Time for a light novel review here. This is a pretty famous property and I remember the anime was popular when it aired, and nowadays it still has a big fanbase. I never watched the anime, although I was always curious about it.

Synopsis: Hachiman Hikigaya is a cynic. "Youth" is a crock, he believes--a sucker's game, an illusion woven from failure and hypocrisy. But when he turns in an essay for a school assignment espousing this view, he's sentenced to work in the Service Club, an organization dedicated to helping students with problems in their lives! How will Hachiman the Cynic cope with a job that requires--gasp!--optimism?

As most light novels (that I'm aware), the story is told in the first person, and everything that happens, you get to read what the character is thinking. All the time. But that's not necessarily bad, as that's what makes light novels different from other types of books. The downside is that the MC is constantly thinking how other people suck and how the girls are slurs, and that can be a little bit annoying at first. That's why I stopped reading it halfway through the book and almost dropped it.

But, this is a story about a cynical and isolated teenager who starts to learn how to make friends, and also grows and starts seeing the good side of other people, and also starts understanding them better. That being said, after I started reading it again, and started a new story arc, I started to enjoy this novel again, as the “slut calling” thoughts started to fade.

The characters are interesting and their development over time is good, which is a must for an everyday school romcom. The art is also very nice, and they do a great job of giving us a reference for imagining their situations and story clearly in our heads.

For the comedy, it’s a hit-or-miss, because you have to like cynical and isolated characters, and also references for random Japanese shows, places, and history. But if you like this, you’ll have a great time with this novel.

In the end, I'm glad I gave this novel a second chance, and I think that the parts I didn't like won't be going to be a problem in the next volumes, so I think I'm going to continue reading this series. It's only a shame that there's no Kindle edition available, and buying a physical copy here in Brazil would cost a lot.

A friendship where you're always trying to be considerate of the other person, always worrying about what they think, always responding to every single text, always seeking their approval and then finally connecting with them, isn't friendship at all.

Review of My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong as I Expected (light novel), Vol. 1 by Wataru Watari (Author), Ponkan 8 (Artist) #books #bookNotes #review #lightNovels #books