Thank you Netgalley and Kodansha for the chance to read this hilarious and cute manga, Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms Vol# 1 by Ran Kuze.

Stories like this with amazing artwork and characters that pop out on the page are the reasons why I love reading manga. Mona a feisty, a bit narcissistic, determined and super cute character who for all her beauty can't understand why the one boy in her class, Medaka isn't falling head over heels for her. And this one boy is driving her absolutely crazy, because no matter what she does---from spilling water on her shirt, to closely touching her, his face is the same, annoyed and unfazed. But unknown to Mona, Medaka actually finds her extremely cute but keeps reminding himself of his priest training and refuses to engage her or show that's he's affected.

This whole first volume had me rolling laughter and wishing volume #2 was out, like now! I can't wait to see how Mona's antics escalate and whether she can see past herself to notice someone else's kindness and caring nature.

5/5 stars! Definitely a must read!

Being the prettiest and the most popular girl in school, Mona has always been used to being showered with love everywhere she goes. But when the new transfer student, Medaka, refuses to fall her charms, Mona feels frustrated over it. And she makes it a mission for her to make him fall in love with her.

Oh boy, this one feels a little bit problematic to me. Firstly, is Mona a narcissist? I have no problem with confident characters, I love them, but narcissistic characters who goes out of their way to make everyone be obsessed with them is just not my thing. It would have been okay if Mona actually has a crush on Medaka, but she only pursues Medaka because he does not leer or stare at her like the other boys do.

Her attempts to make him fall for her may be cute and funny at first, but to the point she wants to use her "sex appeal" and then strips open her shirt to show herself in her bra to him is just... too much. And she did all these while not even having any feelings for him. She just wants him to love her, as if it's some kind of a challenge.

Not only is she demeaning herself, but she's also disrespecting Medaka at the same time. I don't care if Medaka secretly finds her cute, but what she did can be considered a sexual harassment. Sure, it's obvious that her plans are backfiring and she's the one catching feelings now, but I still think that Mona is a problematic character.

I do actually like Medaka, because he seems nice and as he is training to become a monk, he's trying his best to avoid worldly desires, especially Mona. I think it will be a bad taste if the author decides to make him forget his training just because Mona managed to seduce him or something in the next volumes.

The reason that I'm not rating this as 1🌟 is probably thanks to Haruno. She may be a stalker, but for someone like Mona, I think she probably would appreciate being stalked rather than being ignored 💀 But apart from the stalker part, Haruno's character is rather cute and I like that she's rooting for Mona and Medaka. If I am to continue reading this series, it will be because of Haruno.

Manga and anime as a result have popular themes that run through them. You cannot compare it to American television because there’s always genres that succeed. You can count on their being a place for dramas and half hour comedies because they are always successful. The same is true of manga and anime, but you can peak at generations of work and figure out exactly what was popular in any given time. Currently there is a rising wave of singularly focused romcoms. No longer do we have the love story infused harem comedies in which one obvious character is pursued by every beautiful woman in the school. Instead, we have two characters simply unfamiliar with each other developing a realistic relationship while facing whatever quirky adventure into which they are thrust.

In many ways Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms is reminiscent of things like Komi Can’t Communicate and My Dress Up Darling, but there are two key differences. The first being that Medaka opts for a lot more cheesecake and the second being that the motivation for our main character Mona-chan is quite weak.

Monas goal is to make the titular character of Medaka Kuroiwa fall for her, so that she can be beloved by everyone, but had by no one. Aside from being incredibly shallow, it is a paper-thin motivation. Medaka is resistant to her charms because he is a monk and is not letting himself fall to her charms… which seems to be common knowledge to everyone in the class aside from Mona-chan.

Mona ends up going beyond normal flirtation planning a panty shot, mounting him in the nurse’s office and even showing her bra. He rejects her and asks her to only show those parts of herself to the person she loves. Which in turn makes her think she is falling in love with him. The struggle for Mona is for her to decide if she is in love or still just pursuing Medaka to reclaim her crown of most beloved in all the land. There are a lot of cute moments, but the always come after Mona after some cheesecake. Things like spraying water on herself and then realizing that she went to far only to have Medaka give her his shirt and walk away flashing his abs while she takes a deep inhale of his musk.

Because Mona’s motivation is weak and there is no uniting hobby or goal between our characters, what tends to happen is that one or both of them end up being unlikable at times. For Mona, when she is putting on a show for Medaka in front of others, she is shallow and a bit annoying. You could easily understand why someone would not be interested in her. At the same time though, Medaka could just communicate anything… ever… at all to her, but instead gives scowling looks and chants loudly. They are at their best when they are alone together, but they end up feeling like completely different characters.

Medaka ends up being successful with its story because of the influences upon which it is built. So many other stories have paved the way for Medaka to be easily accepted due to the familiarity of the story. There is no sense of their true characters by the end of this volume. Mona is goal driven and beautiful, but that is the start of a character at best. Medaka is going to be a monk and seems to be a nice person, but that is again not a full-fledged character. Even still, the first volume is easy to read and sucks you in to read more. Is it the sameness of the genre right now that finds Medaka filling a void during the wait for other stories or is it a story that plays on the strengths of the genre? Time will tell, but I will say that originally, I was going to review this chapter by chapter to try out a new review format but ended up finishing the volume instead.

A great deal of the success of Medaka is the artwork. Mona is beautiful, but often just cute to look at. The extra attention to the fabric on the edge of her shirt makes the uniform memorable without being unrealistic. The gym clothes are unflattering, and Mona knows that when she lifts her shirt up ever so slightly to reveal her belly button. There is cheesecake and sex appeal all throughout the art, but there is also a grounded sense of realism to it as well. If there was a toned-down version of cheesecake it might be something like “cute-cake” which is to say that there are a ton of great, simple, and cute character positioning in this story. Mona’s cuteness is only every outdone by the cheesecake, but otherwise the artwork is consistent and beautiful.

In the long term, for Medaka to be successful the characters need to be developed. The thinly veiled storyline of her not knowing he is a monk and him never saying it when she is around will only work for so long and at that point, we need to see a real moment between these two characters to believe that they are in love. For a first volume, it does a fine job of introducing the premise, but Mona’s shallowness and Medaka’s resistance is not going to be enough of a reason to keep returning to the story. Hopefully the second volume beings flushing that out more, but in the meantime this first volume has the start of something entertaining, but time will tell if it is interesting or has longevity.

**ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review**

Medaka Kuroiwa is Impervious to My Charms 1 by Ran Kuze is a rom com shoujo manga about two high school students and their misunderstandings. The girl, a pretty and popular egotist, is used to everyone around falling all over her, but the one boy who won't is practicing to be a monk...of course she doesn't know that! Each chapter progresses with her trying different tactics to get him to fall for her, unsuccessfully of course. I enjoyed the premise of this story, but this manga was overall a bit too provocative for me. Gonna pass on the next volume.

The art style is great. The storyline was a bit too juvenile for me. I adored the hero but the heroine really got on my nerves. As is obvious from the title, she is trying her best to attract the hero who grew up in a monastery hence is very monk-like in his actions. Reminded me of the instances where the apsaras from swarga tries to distract the rishis who are in deep penance. But it's not as deep as that.
As I didn't like the heroine, this manga sadly was not for me.

this was so fun a spin on the popular girl trope but ultimately predictable . I did enjoy myself and am very interested in the rest of the volumes to come.

This is such a cute and charming manga! I lover everything about it especially the art style. The characters were really developed and overall stuck with me long after the story ended

Mona is the queen bee of her high school. There isn't a boy who doesn't want to be with her nor a girl who does want to be her. That is, until the new student Medaka Kuroiwa won't even look her way. Mona pulls out all the stops from flirting to panty flashes to clumsy beahvior, but none of it seems to work. Mona finds herself drawn to Medaka as she is determined to make him fall for her.

Your standard high school romance manga with little twists. A little too reliant on sex appeal and fan service in order to attract readers.

My thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

This was a solid, middle of the road, 3 stars. It was kind of funny, but the MC h pursued the MC H WAAAAY beyond what was right. If the genders had been reversed, the male MC doing the pursuing would have been slapped with a restraining order. So it left a slightly unhappy taste in my mouth. I could see why it would be cute/funny, but I could also see why it would be on the verge of unhealthy stalking.

So mixed feelings about this one. The artwork was beautiful, the cat worship only makes sense to this fellow cat lover, but I wish the MC h would calm down. I feel badly for the MC H who is in training to be a monk. It's not fair for him. Maybe if she knew, she would respect his decision? I would like to think so.

I will read the next one and hope it gets less stalker. Consent, it's not just for girls.

It’s not a rom-com, it’s pure fan-service and I disliked it. Mona is an arrogant school-bitch on,y interrested by herself. Being so self-confident she Forget to be smart, she uses any means, her perfect-body included, with such shameless stupidity it’s surprising she hasn’t ben arrested for assault already. I tôt nothing against the sexy but this One was bad.

Huge thanks to Kodansha Comics and the author for providing this manga in exchange for an honest review. All of the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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I enjoyed this cute story and particularly liked the overall message of how Mona, used to putting on a facade, has to learn to be herself in order to have a chance with Medaka.

Medaka himself was a little bland as a character but I think he can be developed further down the line.

Overall rating: 3/5 stars

I received a copy of this manga through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This manga had a certain appeal and some funny moments but quite a lot of nakedness, almost all by a big-bosomed high school girl, which got disturbing pretty fast…🙄
I quite liked the theme of the humbling of the queen bee and the reason behing it was quite hilarious. I didn’t like the male character, he was kinda bland and could use some more depth. 🙂
Overall not the worst manga I’ve read but definitely not the best either. 🧐

Very cute! I can totally see this series being an instant hit. The main character (although vain) is still made to be extremely likable and you route for her in her efforts to win over Medaka. They do go for the troupe of "she doesn't realize she likes him", but I find that troupe to work with this story. Mano's often put up a facade of who she actually is because she wanted to be popular and liked by everyone. It's only when she has the courage to be herself that she can admit her true feelings and (hopefully) win Medaka's heart.

The story of a popular girl, Mona, completely losing it when the new guy in school, the title's Medaka Kuroiwa, doesn't fawn over her like everyone else always does. What she doesn't know is that Kuroiwa does like her but he's dedicated to becoming a monk and can't form any type of attachment to girls, so his constantly frowning at her is his attempt at meditating the feelings away.
I confess to thinking the idea of the popular girl hounding the poor guy to force him to like her as incredibly annoying, but Kuze manages to make even the more over-the-top panels feel sweet and show that Mona's obsession is mostly due to her insecurity. There is a lot more depth to the characters than the premise and the over-the-top fanservice would imply.
Overall, I did chuckle a couple of times and I have questions about both Mona's and Kuroiwa's families so I'll probably be checking out the next volume.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha for the interesting read!

This was such a funny, sort of heartwarming romance story between popular girl Mona and the new kid at her school, Medaka. She’s frustrated because he won’t fall for her or any of her charms so she’s determined to get him to.. even if she might fall for him first.

Honestly, this manga had me laughing out loud multiple times. The characters are so different that their interactions always end in chaos. It was also super sweet in some moments! I’m excited to see how things develop in further volumes especially when Mona finds out that Medaka was raised in a temple and was told never to become close to women.

A fun manga if you want something light hearted and hilarious!

4/5⭐️

Didn't like the female main character. Was a fan of the male lead, wanted to see more of his side of the story and am exited for vol 2. Am wanting to see more of the female leads character development. She was very self centered.

It’s been a while since I last read a Manga.
Sooo refreshing!
Mona-chan is a high school student, she has a beautiful aspect and thanks to her charms everyone tells her she is cute etc. Except for Medaka Kuroiwa.
He transferred not a long time ago and he seems to be the only one being totally indifferent to her charm, that’s because he wants to become a priest.
So while Mona-chan tries hard, I mean really hard, to have Medaka’s attention, he tries really hard not to be swayed by her.
Today is kind of a complicated day… This manga with a not so complicated story really was a nice pause.
The story behind may not be so original, but I loved the design and all.
Thank you NetGalley for having given me the opportunity to read it!

I picked this manga because of the cute cover and I find the premise interesting.

It's about Mona, the queen bee, who everyone in school falls inlove with EXCEPT Medaka, the new guy, as he is training to becoming a monk.

It is funny however there are a lot of moments I find cringey. Mona is too aggresive and does despicable stunts to make Medaka fall for her w/c btw includes her flaunting her boobs and it's a big no no for me.

Mona is beautiful, kind and sexy. She is queen bee at her school and everyone loves her. Except the new guy who is not swooning at her charms. This makes Mona go into overdrive to try and win him over.

The premise is silly but small things, like a throwaway comment from Mona saying she's nice "on the surface" show more self awareness of the characters and plot. The fan service isn’t for me but it is build into Mona’s failing attempts at seduction so it does work (as much as fan service can) with the plot.

I do want to read the next instalment to see how this progresses.

This manga follows a popular girl named Mona, who is trying to woo a boy who does not seem to be interested in her.

I thought I might like this manga, but the plot and characters both fell flat for me. I wasn’t a fan of the main character Mona, and there were moments that I think were supposed to be funny but that I just found cringey. Because of this, I ended up not finishing the manga. Others might enjoy this more than I did, but it unfortunately was not for me.

Thank you to Kodansha for providing me the copy to review.