If you’ve enjoyed works such as Bottom Tier Character Tomozaki, ReLIFE and Oregairu, I would go as far as to say this is a must-read. If you’re not a fan of the genre, I’d still recommend it as a fun school romance novel, with great characters, an interesting MC and enjoyable prose.

To begin with, the core idea of the novel is nothing new. The main character, Haibara Natsuki, is reminiscing about his grey Highschool life and through a miracle is allowed to return to a month before his Highschool debut. The story that follows is his quest for popularity, a girlfriend, and honestly an all-round colourful school life.

This might sound generic but where the story really shines is through the beautiful cast of characters and their individual characterisation and motives.

To really emphasise that point, the first volume (the only one released so far in English) isn’t actually focused on the romance aspect at all. Instead, it focuses on two key themes: Self-improvement, and male friendship.

On the note of self-improvement, I really love novels of this genre in the sense they’re pretty inspirational. Although the actual focus on self-improvement is somewhat glossed over in its event, the ideology behind it and the effect it has on the protagonist’s perspective really shines through the text.

The main character has been a gloomy otaku, has been an over-confident asshole and has been someone who looks up to others like idols and is crushed when he can’t meet their expectations. For me, I feel like everyone can relate to at least one of those things and I do find the protagonist relatable while still maintaining his own unique characterisation that distinguishes him from being a self-insert.

Despite knowing it might not be his true self, he puts on a consistent mask, mixed in with honesty, to force himself into the position of a cheerful popular kid. The juxtaposition between his internal narrative and his actions are a joy to read and often relatable, with pangs of both, “I’ve been there” and “Haha, good for him!” - It’s strange, but some parts of the volume really do make you feel proud for him, as if you’re the parent of some fictional protagonist or something.

Although the plot is very SoL focused, the first volume is an enjoyable 8/10 read for the first two-thirds before setting up a beautiful final arc, which I would say was genuinely amazing and earned the novel an instant spot in my favourites. I don’t want to say anymore in fear of spoiling, but the life messages and themes of being true to yourself and acknowledging your own twisted perceptions of others and theirs of you is just perfect. You know it’s great when you spend the whole night up reading a damn Slice of Life novel like a pageturner.

It’s also great that despite such a strong female cast, the series is clearly not set up to be a harem and it (hopefully) will never be, which I have to give props for as it’s not often seen in its contemporaries.

That’s not to say there aren’t flaws as there are some very cliché LN scenes, such as the classic trope of the flat-chested girl feeling insecure and similar, along with the protagonist being awfully dense (not to do with romantics, thankfully) about certain things, but the latter does make sense logically later on and it’s a cathartic moment to see it explained and explained well.

With all that out of the way, a quick note on the characters. Despite only being one volume, none of them feel cliché. The main female lead honestly hasn’t had that much development in the first volume but it looks like the second will focus on her, while the others have all had significant development. Tatsuya, a guy, got quite a lot of good focus and characterisation in particular, which is again rare for these types of novels. Moreover, the rest of the side cast like Nanase, Reita and Uta all have their enjoyable moments. Though Uta and Reita aren’t that developed yet, they’re entertaining even as currently static characters and have qualities that really make you want to learn more about them.

To conclude, this novel is a great and underrated gem so please give it a chance, hopefully you’ll love it as much as I did.