Literature / Osamake

It's a tale involving revenge and love triangles.

"Love isn't something you fall into. It spreads all over your body, eating away at it. In the winter of my first year of high school, I fell victim to love's poison. She was my first love."

— Sueharu Maru's Opening Monologue

Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose (Osananajimi ga Zettai ni Makenai Love Comedy) is a Light Novel series written by Shuichi Numaru and illustrated by Ui Shigure, which began publication in 2019. A manga adaptation illustrated by Ryou Itou began serialization the same year in Monthly Comic Alive, and an anime adaptation aired as part of the Spring 2021 anime season.

The title of this work promises to be "the love story where the childhood friend doesn't lose", but how can that happen and still keep up dramatic tension? Simple: make every girl a childhood friend!

Kuroha Shida is Sueharu Maru's pretty and affectionate childhood best friend. However, when she confesses to Sueharu, he immediately rejects her because he's interested in someone else. This is where the attractive award-winning Shirokusa Kachi comes into the picture, the girl whom Sueharu calls his First Love. However, his spirit gets crushed when he quickly learns that Shirokusa has a boyfriend. Kuroha then comforts him and presents him with an offer he can never refuse: getting revenge.

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This work provides examples of:

• Affectionate Nickname: Kuroha calls Sueharu "Haru," while Shirokusa refers to him as "Su-chan."
• Affectionate Parody: Of the Harem Genre and RomComs. Even the title itself parodies the Unlucky Childhood Friend trope. It also spoofs the idea of having a harem/polygamy (which Sueharu immediately shoots down) comparing it to an emperor conquering three kingdoms.
• Arc Symbol: Apples, especially golden ones slowly turning black, signify first love that spreads over one's body and eats away at it.
• Balanced Harem: The plot rotates between Kuroha, Shirokusa, and Momo in terms of screen time, chemistry, and depth. Even the Shida twins who aren't primary love interests for Sueharu and are mere hopeless suitors in the harem, get fleshed out to some degree in episode 9 as they ruminate their hopeless suitor status in a poetic and tragic manner.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Shirokusa has long, black hair, and is generally aloof towards most of her classmates, with the exception of Sueharu and her female friends.
• Arc Words: "First love is a curse" or "Love is poison" fitting its recurrent Love Hurts theme.
• Beach Episode: Episodes 8 and 9 take place in Okinawa.
• Betty and Veronica: Kuroha is the Betty to Shirokusa's Veronica and Sueharu's Archie. Post Confession Festival, Kuroha and Shirokusa switch roles with Momo being Cheryl.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: At first, Kuro is more than happy to help Sueharu despite being rejected but it's revealed that she had already planned to dump him once he got what he wanted. Only to later deeply regret it as she still loved him.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • To avoid using trademarks, both the anime and light novel, the app they use to message each other is called Nine instead of Line.
  • They also upload and view videos In-Universe on WeTube.
• Book Smart: Shirokusa is said to have top grades and is an Academic Athlete though we don't see this on-screen.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Shirokusa's ample bosom is oft-described as her best appeal (with her pervy classmates wondering about their size) and one of the areas she beats Kuroha at, even though Kuroha isn't lacking in size, at least compared to the flat-chested Momo, who has to wear breast pads to make her boobs look bigger.
• Cartoon Throbbing: When Tetsuhiko suggests asking out Kuroha to Sueharu in the first episode while he's knocking a nail into a wooden board, he hammers his thumb instead out of shock and it starts throbbing.
• The Casanova: We never see him in action, but Sueharu makes it pretty clear that Tetsuhiko is a three-timing (even up to 7 girls) non-committal bastard. Tetsuhiko points out that they are all from different schools to avoid trouble, but Sueharu is certain that Tetsuhiko will get stabbed by a vengeful woman one day (not that he minds).
• Chick Magnet: Sueharu has managed to secure Kuroha Shida, Shirokusa Kachi, and Maria Momosaka from childhood all the way to high school. Then Kuroha's sisters all fall in love with him. Then he managed to get a fan club in his High School after getting back into acting. However, the concept of girls fighting over him annoys him so much.
• Childhood Friend Romance: The very premise of the story involves the idea of the childhood friend winning the heart of the protagonist. Now with all three of Sueharu's prominent Love Interests being his childhood friends!
• Compressed Adaptation: It's not that noticeable, but some of the details regarding the characters and minor events in the original light novel are removed in the anime adaptation, such as Shirokusa's clumsiness being downplayed, and the conclusion to the cooking competition in episode 8 getting cut.
• Compressed Hair: Shirokusa has long hair but she's able to fit it all under a boyish cap somehow before she takes it off.
• Cute Little Fangs: Rena Asagi has a tiny fang for some reason and she's pretty cute.
• Determinator:
  • The three main love interests of course never give up on pursuing Sueharu and trying to make him pick them providing contrast to the Shida twin sisters who know that their attraction for him clashes with their older sister's feelings and seem to have given up on getting him to reciprocate.
  • On a non-romantic note, Shirokusa always tries to do her best in dance practices for their commercials and MVs, staying up at night to practice more even when her foot is hurting her. She is determined to be strong and stand beside Sueharu on stage.
    Shirokusa: I want to show Su-chan that I can do it when I try.
    
    Shirokusa: I think it's wrong to rely on him (Sueharu) unconditionally. It's rude to start being dependent before I've done whatever I can myself.
• The Ditherer: It's the main plot point that Sueharu is inconsistent; one minute, he's drawn to Shirokusa, and another, he confesses to Kuroha. Then he rejects the latter's advances on him because as much as he loves her, his feelings aren't 100% there, and even thinks of the other girls, though he still doesn't have the heart to outright reject her. Or else the light novel would have ended too early.
• Crush Blush: Characters who have feelings for Sueharu get those, but it's more apparent with Sueharu himself when he talks to his first crush Shirokusa or thinks about her.
• Faking Amnesia: Kuroha tries to pretend she has amnesia, not remembering the confession event at the festival, and losing her odd habit of combining weird foods. However, she's quickly caught as she says something at the end of the second arc that proves she never lost her memory at all.
• Fat Best Friend: Meiko, the girl with the bob hair who's always hanging around Shirokusa in class, is on the chubby side and acts like her spokesperson and assistant.
• First Love: Sueharu refers to Shirokusa as such, after talking to her at high school for the first time. However, it doesn't last much. First love is also called a curse by some of the characters.
• Forgotten Childhood Friend: "Shirou" turns out to be one to Sueharu, the child of one of his sponsors. However, Shirou turns out to be Shirokusa, and he simply misheard the nickname.
• Former Child Star: Played with. Sueharu had a troubled childhood as a child actor, where his mom died during the filming of "Child Star", which forced him to go on an indefinite hiatus till high school. His current life is pretty normal and less troubled except in the romance area.
• The Gadfly:
  • Ooragi Shion has no filter whatsoever in her childish exchanges with Sueharu, where she's constantly trying to provoke him and refers to him as a "toy" for the three girls that are in love with him. She even points out to him that he's undeserving of their affections.
  • Asagi Rena, as well. She calls Sueharu "Paisen" (the inversion of Senpai, as she's his junior at school) to mock him and frequently calls him an idiot, much to his irritation.
• Gambit Pileup: What the Confession Festival story arc boils down to.
  • Shirokusa pretends to go out with Mitsuru in order to get Sueharu’s attention. This is all part of her plan to get Sueharu interested in her and then reject him when he decides to confess to her. The reason for this plan is that Shirokusa believes Haru broke their childhood promise and abandoned her. After learning of Haru’s circumstances, she abandons her plan, reveals her identity as “Shiro” to Haru, and is more than willing to accept his declaration of love.
  • Mitsuru, after hearing of the aforementioned “rumor”, decides to play along, and even goes to lengths to antagonize Haru, spurring the latter into one-upping him at the festival. The reason for his actions is to make Haru, his idol, regain his interest in acting.
  • Kuroha consoles Haru over the Shirokusa ordeal and suggests that he should take revenge against Shirokusa for breaking his heart. This is part of her own revenge plan against Haru. She can get close to him while they are discussing their course of action, and should he switch his target of affection to Kuro, she will promptly reject him. The motive is to get back at him for rejecting her before the story begins.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • Sueharu's male classmates are always jealous of the attention he gets from cute girls, calling him "guilty!" while comically crying to the point where Kuroha has to tell them to leave him alone.
  • Kuroha herself. Much of the conflict revolves around her jealousy towards Shirokusa Kachi for being Sueharu’s first love since he rejected Kuroha when she asked him out. This persists past the Love Confession Festival despite turning down Sueharu’s feelings for her.
• Hates Rich People: Tetsuhiko makes it clear he loathes rich folks after Shiro's father tells him he did a background check on him and asks him if he's using Sueharu to get revenge on his own father.
• Hidden Depths: Several characters aren't as what they initially appear to be:
  • At first, Shirokusa is an Aloof Dark Haired Teen Genius (she won an award for her novel at the age of 17), but as the series progresses, we see that she's clumsy, very hard-working, Prone to Tears, and has a habit of self-deprecation.
  • Who would've thought that the sweet, perfect childhood friend Kuroha is a selfish, Manipulative Bitch?
  • Similarly, Tetsuhiko seems to be a Romantic Wingman for Sueharu and Shirokusa, except he's just manipulating things for his own interests and doesn't really care for their complicated love lives when it doesn't benefit him.
• Hypocrite: Kuroha gets jealous that Sueharu is getting attention from other girls since she herself is still in love with him, but as her competition points out, Kuroha herself rejected Sueharu's confession in public out of pettiness with video evidence to boot. So Kuroha really has no foothold to stand on regarding Sueharu's love life since she was given an opportunity to be with him and shot it down.
• Idiot Hair: Sueharu has a strand of hair that stand sticking upward which suits his energetic, moronic personality.
• Imagine Spot: Episode 10 starts with one, where Sueharu is imagining a naked Shirokusa caring for him in an erotic manner, rather than all three girls being there and fighting over caring for him over his broken arm.
• Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: Or WeTube in this case, but Tetsuhiko uploads the video where Sueharu publicly confesses to Kuroha and gets rejected by her with a short "No." to a YouTube knockoff site.
• Jealous Romantic Witness: Any of Sueharu's Love Interests seeing him "flirt" with another girl is enough to make them jealous, sad, or angry. However, it's more prominent in episode 9 where both Kuroha and her little twin sisters have to see him worry about Shirokusa at different points in the trip. Later on, Kuroha even admits that seeing them together felt worse than when she rejected him.
• Love Dodecahedron: It is a mess. In the Confession Festival arc, We have Kuroha in love with Sueharu, who in turn is in love with Shirokusa, who is pretending to date Mitsuru. At first, it's a Love Triangle once Shirokusa reveals that she's in love with Sueharu all along and faked a relationship with Mitsuru just to get revenge on Sueharu with Sueharu doing the same with Kuroha. Later on, Shirokusa dumps her plans for revenge and starts pining for Sueharu for real, but at that point, he lost interest in her and confesses to Kuroha in the end, but gets brutally rejected, even though Kuroha still loves him. Post-Festival, Kuroha and Shirokusa love Sueharu who shows interest in neither, but a third Love Interest named Momosaka arrives to claim him for herself. Then Kuroha's sisters start to crush on him.
• Love Hurts: One of the Central Themes of the work is that love, particularly first love, is painful and is often compared to a curse.
  Sueharu: [while watching Shiro practice] First love is poison. I thought I had eased the pain with a new love, but the poison of my first love is still eating away at me.
• Lover Tug of War: Fights in this manner frequently happen in this work, including the opening. One of these ends with all of Momo's breast pads falling out of her bra.
• The Man in Front of the Man: Kuroha decides to be Haru's sidekick in his plan for revenge, although it is obvious that she is the true mastermind of the team. And it is eventually revealed that she was manipulating him, only to be able to reject him later.
• Marry Them All: Rejected by Sueharu when Tetsuhiko brings it up making a harem as a possible solution to his dilemma. The latter justifies it by saying making them all happy is "both kindness and humanism", but Sueharu thinks it's too low and scummy instead.
• Missing Mom: While filming a scene for "Child King", Sueharu's mother hit her head and died. This forced him to leave show business.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • After learning the real reason Sueharu didn't come to visit her, Shirokusa is deeply ashamed of her past actions against him.
  • Kuroha herself shows regret in rejecting Sueharu in the Confession Festival due to effectively losing any trust he had in her making it more difficult for her to secure his heart in the future, going so far as to fake amnesia in order to get a fresh start.
• Never My Fault: When Kuroha decides to reject Haru, even though she seems sorry for having rejected him, she decides that it is his fault, for having rejected her earlier.
• Nice Girl: Out of the main female characters, Momo is the kindest and most polite girl ever. She encourages Rena to join them in the fun instead of just filming them all day and hugs Sueharu when he visits his mom's grave and breaks down, telling him how she, too, loved his mom.
• Ocular Gushers: After Kuroha rejected Sueharu and the Confession Festival ended, he's still on the stage crying in this manner over the whole fiasco.
• Plaster Cast Doodling: After Sueharu protects Shiro from a nasty fall, he breaks one of his arms and gets it covered with a plaster cast. Ooragi Shion takes advantage of him sleeping, so she can write, "Shion-chan the genius was here" on his cast and then denies being the one who wrote it.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Akane is rational and intelligent which is best represented by the glasses she wears, while her twin sister Aoi is delicate, gentle, and good with social interactions, unlike Akane.
• Poor Communication Kills: The entire Confession Festival plot could have been avoided had Shirokusa known about Sueharu's Dark and Troubled Past, which in turn would prevent Shirokusa from initiating her Operation: Jealousy with Mitsuru which caused Sueharu to retaliate with his own since Sueharu and Shirokusa were mutually in love with each other at the time. Then again, Kuroha and Tetsuhiko had other plans...
• Pose of Supplication: Sueharu has a bad habit of trying to get out of a situation or gain people's favor by groveling when it's not warranted or even called for at all. Some of his friends are exasperated by this flaw of his.
• Romantic Wingman: Subverted for Tetsuhiko. He initially appears to be one to Sueharu in pursuing Shirokusa, but he's actually manipulating him for his own gain. He later offers his services to the 3 Love Interests post-Confession Festival in order to increase Sueharu's reputation and clout for his ends.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Ooragi Shion, Kachi's family Meido, has a silly habit of actually saying the words "hmph!", "gulp", and "giggle", etc.
• School Idol: Shirokusa Kachi is the most popular and beautiful girl at their school and is pretty much idolized by everyone there.
  Tetsuhiko: She's smart, she's athletic, her debut work won the Akutami Award, and she got her own pin-up making her famous nationwide. [...] She's super popular on TV, too.
• Show Within a Show: With the main character being a former child star, there are several television dramas mentioned. Few directly affect the present plot, though.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Shirokusa can be quite distant with her classmates like tearing apart her notes because a girl wanted to copy them, as Shirokusa sees compares her to a parasite and is acknowledged to be detached In-Universe. However, she's kind to the people she cares about and Sueharu defends her by saying she's actually "cheerful and even innocent!"
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Sueharu's mother was supposed to act in an in-universe scene involving this, but a Fatal Method Acting accident ended up happening for real. This led to his childhood retirement from acting.
• Theme Naming:
  • The name of the two main girls refer to clovers. Kuroha sounds like “clover”, while Shirokusa is named after the white clover shirotsumekusa. Conveniently, they both wear their respective flower in their hair.
  • All the girls have colorful names. Kuroha's sisters are even nicknamed the Colorful Sisters.
    • Shirokusa -> Shiro (White)
    • Kuroha -> Kuro (Black)
    • Midori (Green)
    • Aoi (Blue)
    • Akane -> Aka (Red)
    • Maria Momosaka -> Momo (Peach/Pink)
    • Rena's family name Asagi means "light yellow"
• Tempting Apple: Apples are repeatedly used as a motif for love in which falling in love is likened to something that "spreads over your body and eats away at it", just like how poison spreads in apples and makes them rot. The apples are golden in the anime, symbolizing the object of desire and temptation.
• Title-Only Opening: Episode 6 forgoes both the opening and closing credits sequence, completing the second arc.
• Tomboy: Shirokusa used to dress like one as a child, even wearing a cap and using the muscular "boku" to refer to herself.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Tetsuhiko never misses a chance at holding Sueharu in a headlock, hitting him, or throwing him in a pool while screaming "Go to hell!" whenever he's merely thinking of something perverted much to Sueharu's bewilderment. Sueharu gives him the same treatment, especially when he acts like an ass. Although they are frequently bickering, they are still close friends and Tetsuhiko gets angry when someone badmouths Sueharu.
  Sueharu: [after Tetsuhiko holds him in a headlock] Tetsuhiko, you bastard! What was that for?
  Tetsuhiko: Well, you were spacing out. That's prompt to get me to attack you, you know?
• Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Tetsuhiko has yellowish eyes and is a Manipulative Bastard, He's often wearing a shit-eating, mischievous grin on his face.