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← darkroom
[Spoilers] There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover! Unless… ~Next Shine~ - Episodes 1-5
Our favorite wacky, wholesome klutz, romcom yuri is back and this time Renako's kissing all the heroines all to herself lol.
It's equivalent of 5 episodes of the anime, and the pace they're on is 4 episodes per volume, so it should reach your spoiler easily. The extra episode might be because Volume 4 is a bit longer than volumes 1-3
I'm glad about 5 more episodes, but sad about only 5 more episodes.
As a fan that read the series the moment the English Novels released, I can 100% say that I could NOT have asked for a better adaptation of this gem of a series!
Everything has been done perfectly. The pacing was great, everything that needed to be shown, was shown and nothing felt rushed or dragged in the slightest.
The voice acting was superb. Everyone in the cast has done a phenomenal job bringing their character to life and bringing out the best of their qualities. That goes for both all protagonist roles but also the side and one off characters.
The animation and visuals are just wonderfully done. Everything looks so pretty and smooth from the character designs for the anime to the set design of the world they live in.
The music fits the chaotic romantic yuri comedy show perfectly. And don't even get me started on the OP and ED, especially the new one they made for the Specials!I am not gonna add screenshots from the specials because I would totally end up spaming this thing to oblivion and that is not the point of this section but I couldn't blame anyone else for sharing their favorite moments because they ARE just THAT good.
(I pretty much loved the entire last half of the last episode the most myself)So with all that yapping done, what's next...
Well for one I am gonna be delusional and pray for a continuation aka a second Season after seeing that they actually included THAT cliffhanger!
Until then...well I'll just end up rewatching this into oblivion while reading the novels like usualAn absolute peak of an anime this one! 
I enjoyed this even more than the first 12 episodes omfg!!! Kaho was really interesting and went in a direction I didnt expect, and her relationship with Renako was really cute. Then to see BOTH ajirena and mairena sail being poly was so peak
this was so good!! now ill continue the story with light novels me thinks :3
The adaptation was really good and faithful so if you want to just pick up where the anime ended, you can continue with Vol. 5 but I'd still say that it is worth picking up the other volumes as some little scenes, that didn't matter too much, are still nice and worth experiencing alongside the rest.
What about the Manga, does it adapt more than the Anime?
If we're speaking in terms of overall adaptation, then no it is not as far as the anime at of this moment.
But it is pretty close though.But it does adapt the novels a bit more faithful for sure. At the very least I have not notices any novel scenes from missing in the manga (even slight exchanges that add on to existing scenes)
To be honest, i'm disappointed that they made a sequel to the original TV series.
The good part - i was thinking that Kaho was useless and thank god they skipped her arc and giving attention to Ajisai instead, but story about Kaho in this sequel was great and i even liked her. Sequel story also added a lot to Mai personality and made her much better, though i hate her past her arc in the prequel.
The bad part - after freaking out at the ending of a prequel (let's ignore the fact that i'm Ajisai fan), conclusion of this sequel is just lame. Well, i guess it's my fault that i didn't trust the "harem" tag enough. I think that choosing a specific character (even if it's Mai) instead of going harem root would be much better, but going "well, actually i can't choose so how about i go out with both of you" is just cheap and not working for me.
I may be overreacting and summoning hate from manga readers, but after considering the prequel as the best anime of the past 5 years (and the best yuri anime ever), I'm not sure I can still think the same.
To sum it up, sequel made Watanare into smth that i don't like as much as i like original anime.
While I don't necessarily agree on the "Sequel=bad" part I do somewhat agree that the harem route feels like a cop out, there are harem series out there where I feel like it was handled pretty well and made sense given the circumstances, but here I kinda had that "I dunno..." feeling during that scene, it might've worked under different circumstances and at a different much later point of the story (As I am not too opposed to a harem ending in and off itself) but this way kinda feels like Renako just continues to evade the problem, it could've definetely been handled better, but hey, we'll see what they'll do with it in the future (and I guess Satsuki is also joining judging from post credits)
I think reading it as her 'avoiding the problem' is kinda a fundamental misread of what happened, tbh
Like I think they did a pretty good job establishing that Renako is poly-amorous, and so her love for both Mai and Ajisai is different, but equally potent and equally romantic. Her choosing both isn't the usual spineless indecision you see from your average harem protag, it's actually her finally making an active decision to stop chasing cis-hetero-normative ideals society enforced upon her, and instead embrace that the way she loves is differentWell, my take wasn't exactly that "sequel is bad", but that it's not the destination i wanted this series to be.
As you said, it might've worked for another anime protagonist as Kanojo mo Kanojo MC or any brainless ecchi harem anime, but seeing it here simply made me sad. Especially after thinking that after watching so much shit i finally found good yuri anime with proper relationships.
As i believe that polygamous won't ever work IRL, i won't ever believe that this decision was good. As Satsuki said "this choice has to make someone sad", Renako just didn't want to take responsibility for this and chose easy way, or as you said, evaded the problem. For me, even choosing Mai as her destined one (again, who i don't like as much as Ajisai), would complete her character much more.
Also, i think that neither Mai nor Ajisai really liked that decision, but just took pity on Renako and decided to see what comes next.
with proper relationships.
this isn't? just because it's non-monogamous.
polygamous won't ever work IRL
What would you consider a working relationship to be. Seeing as a quick search proves that it in fact seems to work and has since prerecorded history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygamy#Scientific_and_prehistorical_perspectives
Or what about the people today that practice non-monogamy that haven't had it "fail" and are happy. If non-monogamous relationships were doomed to fail, there would in my opinion be less people championing it. Like if they tried it, didn't work, then they would stop advocating it. But there is still a lot of people for it.
i think that neither Mai nor Ajisai really liked that decision, but just took pity on Renako and decided to see what comes next.
Mai and Ajisai before this were talking about dating each other if they weren't interested in Reneko. So wouldn't they be ok with this, I don't see why they wouldn't be.
I do think an issue lies in the inherent issues of anime adaptations: we do lose a lot Renako monologue. However, I feel like it's also unfair to call choosing both of them a "cop out answer"! I think that's something that society has inherently pushed monogamy onto romantic relationships (just like how society pushed heterosexuality onto romantic relationships), and Renako is actually making an incredible leap here, fighting against that rhetoric. It's just like she says in the anime: being gay is already against societal norms, so what's wrong with going against even more? I respect Renako for the decision she made.
This is why polyamory is a movement IRL because it's looked down upon even in spaces like these, just being seen as a "copout" and not as valid as a one-on-one relationship. I like this series specifically because of this aspect, the aspect of 5 people all being in an equal relationship, this isn't something you can get from the typical one-on-one relationship, and this anime isn't like other typical harem anime. Where it's usually one sided, with one person getting all the affection.
Instead maybe because this is yuri (So it wouldn't be "weird" for people of the same sex to be dating) but it seems like it will go the route I mentioned earlier, with hints of Satsuki having feelings toward Mai and Ajasai. Kaho showing up to Mai's party to find a partner after what happened between Mai and Renneko. And Ajasai and Mai having a conversation about dating each other if they weren't interested in Renneko (Which was before the big scene). Not to mention anything else.
Maybe I'm a bit biased because IRL I don't really see the point to keeping your self to one person, but this in my opinion is what makes this show great. The world has already seen countless typical relationship anime and normal typical guy gets the girls harems. But instead five people all being in an equal relationship which brings dynamics you don't typically see.
I kinda felt the same.
I was so overwhelmed by joy when Rena said yes to Sena's confession, I cried for a couple of minutes non stop, because the "underdog won" and I was rooting for Sena so much.
Finding out it was "just a prank" or like not really serious felt like Sena was robbed so hard.That said I did like Kaho and Renas time together a lot.
But yeah went from this is my most fav anime ever from watching the prequel to this isnt as great as I thought in a single episode. What a fucking rollercoaster.
I had been told beforehand that this story goes the poly route(I saw some comments while reading the manga adaptation), but I can't believe how good that was. What a PEAK story!
If I ignore the personal drama brought to a live audience: absolute peak.
But please. Can we move off stage. Can we talk about your feelings without hundreds of people watching. Was the mic on the entire time. This brought me second-hand embarrassment to the point that I couldn't even be excited that the three of them are dating. Oh god, please get off stage.
Now it makes sense when Renako says she doesn’t like girls. Her heart belong to Five-kun. Saw a video on social media using this scene saying this is how everyone with a PS5 acts yesterday. Gotta love how fast the internet is.
I like how Kaho immediately chose violence with the rock. Didn’t expect the geeky side that loves cosplay.
Renako has two girlfriends. I don’t think on the stage was the best time for that whole scene, but okay. She has two, what really is one more? If she gets three, she might as well add Kaho so the whole group is together. It makes sense when you think about it.
PEAK
Even if it was only 5 episodes ,im so glad this show got a sequel especially so soon (Am I wrong or wasnt think initlaly supposed to come out in late november, i swear i saw that date somewhere) Best show of 2026,no competition,literally.
That said I kinda dont like that this came out in one go, even if its only 5 episodes I like watching things weekly. Being able to gush out each episode here was fun and each episode was the best part of my week for a while.
Especially since I feel like each episode is worth talking about on its own, kaho 'hypnotising' renako to become a cosplayer is kinda wild,renako and ajisai's date was adorable,theres so much in these 5 episodes that I think are incredible. .
Kaho was my least favorite originally, mostly due to the fact that she had basically no screentime or depth in the first season,nothing wrong with her just tragic that there wasnt enough time to include her arc. I figured this batch would be 90% kaho to make up for it but it was a healthy mix of that and the rest of the cast
I didnt see the ending coming at all but Im all for it. Ajisai is best girl and I was expecting her to let mai have renako since shes just that nice. Throuple is the best option and I had the biggest smile on my face when I realisised this is where renako was going in her big speech. Imo, The series will either end with the just mai and renako like i initially thought or all 5 of them dating, and I know which one I want to come true.
I'm not optimistic for a season 2, but goddamn do I want one
I rewatched the first one and I want to be as happy as Kaho here.
I can’t even criticize her, I’d do the same, or worse than Renako. But it was funny.
If you only saw this scene, you’d never guess they’d end up throwing hands later, haha.
dangerously violent
See? Honesty is everything
she is right. And the truth needs to be told
SO CLOOOOOOSE
Of course, the fateful love triangle. Sure, better than nothing.
But did Renako ever think that this means that, in theory, Sena and Mai could also date each other?
Of course she couldn’t stay out of it, and for very plausible reasons. What works with three works with four. why not? And in the end it becomes 2×2, which is more interesting in terms of versatility of who you can go out with.
dawg i just binged the 5 episode and almost screamed at midnight when i saw the ending o god, plus that scene at the end with Satsuki PLEASE TELL ME THERE'S MORE COMING PLEASE I NEED THIS PLEASE
