An Easy Introduction to Love Triangles – Manga Review

An easy introduction to love triangles – or in Japanese Goukaku no Tame no! Yasashii Sankaku Kankei Nyuumon (合格のための! やさしい三角関係入門) – is a GL Manga by Canno, exploring polysexuality.

Story

It revolves around three girls – Mayuki, Rin and Akira –, who know each other, but don’t know that each knows the other:
Rin & Akira go to the same high school, whereas Mayuki goes to middle school, is in her last year and plans to apply to their high school. Akira is Mayuki’s childhood friend and her crush. Mayuki meets Rin through her mother, who has found a private tutor for Mayuki, as Mayuki’s grades are really bad. She’ll need to study lots, in order to be accepted by the high school.
Mayuki doesn’t know that Rin, her tutor, is in the same school as Akira and that they’re even friends. Rin doesn’t know that Mayuki’s crush is Akira. And Akira doesn’t know that her friend’s student is Mayuki.

The love triangle:

• Mayuki has been crushing on Akira for a while now, but as she gets to know Rin, she also develops feelings for her.
• Akira likes Mayuki platonically, and is oblivious to her Kohai’s feelings, as she herself is in love with Rin, but doesn’t dare confess, knowing Rin had a difficult past.
• Rin planned to never fall in love again, as she only keeps hurting people, but ends up slowly falling for Mayuki and then also Akira.

This was definitely a fresh approach to love triangles – no, actually, it is finally the literal definition of a love triangle. (Although the trope is used almost everywhere in YA, while it is called “love triangle”, it’s usually much more of a “love corner”…)

I found it a bit too dramatic here and there, and wished the author would just let them get together… But I’m generally not much a fan of drama and have read worse.

A bit off-putting is the pace.

It starts very slowly, but the 2nd volume takes a quick turn in the middle of it. It felt as if the author wanted to explore their relationship more, but then their publisher/agent gave them a volume/chapter/page limit, I guess? ‘Cause the pace of each volume is quite different, and doesn’t feel like something that’s been planned.

Not too bad, though, I did enjoy it overall!

I do wish there’s a 3rd volume. Although their story is finished, I’d still like to have more of them just being happy girlfriends… <3

And I like how the characters have been handled.

While they do end up in a poly/throuple, only one of them knew they’re poly from the start. Another one figured it out in the middle of it, and the third one still is coming to terms with it at the end.
While it sure would’ve been great, if it was much more fluffy and lighthearted, it’s better than nothing. And at least there’s no homophobia! Just a bit of “polyphobia” from a few side characters…

Totally recommendable, though. Go read it, if you’re up for poly.

Read the series: 30th January 2024
~Arden Skye

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