Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Why are there only men in the editing team for shoujo manga? After all, the target readers are female. Having at least one woman in the team should help.
    • This is probably due to Nakamura wanting to pander more to the female readers of the actual series itself. What's more appealing to fujoshi than a group of hot guys all in one place? I also assume it gives her a central springboard for all the couples of the series, since I believe all the couples in the OP have at least one member in the Maiden Club.
    • There ARE women editors in their section (like the girls who pointed out when Ritsu had a piece of dialog on his back), but the series only focuses the ones right under Takano's supervision.
  • This is a bit of a YMMV, but it's been bugging me for a while...Takano says that he's been in love with Ritsu for the last ten years, that he was never able to forget him, and we've been told that he turned into a wreck when he found out Ritsu was engaged. Well, if that's the case, then...why didn't he recognise Ritsu straight off? I mean, I sort of get why Ritsu didn't recognise him since Takano changed his name, but Ritsu has the same name as he did in high school, and physically he hasn't changed that much. I'd understand Takano forgetting his face, but I find it a bit odd that he'd forget the name of someone who had that much of an effect on him...
    • The explanation will open an equally big or bigger Plot Hole in a later chapter, Takano explained that he did not remember Onodera's face very well as the latter always looked down during the time they dated in high school. As for the name, Takano knew Onodera's name through the library card since Onodera borrowed the same books as him. The problem is, as shown in the OVA, Onodera did not use his real name for fear of being called a stalker and wrote down a fake name "Oda Ritsu". Naturally, this begs the question of how Takano discovered that Onodera had a fiancee in the first place if he had not even known the latter's real name
      • I always thought that he would have found out Onodera's real name at some point while they were dating. Even if Ritsu didn't tell him himself, there was a bit where Takano/Saga-senpai was tutoring Ritsu, so he could very well have seen Ritsu's name written on his textbook.
      • He also said that he knew about Ritsu before they were dating, so undoubtedly he knew his name.
      • In the manga, Takano never found out his real name, and assumed that it was "Oda" back in high school, but his parents got divorced so his name changed. Ritsu explains that he used a fake name and that his real name has always been Onodera, and Takano is furious that all these years he hasn't even known the real name of the guy he was in love with. About him finding out that Ritsu has a fiance-- Takano mentions some guy just told him that a rich kid with a fiance went to study abroad. Takano knew he was talking about Ritsu from the description, but the guy who told him never actually said Onodera's name. As for Takano mentioning that he had "known" about Onodera, I think he just meant that he knew Onodera was watching him in the library and knew he had a crush on him-- sort of the same situation as with Kisa stalking Yukina at the bookstore.
    • Well, there is the fact that Ritsu forgot Takano because he spent 10 years trying to forget about him so considering what a trainwreck Takano became over him, it's probably likely he tried to do the same. However, even if you don't think about it that way, you will remember, though, that at most it only took about 1 or 2 days for him to remember who he was, and accounting for the fact that he grew up over the past 10 years, it's fairly forgivable that he didn't recognise him immediately.
  • This troper has a problem with the love triangle pairing with Yoshino, Hatori and Yanase. What does Yanase see in Yoshino? He comes off as the third wheel in the love triangle with no hope of getting Yoshino (well, Hatori/Yoshino is the Official Couple and yet continues to purse Yoshino despite all his rejections. At the same time that Yoshino rejects Yanase, he seems to be seducing him in that hot spring episode and then Yanase is treated like the bad guy when Yoshino is technically hitting on him (despite being drunk) and then despite the fact that the holiday was for the two of them, Yoshino leaves Yanase to go back to Hatori. The question is why does Yanase put up with Yoshino when he knows he's out of his league? He comes off as a Love Martyr for Yoshino and Yoshino comes off as one concerning Hatori especially in that episode when Hatori was basically harassing him about hanging out when he was in the wrong.