I received a copy from Kodansha through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
When Akari Sayo discovers her boyfriend is married, her feelings are flipped upside down. Not only is her boyfriend cheating, but he’s made her the other woman! Before she can sort out her feelings on the matter, she’s thrown into a crazy situation. Not Akari about to manage her first documentary on her own, but the musician she’s meant to record and interview wants to fake being lovers. Chizuru Kobuchi needs to write music for a romance story, but he’s never been in love, and Akari seems perfect for the job.
The fake dating trope claps, but this version of it feels pretty iffy. We follow Akari from the moment she learns her boyfriend is actually a married man. She’s upset by the turn of events, but it’s not like they were in love even though she was hoping marriage would eventually be on the table. Then we have Chizuru, the pushy and strange musician who wants to be fake lovers… or his version of fake lovers anyway.
The artwork is amazing, and I really wanted to like this book, but Chizuru is creepy and totally taking advantage of Akari. He knows he and his manager never accepted the documentary, and if Akari wants this documentary to happen, she has to accept his proposition. It’s already totally out of balance, especially since his idea of fake lovers isn’t in appearance only. He wants to get physical right from the start even though Akari is clearly uncomfortable with it. Plus, there was no discussion. He just went from zero to 100!
The power imbalance is already beyond skewed from the start. The voice of reason in this story is brief, and Akari seems to think she actually has a say in how this fake relationship is supposed to go. Fake lovers? They’re real lovers with a huge power imbalance. The only fake part is that they’re pretending to be in love at some point, I’m assuming in the next issue, before actually falling in love. I would feel a lot differently about the story if there wasn’t a huge power imbalance, if there was a legitimate discussion about what being fake lovers entails, and if the physical parts were organic with mutual interest rather than flying out of the blue and one sided.
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