Last night I finally decided to check out Kiss Him, Not Me on Funimation.  It looked like a cheesy enough Shoujo series that might be ok.

The plot of the series is Kae Serinuma is a huge fujoshi and otaku who loves picturing men in romantic relationships.  She is a chubby girl who somehow manages to gain the attentions of all the hot guys in school (in a non-romantic way).  When she locks herself in her room for a week after her favorite character dies, she somehow loses all that weight and becomes… pretty?  Her new look captures the hearts of four guys in her school who all begin to compete for her affections.

I lost complete interest in the series after the first episode.  Maybe it gets better but I am not too interested to find out.  Why not continue? Because of how shallow the characters and story is.

What really irks is me is why did Kae need to lose weight in order to become attractive?  I think she could have been an attractive character even if she was drawn larger.  The whole concept of the series is being beautiful based on your personality and interests, so why did this beauty have to physically manifest?  I think it continues to convey that beauty comes from being thin and your odd interests can only be accepted by others if you are still ok to look at.  This is a terrible message, particularly for younger girls who might pick up the series.

The attraction the boys feel toward Kae is shallow.  They didn’t pay romantic attention to her until AFTER she became “pretty” making their interest just as petty as the unintended transformation.  Their dialogue is shallow with no real depth to their characters other than an arch-type.   It works in the way that it plays off of Kae’s boys-love fantasies, however, it does not make for a compelling story.

I would not recommend this series to anyone who likes shoujo or shounen-ai/yaoi manga.

Did you have a chance to check out this series? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!