Kiss Him, Not Me! Episode 5 [Let’s Play: Who Sucks the Most!?]

Offical Notice About Release Schedule: Due to the nature of releases for Kiss Him Not Me expect posts to be released Saturday or Sunday from now on, likely Sunday around 1pm EST. Thanks for your continued support! – Oki

It has finally come, the episode covering my favorite part of the manga. Up until now a lot of people have no doubt had the thought, but what if Serinuma gains weight again!? Will any of them even still like her? They only like her looks! Well this episode is the one that addresses that concern and for me solves a lot of issues (and makes one of the love interests a much better person) that deal with the entire concept of a character losing weight and suddenly being attractive to a lot of people. You will find one of the best things about Kiss Him Not Me is stuff that you really won’t see coming from a society like Japan where being bigger is definitely something much more unusual: every character in Kiss Him Not Me is eventually capable of loving Serinuma for who she is outside of her physical appearance.

The focus of today’s episode revolves around a Valentine’s chocolate contest made by the creators of Mirage Saga. The winner gets a special prize and to meet many of the creators which is awesome, and of course Serinuma must win this contest at all costs. Unfortunately she knows it will be difficult to win with what she is good at and spends the entire period of time making an awful 3-d Avant Garde type piece that reminds me of the Berserk idol that screws over the Hawks. Please don’t summon the Yaoi Gods, Serinuma. Plz.

The real test of the episode begins once Serinuma accidentally regains all of her weight by eating a literal box of chocolate that was her failed creations. Igarashi remembers being confronted by Nishina who suggested that he only loved Serinuma for her looks, and so this episodes focuses on his feelings for her. Nana and Shinomiya immediately set out to get Kae to lose weight, putting them firmly at the bottom for me in terms of love interests. Meanwhile Mutsumi encourages her to do whatever it is she wants and Nishina actively feeds her more as she finds her weight cute. So, once again, Mutsumi and Nishina are best wives.

Nana and Shinomiya push Kae too hard and she gets injured. This makes Nishina become overbearing on Kae as she pushes for her recovery and shuns all the boys, sans Mutsumi who basically feels like either is fine and completely up to Kae. Igarashi notices how uncomfortable she is and gives her a breather, only for Kae to reaffirm she wants to work hard and lose weight in order to meet her goals. Igarashi is stunned to see her kindness and determination and realizes even with the weight she is beautiful to him and he even tells Nana. . . who of course makes an ass of himself.

She does lose the weight, but the episodes climax really comes when Igarashi makes his realization and Kae herself declares what she wants. Seeing her meet her goal is rewarding but truthfully all we needed was a few things to forgive this show of a few sins: 1. Kae actually worked to lose weight this time and was determined to change her lifestyle for her own goals. This is how weight loss should work and was more about her own self image as opposed to some miracle cure, though she did lose the weight fast for somebody who had seemingly just gained it rather fast as well. 2. Igarashi actually realized he loves Serinuma for her own personality, while Nana and Shinomiya acknowledged they like her personality but prefer her when she is thin. Nishina and Mutsumi just continued to be supportive as always, though Nishina was too assertive with her own opinion and didn’t always listen to Kae.

This establishes a lot of things from this show in that now we know the character can become more fleshed out. This isn’t a simple harem where no one changes and it’s all just about competition, a lot of the show is based on really genuinely coming to care for someone despite their qualities that made you think otherwise before. In fact, Igarashi doesn’t even seem to mind her weight in the end. On the other side it will take a lot of change and determination to even think of Nana and Shinomiya with Kae because they basically acted like jerks!

I finally want to establish a ranking system for all of the guys based on how they treat Serinuma and give a little insight onto my positions:

Mutsumi: Mutsumi is the one character who does his best to treat everyone with respect while also never once seeing Serinuma as lesser. He isn’t oblivious to her weight, he just doesn’t think it warrants her hurting herself or even being seen as less. Mutsumi is also the only one who genuinely cares about her otaku interests despite not being into them before her, he paid respects to Shion, he encourages her whenever she needs it, and he respects her opinions before anyone else. He beats Nishina for me because Nishina takes advantage of Kae’s light hearted personality to basically force a kiss on her, assert herself on Kae until she is uncomfortable, and basically continues the quarreling the rest of the group has that Mutsumi never joins in on. Mutsumi is always the one to problem solve and never create an issue, so he is definitely the one I prefer with Kae.
Nishina: While Nishina definitely has her issues, they come from a good place. While the reasons Nishina is attracted to Kae haven’t been explained yet, she has very good ones and has a seemingly immovable love for Kae. Her only issue is she is not as transparent as the guys and uses her position as ‘just another girl’ to take privileges that aren’t right. She gets point for loving her equally either way and even encouraging her to eat what she likes, but she feuds just as hard as the non-Mutsumi love interests she fights against.
Igarashi: Igarashi is a very bipolar character given that he starts off being selfish, even stressing out Serinuma, and ends up being the only one of the original 3 fighting over her to view her as her own person. Nana, Igarashi, and Shinomiya were very shallow and not even in the real runnings until recently but Igarashi now does his best to be calm, compassionate, and help Serinuma do the things she wants. Nishina even traps him into a clause to kiss Nana outright if Kae lost all the weight . . . and rather than fight it he outright does it. He forces a kiss on Nana, proving he is genuinely capable of giving Serinuma what she wants if its what she has earned and really yearns for.
Nana: Despite being a self centered asshole, Nana is basically the trope of ‘winning the love of the tsundere’. For being such a douchebag he is coming along nicer than Shinomiya, who genuinely gains more and more ire from me each episode. He didn’t do himself any favors this episode and is very much on a low level, but at least he is slowly making changes.
Shinomiya: 5. Definitely. If 100 more guys come in, he will be 105. I can’t even with how inconsiderate and shallow he is this episode, and the only reason I’m at least capable of not punching his pixels is because he at least TRIED to come up with an otaku workout routine to make it more fun for Serinuma. Bleck.