Quick Answer
Yes, if you want a rom-com that's genuinely interested in interrogating its own genre instead of just playing the tropes straight. It's still finding its full shape, but the hook is sharp.
Quick Verdict
“Treats 'who wins the love triangle' as a question worth actually fighting over instead of a foregone conclusion.”
Best for: Readers who want a rom-com that's self-aware about its own tropes without being smug about it.
Not for: Readers who want a completed story or a straightforward, non-meta romance.
| Quick facts | |
|---|---|
| Format | Manga (shōnen) |
| Run | 2025–present · ongoing |
| Community score | AniList 7.1 |
Make Heroine wo Katasetai!! (written by Michiru Nakayama, drawn by Tatsuwaipu) follows Manaka Kawashima, who's spent years quietly in love with her childhood friend Ei Eguchi -- until transfer student Ayame Takabi shows up, makes an instant, movie-perfect connection with him, and becomes the obvious "winning" heroine by every rom-com convention going. Manaka is ready to accept her fate as the genre's classic loser, but classmate Kimura refuses to let the story play out that way, and sets out to actually get her the win the format usually denies her.
The premise turns a familiar rom-com shape into an actual question instead of a foregone conclusion. Readers of the genre know exactly how this is supposed to go -- the childhood friend loses, the flashier transfer student wins -- and the series gets real tension out of a character inside the story recognizing that pattern and actively working to break it. It's a clever hook precisely because it doesn't rely on being clever for its own sake; it uses the trope-awareness to raise the stakes of a plot that would otherwise be predictable.
Manaka herself is handled with more care than the premise might suggest. Her disappointment at losing out to Ayame isn't just comic relief -- it's given real emotional weight, which means Kimura's intervention on her behalf feels like it matters rather than being a gimmick layered over a joke.
And the series mostly resists the urge to constantly wink at the reader about its own cleverness. The commentary on rom-com conventions comes through what the characters actually do -- Kimura's scheming, Manaka's choices -- rather than through characters narrating the tropes out loud, which keeps the meta angle from getting exhausting.
Because the series is still ongoing and relatively new, the biggest question it's raising -- does Manaka actually get her win, and does that payoff justify the setup -- doesn't have an answer yet. What's here is a strong hook more than a complete argument.
Kimura's role as the person actively managing Manaka's arc toward victory also creates an odd dynamic at times: because he's the one driving the plan, Manaka can occasionally feel more like the subject of his project than someone steering her own story, even though the whole point is supposed to be her getting agency back.
Make Heroine wo Katasetai!! takes a genre everyone thinks they already understand and asks a genuinely interesting question about it, without losing sight of the characters underneath the premise. It's not finished proving its case yet, but the setup alone makes it worth following.
Strengths
Weaknesses
shares an interest in treating romantic strategy as its own kind of genre puzzle
similar warmth underneath a story that's aware of its own rom-com shape
another comedy that gets real mileage out of subverting a familiar romance dynamic
No, they're separate series by different creators that both riff on the 'losing heroine' rom-com archetype around the same time -- easy to mix up, but unrelated.
No, it's ongoing, having started serialization in 2025.
Not currently. There's no official English release yet, so it's one to watch for rather than track down through unofficial means.
