The characters are the reason to read this manga, there's not much else going for it.
Nariyuki: A bland self-insert mc. He doesn't have any traits beyond "poor" and "dedicated". That's not necessarily a bad thing, as most people don't actually want harem/romcom protags to have too strong of a personality lest they become unrelatable.
Ogata Rizu: Easily the worst of the bunch. It's not a failing of the character, but rather the author's use of her. Both the narrative and Nariyuki himself treat her as more of a pet than a person, and her arc is incredibly short and easily resolved.
Fumino: Strong character dragged down by indecisiveness. She plays the role of "I can't be crushing on the mc, my friends like him!" which is an okay start but we get effectively no time past that trait as it takes her until the literal end of the series to come to with it. Her resolution with her dad felt too easy as well, he has emotionally neglected her for years as her sole guardian but it's all made okay instantaneously by a message from his dead wife and never addressed again.
Uruka: Probably the strongest of the bunch, if just for simplicity's sake. She likes swimming, she likes her friends, and she likes Nariyuki. She's a seemingly endless beacon of positivity and when that positivity falters you know things are serious. She motivates Nariyuki, and he motivates her. It's a good combination.
Asumi: A bit of a weird one. Early on, she doesn't have much going for her. She's an older tease, but that's about it. When they do get around to giving her an arc, though, it hits. She wants to be a doctor because she looks up to her parents who are, but her anxieties gnaw away at her and make her fail. It's a mirror to the same problems the other girls face, but it's confronted more directly rather than just repeatedly saying "I'm going to keep going down this path!" and then being put on the backburner.
Sensei: Crucify me for this one... I don't like her. A lot of people like her for her two-sided nature, at school being an ice queen perfect teacher while at home and on the inside being an absolute mess. It's a good dichotomy, but it goes too far in the mess territory and never really shows her good side as a teacher. Her true self is incapable of cooking, cleaning, understanding others, and even basic tasks like taking out the trash or purchasing groceries. At school, we're told she is respected and a great teacher but never shown it. We're just made to assume as much even though her main showing as a teacher with Ogata Rizu and Fumino was a failure both academically and emotionally. I genuinely can't understand her crazy success in character polls. I guess people just want to fix her.
Endings: The author does something I've not seen elsewhere where instead of a single ending, each of the five main girls gets their own ending where they end up with the MC, each about eight chapters as a sort of "What If?". I see this lauded as good because everyone can get their ending (well, unless they wanted harem end) and have a satisfying conclusion, but honestly it felt weak to me. The only ending that directly tied into both the theming and events of the manga was Uruka's, while the others just felt like wish fulfillment. It felt a bit like the author wasn't confident enough to pick one ending, rather than really going for full branching paths with setup and payoff. I would've rather the extra 32 chapters just be more combined story and then one definitive ending.
Last but not least, the harem trappings
"Lucky" pervert moments: A constant throughout this. They're seemingly played for comedy, but usually don't actually do anything with it beyond the initial fanservice. Oops, a kid pulled down their skirts. Oops, Ogata Rizu's breasts are too big and caused a wardrobe malfunction. Oops, sensei landed her ass on Nariyuki's face for the fifth time. She must main Princess Peach and love a good side-B.
No other male characters: Technically Nariyuki has two male friends and a little brother, but they get even less page time combined than his dead dad. There's a couple other dads running around too, but again, they're usually one-note characters with a single trait and next to no page time. It really hammers in how much the series is just about the girls.
Only the MC has agency: Truly, the world revolves around him. If there is a problem, he solves it. If there is a choice, he makes it. Even if the problem is very specifically one of the girls' and unrelated to him, he will be essential to its resolution. On the off chance they actually do make a choice, it's at his advisement.
The girls don't actually like each other: following up on the last one, the MC is the core of the world and everyone's interactions. We're told the girls are great friends, but we're never really shown it. Even when they're very specifically on their own doing their own things, the conversation always cycles back to him. You heard that right, a series with nearly 200 chapters and a 5:1 female-to-male ratio still somehow managed to fail the Bechdel test.
It's a genuine shame. When the characters are just living their lives separated from the aforementioned problems they're all incredibly charming. But you can't escape it, these issues rear up in literally every chapter.
If you liked this series, you'll probably also like Nisekoi
