Hitorijime My Hero, Vol. 1 by Memeko Arii

 

Hitorijime My Hero, Vol. 1 by Memeko Arii
My Rating: ★

Masahiro Setagawa has spent his life catering to other people. Stuck as a gofer for a group of bullies, he’s content with having a place to go. This all ends when a Kousuke Ohshiba, a guy wearing a shirt with a bunch of sayings all over it known for beating up bullies, shows up and beats everyone up. Unsure of what to do next, Masahiro Setagawa finds himself helping someone from school and an abandoned kitten. Who knew that the kid and the cat turned out to be the mystery hero’s little brother! Soon, Masahiro Setagawa finds himself cleaning and cooking for Kousuke Ohshiba, his brother, and all their friends.

Honestly, the only thing I liked about this book was the cute cat drawings any time the cat appeared in the story. Otherwise, I spent a good portion of this book very confused, which I guess makes sense since it turns out that it’s the spin-off of another series from the author. I haven’t read that series, so I’m not familiar with it or the characters from it and I can’t say if that would help with the confusion I had for a good portion of the book. 

That said, I also would not call this a romance either. There’s a massive age difference between Masahiro Setagawa and Kousuke Ohshiba. The age difference would be fine if they were both adults, but they are not. In fact, one is in school, and the other is their much older teacher who is pushing 30! I thought Kousuke Ohshiba was an older student at first, but it turned out he’s actually a teacher who goes around beating up bullies in his free time. He basically takes Masahiro Setagawa in to clean and cook after school since he’s friendly with his younger brother.

The only thing that’s clear is that for some reason everyone at casa de Masahiro supports the two characters getting together. There’s so much wrong here and it’s being presented as a romance that’s supposed to be cute. It’s presented as the story of kid being saved from his bad situation by a hero that he’s now developed a crush on, but it’s actually the story of a teacher abusing his position of authority to take advantage of a student and friend of his younger brother.