date: June 15, 2023
The Story
We are here at the final volume of I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School. Everything got wrapped up but not before we got even more unnecessary obstacles thrown in our way.
While we get the pairing we all expected (and one that came out of the blue), the volume focused on getting Unoki and Toramaru together. Despite the fact that for, God knows what reason, Unoki STILL can’t confess his feelings, he asks Toramaru out on a date. Looks like he’s finally going to say the things when, all of a sudden, Toramaru’s mother pops up out of nowhere. She’s so strict and controlling that Toramaru ends up breaking it off with Unoki before they officially start dating!
But don’t worry because in about 10 pages, it’s all a moot point and he FINALLY confesses. Then, the “demon bitch” gets shut down and they live happily ever after.
The End.
Finally.
Final Thoughts
What an absolute mess of a story this turned into. The first four volumes of this series were absolute perfection. It took the whole “teasing” subgenre and flipped it on its head. Instead of having a girl show her affection through teasing, she only kept Unoki by her side because she enjoyed being around him. Everyone picked up on and it eventually squeezed a confession out of her. It seemed as if all that was left was to have Toramaru and Unoki get together but… NOPE!
They throw in some side character, make her a rival and then reveal that she’s not really a rival but someone who is rooting for them!? Not only was that a waste of a character and an arc but it made no sense whatsoever! Then, they have Unoki confess his feelings but they played it off as if it wasn’t a confession despite the fact that everyone, including Toramaru, knew he confessed! Then, somehow, being blatantly confessed to is too confusing for our characters because Toramaru had no idea if it was a confession or not! He straight-up told her he liked her!
What kind of non-sensical BS is that!? Then, on top of it all, right when we get to the final volume, for whatever reason, they felt the need to interject Toramaru’s mother into the mix to drive them apart. Really? With a single chapter left to go you throw an artificial barrier in the way as if it’s supposed to make us believe it will stop them from getting together? Now you’re just insulting your reader’s intelligence.
The confession would have felt special had they not blown it three volumes ago. It would have felt even more special if the manga just stuck to how it started… with Toramaru dragging Unoki around everywhere but slowly throwing more hints his way. All Unoki had to do was pick on the hints and realize his feelings then find a way to confess them. It’s so easy! The story wrote itself and yet, Ui Kashima thought it was a good idea to make the story make four left turns but instead of ending back up in the same spot, they somehow ended somewhere completely different which wasn’t the intended destination.
I just can’t wrap my head around these final three volumes. How could anyone, including the editor for the series, think that any of this was a good idea!?
“Oh! You wish to derail your story? Approved! The readers will love that!”
I can sum up this series in two words: Wasted Potential.
Had the story just continued to build on the first four volumes and cut out the unneeded side characters, and the confession that wasn’t a confession that really was a confession that turned into, yet, another confession, this would have been an amazing romance story.
Instead, we got this. But at least I saw it through to the end.
Overall Rating: 2/5
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/theouterhaven
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was purchased for review
