Holiday Review #9: THE ANGEL NEXT DOOR SPOILS ME ROTTEN

As far as straight romance manga goes, there was unfortunately plenty of light novel-based wish-fulfillment fodder like this one.

THE ANGEL NEXT DOOR SPOILS ME ROTTEN (Otonari no Tenshi-sama ni Itsu no Ma ni ka Dame Ningen ni Sareteita Ken), based on the light novels by Saekisan and illustrations by Hanekoto, with art by Wan Shibata and storyboards by Suzu Yuki.  First published in 2022 and first published in North America in 2024.

PLOT:

Amane is your average Japanese high school kid, the kind who lives in a messy apartment, subsists entirely off of take-out, and generally goes through life unnoticed.  He certainly could never compare to the likes of Miharu, the "angel" of their class and his next-door neighbor.  That's why he's so surprised to see her sitting alone in a rainy playground without so much as an umbrella.  What begins as a simple kind gesture to her leads to Miharu taking it upon herself to regularly feed him and clean his place.  Is this the beginning of a romance or merely a relationship of convenience?

STORY:

I don't know how The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten manages to be both colorless and frustrating at the same time, but much like life it finds a way.  The story wants me to coo over these two lumps of oatmeal finding love by performing basic chores or everyday courtesies, but mostly it make me want to roll my eyes.

This romance was doomed from the start because from the start they wanted the reader to sympathize with Amane, who is less a character than he is a damp dishrag in the shape of a boy.  He spends the whole volume moping to himself how he's unworthy of all this attention and that Miharu would never acknowledge him at school (despite all evidence to the contrary).  This girl cooks and cleans for him on the regular out of the goodness of her own heart, and the most he can muster in return are basic courtesies like sharing an umbrella, carrying shopping bags, and ordering a pizza once.  The most gallant thing he does is help her with a sprained ankle, and even then the manga puts a weirdly skeevy spin on it by having her remove her tights in order to apply a cold compress.  Not once does he offer any assistance (be it physical or financial) or ask to learn how to care for himself.  Why would he do that when he can have a cute anime girl act as an unpaid substitute mom?

The other half of this so-called romance isn't much better.  Miharu is the blandest ideal of an anime waifu: practically perfect in every way, a domestic goddess with endless patience whose heart is easily won by the most basic niceties.  There's hints of more going on underneath her placid exterior, but even then it's that she's a Poor Little Rich Girl who wants to prove her independence and find friends who aren't intimidated by her looks and reputation.  Those aren't problems so much as they are humblebrags.  It's hard to imagine what she sees in Amane considering their conversations mostly consist of her gently nagging him while he keeps calling her "angel," a nickname given to her by their classmates that she isn't particularly fond of.  The chemistry between these two is in the negatives and progresses with all the swiftness of a glacier, so why would anyone with sense (or actual experience with relationships) want to wait forever to see if a nimrod and the ninny who mothers him get together?

ART:

Wan Shibata does a decent enough job translating Hanekoto's designs to manga, but it's not like the latter set the bar very high.  The character designs are boring as hell, although in Amane's case that's clearly on purpose.  Mahiru is meant to be precious with her tininess, her wide-eyed moe-baby face, and long, pale blonde hair, but she's so expressionless and drawn with such an odd soft-focus style that it renders her just as bland as Amane.  The rest of the art here is perfectly functional, even if I don't understand why it required a complete separate person to come in and draw such unremarkable storyboards for these pages.

RATING:

The only reason The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten didn't get a red light is that it's too milquetoast to truly offend.  Reading this manga is like reading a romance manga made entirely of beige.  It's a mildly frustrating pile of blah that will be forgotten the moment you put it down.  Even if you want a low-key high school romance, there are so many better and more distinct options out there.

This manga is published by Square Enix.  This series is complete in Japan with 4 volumes available.  2 volumes have been released and are currently in print.

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