WakkoSocko said:cleodux said:See what i hate most about ln/manga like this is the author went to a safe route. Listening to fans wants, and make a pairing with the most popular girl, instead of GIRL1 route.
Fact is everyone who read ln/manga/anime will invest their time on it. And the first GIRL always have a deep impression. And for some waifu material reason, another girl get choosen. I will see it the author is spineless and have no guts.
Myself Horikita is actually not my first choice. For me is Kushida, just because she is the first girl that i see on the anime (not sure about LN) and she is the same like MC have a traits of Machiavellianism. In my opinion he should pair with her, they can rule the world LOL
I have high respect to those authors who still choose GIRL1 (out of harem) even though other line up in the harem is more popular then the first.
Beside volume 7.5, this series really doesn't primarily focus on romance. Anyways, here goes...
If the author went the "safe route", then he would've chosen Ichinose who's the most popular girl in the series or even Horikita who was the second most popular girl. Karuizawa was a literal mob character for the first 3 volumes. It took 5 volumes of development for Karuizawa to reach, if not surpass, the level of popularity Ichinose has. And it also took an epic scene from Karuizawa, which is probably the best moment of the series so far, for her to be widely consider best girl. When Karuizawa was still a nobody and volume 4 was just released, the author also released a short story about Karuizawa at the same time. The short story hinted she was going to play a major role with the MC. When volume 7 was released, her importance to the MC became so apparent that even Japanese readers who didn't ship her with the MC couldn't ignore the fact that she's probably the main heroine of the story. If anything, the author took a huge gamble on Karuizawa and it seems to be paying off.
In the light novel, Horikita is still a very important character. Since volume 1, neither she nor the MC have showed signs that they like each other. She plays more the role of a deuteragonist. Horikita is the first girl to be seen in the light novels. Kushida is the second. iirc, Kushida was also going to be on series first volume cover alongside with Horikita, but they needed someone else in the next volume to be on the cover with Sakura.
About Kushida, in the light novels, she's pretty much the MC's ideal type of girl. He probably would've fallen for her if it wasn't for her hidden personality.
Despite the fact that Karuizawa seems to most likely be the winner right now, no one has actually won yet. Another girl could still end up winning, but it's going to be extremely hard and take a lot of development just to match the development Karuizawa has with the MC. Especially when the MC already rejected a girl and 3 others in his mind.