It’s been a while since I read a reverse harem shoujo manga after Ouran High School Host Club (OHSHC) and Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (The Wallflower). I came across Kiss Him, Not Me on Netflix and the cover photo and synopsis caught my attention. I watched 4 episodes before dropping the series and picking it up again recently when I’m in a shoujo anime drought.
Kiss Him, Not Me centers around a high school fujoshi (female fans of Boys’ Love aka BL or Yaoi), Serinuma Kae who is chubby but kind hearted. One day, her favourite anime character, Shion died and mourning for his death, she unintentionally slimmed down to a beauty that surprises her school mates. Many of them couldn’t recognize her because she looked entirely like a different person. Her transformation attracted the attention of multiple suitors who ended up competing with each other that forces them to hang around each other most of the time.
The main characters have numbers in their family name. Igarashi Yusuke (5) and Nanashima Nozomu (7) are Serinuma Kae’s classmates. She often becomes excited seeing Igarashi and Nanashima together. Both of them fell for Serinuma’s beauty after her drastic weight loss. Shinomiya Hayato (4), a first year student and member of the health committee also fell in love with Serinuma after her transformation. All of them are considered ‘ikemen’ with different personalities, aggressively pursuing Serinuma.
Is this manga/anime superficial? Not quite. There are characters who like Serinuma before and after her weight loss. They like her for her kindness and energy. Mustsumi Asuma (6) is a third year student, president of the history club that Serinuma is in. He treated Serinuma kindly regardless of her appearance and was the only one who recognized her after her weight loss. He doesn’t realize that he likes Serinuma until Igarashi asks him and he becomes more aware of his feelings for Serinuma after a series of events. Other than that, Mustumi is laid back and less competitive as compared to the others and truly enjoyed the company of everyone, saying “ I like Serinuma” and also “I like you” to Igarashi and everyone.
Nishina Shima (2), a first year student is also a fujoshi who likes Kae. She is rich and cosplays at comic events. She first appeared in the series, cosplaying as a guy in ‘Grey Butler’ obviously a parody of Black Butler and saving Serinuma from an aggressive photographer. Everyone thought she was a guy until they saw each other in high school to realize that she is actually a girl. Shima likes Serinuma for who she is as they shared similar interests and Serinuma gave her hope early in her doujinshi career under the pen name of Yokoshima. Shima is always searching for Serinuma but unable to find her because Serinuma looked like a different person after her weight loss. The 4 guys and 1 girl who likes the girl ended up hanging around together for lunch and events. They will make sure that nobody spends alone time with Serinuma.
Secondary characters are funny as well. Serinuma’s friend Nakano Amane or ‘Ah-Chan’, also a fujoshi always helps Serinuma reach an understanding whenever she is confused with her pursuers’ actions that somehow Serinuma will see it through the lens of an otaku. Serinuma’s older brother, Takuro is also a funny character, who’s often seen at home, fighting with Serinuma, calling her fat and easily bribed with food and money for information. His dynamic with Nanashima is also funny as Takuro is the to-go guy if they need his help to act as a cock-blocker. Serinuma’s father, Hideo is the protective father with a daughter’s complex. He is seldom home due to his work with the government and when he saw his daughter with a group of ikemen, he started stalking them after bribing his son for information. It was until he learnt that his daughter is a fujoshi that he hoped that she would be with one of the guys instead, giving them the approval to pursue her.
Another character that has quite a lot of screen time is Mutsumi’s brother, Kazuma. Kazuma is the exact opposite of Asuma. He is more carefree, flirtatious regardless of gender and often likes to bully his kind brother to get a reaction out of him. Both brothers are close but Asuma is always nice and will give in to his brother most of the time. On the other hand, Kazuma can be mean and locks Asuma in the shed or locker that causes Asuma’s claustrophobia. After seeing that Asuma likes Serinuma, Kazuma decided to pursue Serinuma. They ended up having a card battle to decide who gets to win Serinuma. It was also after this battle that Asuma came to terms with his feelings and confessed to Serinuma.
The anime ended where all of them confesses to Serinuma that they liked her and for her to give an answer after a one-on-one date which she treated it like an otome game. Serinuma being the fujoshi she is, ended up choosing 2D over 3D. As the manga progresses, Serinuma’s childhood friend, Mitsuboshi Takeru (3) appears. He is the voice actor of one of Serinuma’s favorite characters, Akane and they met at an anime event on stage. Mitsuboshi is obsessed with Serinuma and likes her chubby because both of them were chubby when they were young and Serinuma protected him from bullies. He transferred to the same high school to get close to Serinuma and learnt that the guys like Serinuma after her transformation and only likes her for her looks. He abducted Serinuma and fed her with food to make her fat again and forced her to marry him. The failed attempt left them on a cliff that was about to collapse but Mutsumi saved him and protected him from a hard land, causing Mutsumi to be in a coma for weeks.
It was after this incident that Serinuma realized her feelings for Mutsumi that she confessed her feelings for him in front of everyone and all of them accepted her decision and were happy for them. The couple dated and there were ups and downs in their relationship, such as getting into a fight when Serinuma needed to pick between 2D and 3D and Mutsumi attending college in Kyoto. The manga ended with 55 chapters, where Serinuma and Mutsumi get married and have a son named Shion. I am extremely happy with this ship Serinuma x Mutsumi, because at the beginning, Igarashi actually had quite a lot of screen time and he came to like Serinuma for who she is, fat or thin. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up with Serinuma x Igarashi pairing. Whereas on the other hand, Mutsumi didn’t stand out with his laid back personality but showed kindness throughout and as the series progressed, after Mutsumi realized he liked Serinuma, there was a sense that it might end up with Serinuma x Mutsumi pairing and it did.
In the series, there were small bits of manga references, for example, Black Butler, Fullmetal Alchemist, Shingeki no Kyojin, One Piece etc. The mangaka, Junko created a couple of Yaoi mangas and there are quite a lot of BL moments in Kiss Me, Not Him too. I actually thought it was quite funny how fujoshis are depicted similarly in many anime and manga. This series is worth watching if you want something light hearted and get your share of ikemens.
Monochronos 