By Saekisan and Hanekoto. Released in Japan as “Otonari no Tenshi-sama ni Itsu no Ma ni ka Dame Ningen ni Sareteita Ken” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nicole Wilder.

Tempting as it is to simply cut and paste my review of the 2nd volume here and call it a day, I will try to find new things to discuss. This series runs on sweet but slow burn, and there are very few surprises. On the downside, that makes it somewhat boring. On the good side, you know exactly what you’re getting and you get a lot of it. The main difference in the third volume is that Mahiru tries to come on to Amane a lot stronger to get past his impenetrable shell of self-hatred. She fails, but it’s the effort that counts. She is starting to get a bit sick of his attitude, though – as is the rest of the cast, including his new friend Yuuta, the “class prince”, who sees a kindred spirit in Amane and is rather startled that the feeling isn’t mutual. By the end of the book, everyone is dragging him constantly to feel better about himself. Will it help? Possibly?

Usually the 2nd paragraph of my reviews is where I summarize the plot, but the plot can essentially be summarized in three words: Mahiru Tries Harder. As such we get a lap pillow, and more spontaneous touching. We get Amane seeing another guy ask Mahiru out, and see just how difficult it can be for her to reject them, especially when they refuse to accept it. We see Mahiru managing to actually join Amane for lunch and get away with it. Most importantly we get Golden Week, where Mahiru asks Amane on a date. Of course, it’s not a romantic date to him – not at all, after all, how on earth would she ever have feelings for him? It’s just going out to a cat cafe, a mall (where much trying on of clothes is done) and an arcade (where there is winning of stuffed animals) but as Just Friends. That said, a return to school shows some folks spotted her on the date, so something may break next time.

The author knows Amane’s big flaw can be annoying to the reader, but instead of trying to disguise this it is shoved in our faces – and his. We do finally get his own tragic backstory here, which amounts to “I grew up rich and naive and then met typical middle-school two-faced jerks”, but it’s left him bitter, mistrusting and thinking he’s the absolute worst. This even plays into the title, as he regards everything Mahiru is trying to do in order to get her feelings across to him as “spoiling him”, so he automatically pushes back. Multiple times in this book she, Itsuki and Yuuta all tell Amane to man up, have confidence, and actually try to show Mahiru how he feels about her. The end of the book implies we may see this in the next volume, but for now, this is painful.

Still, the sweet and cute romance outweighs wanting to strangle the lead man, so I’m still invested in it. Imagine how sweet it will get once these two actually confess. Like eating Pixy Stix.

By Saekisan and Hanekoto. Released in Japan as “Otonari no Tenshi-sama ni Itsu no Ma ni ka Dame Ningen ni Sareteita Ken” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nicole Wilder.

I admit that I had expected that Mahiru would be the tougher nut to crack in this burgeoning relationship. She clearly had some sort of family issue, which we get to see in detail here, and it’s both very predictable and also worse than I expected. That said, it also helps to explain why she falls in love faster than Amane. Now, don’t get me wrong, they’re both crazy about each other and it’s obvious to everyone who isn’t Amane. But seeing the relationship he has with his parents and his best friends is basically filling Mahiru with a longing that she’s had for her entire life, and it’s no surprise that she’s leaning hard into it. Unfortunately, we are going the cliche route here, for good and ill; the lead guy does not think that she could possibly love him, and does not notice any of the obvious signs. In fact, it turns out that Amane may have a tortured past himself.

The start of the book revolves around New Year’s, which the people-shy Amane and Mahiru do not want to be spending at a shrine, so they instead spend it with each other. They can’t avoid the shrine forever, though, and a few days later Amane’s parents show up to whisk them off there (and also dress them up in kimonos, because Mahiru is gorgeous and Amane, when he bothers to put in effort, is handsome). Mahiru then gets a cold, and (no surprises – again) tries to pretend she’s fine. Then we get Valentine’s Day and White Day, which is difficult to do when your relationship is so vague, as well as Amane’s best friend Itsuki staying over a few days after a fight with his father. Finally, we briefly meet Mahiru’s birth mother, and learn why she is the way she is.

The strengths and weaknesses of the second volume are the same as the first, so if you enjoyed one you should enjoy the other. That said, if you hate self-deprecating guys who cannot figure out that someone is in love with them despite it being glaringly obvious – and pointed out by everyone around them – then this series must be like drinking poison. Amane’s self-image is through the floor, which is probably why he never does anything about his hair, clothes, or lifestyle. His parents are both fantastic, so that’s not the issue, but a cliffhanger suggests that a friendship from the past led to this. Unfortunately, we don’t learn that there’s an obvious reason for his reticence till the end of the book, so for most of it it reads like Anime Guy Syndrome. Fortunately, the two are absolutely adorable together, couple or no, and the series runs on that.

I’m not sure when we’ll actually advance to a relationship – the 5th volume just came out in Japan last month, so it may be a bit. But aside from Amane’s mopey attitude, this remains an excellent high school romance.

By Saekisan and Hanekoto. Released in Japan as “Otonari no Tenshi-sama ni Itsu no Ma ni ka Dame Ningen ni Sareteita Ken” by GA Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nicole Wilder.

It couldn’t last forever, even though it seemed like it would. After a few years of the trend being “light novels will only get licensed if they have some sort of fantasy or gaming element”, we are finally starting to see a few series being licensed that are old school high school romances. Credit to this no doubt can be given to the one-two punch of My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected (which has had three seasons of anime) and Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki (whose anime is forthcoming), which has helped to open the door to other series whose premise is not “I ended up in another world with superpowers and a bunch of girls who fall in love with me because I am nice to them.” Well, OK, this is MOSTLY not that. The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten may not be an isekai, and our protagonist doesn’t have a sword, but it’s still a classic male fantasy.

Amane is a well-off kid living on his own in a big apartment, but he’s got classic teenage boy problems. His skin is pallid from not eating healthy, he’s a complete slob, and he’s somewhat unsociable, at least compared to his friend Itsuki. Then one day he comes across the class “angel” sitting in a park in the rain. She’s gorgeous, smart, athletic, etc. He’s not sure why she’s sitting getting soaked and looking depressed, but he gives her his umbrella. And then he promptly gets a terrible cold. Fortunately for him, not only does Mahiru live right next door to him, but she wants to thank him for the umbrella, so she makes him some nice porridge. And forces him to clean his apartment. And begins to cook for him every day. They’re not a couple, but… isn’t she just spoiling him?

This is a well-written book, and the characters are likeable. If there’s one big negative it’s the actual premise – it is right upfront about “seeming loser guy gets waited on by his amazingly beautiful high school classmate and neighbor” being the plot going forward, and it can be a bit much. This being a standard Japanese romcom, Amane doesn’t take advantage of this, and in fact is perfectly happy to tell himself he’s not falling in love with her, even though we can see that isn’t true. Likewise, Mahiru slowly warms up to him, showing off her natural personality rather than the “good girl” she perfects at school. It’s implied her relationship with her parents is poor, but he doesn’t pry. Actually, I take that back, this isn’t a romcom. While there are funny moments, for the most part it’s a plain serious romance, with two awkward introverts slowly realizing that they’re basically living like a married couple half the time.

By the end of the first volume they’re still just good friends, but that’s to be expected. It’s also very much a ‘small world’ here – the only characters in the book are the two leads, Amane’s overbearing mother, Amane’s friend Itsuki, and Itsuki’s girlfriend Chitose, who is outgoing, loud and bubbly and therefore quite jarring compared to our Angel. If you can get over its premise, this is a quiet, easy read.