Note ~ For all of who are concerned about the length of the manga, it isn't actually that long. It does have more than 350 chapters, but all the chapters are quite short in reality. Most of them can be read within only 5 minutes each. At least I did.


Life isn't all easy for a male college student named Terumi Minamoto. Imagine being a boy so pretty that strangers usually mistake you for a girl. Being that pretty must benefit Terumi a lot, right? But that doesn't seem to be the case with him, as he is left severely scarred from his traumatic experiences caused by his female classmates from middle school. Since then, he has developed a really strong fear of women and has tried to avoid any sort of interaction with them.

However, all of this soon changes after Terumi starts living with his aunt, Kaoruko Fujiwara. He quickly finds out that she is doing a research on The Tale of Genji, a Japanese classic about a guy who had sexual relationship with 14 women. And much to his surprise and detest, he learns that Karoruko is going to use him as a guinea pig for her research. Being forced by his aunt, Terumi starts getting close to 14 different girls in order to win their hearts and get rid of his fear of women.

And that's basically what Minamoto-kun Monogatari is all about. No, I'm not exaggerating.

I'm pretty sure that reading the plot alone is enough to tell you that Minamoto-kun Monogatari isn't a manga suitable for kids. Almost every chapter of the manga contains at least one sex scene. Well, that's an exaggeration, but it's certainly true that the entire manga consists of lots and lots of sex scenes. However, despite almost being a hentai, I believe Minamoto-kun Monogatari has quite a few things to offer even to the readers who aren't horny on main.

It's a no-brainer to say that the plot of Minamoto-kun Monogatari is really ludicrous. However, while the ridiculousness of the plot never changes, the manga does redeem itself a bit by adding short but decently presented backstories to all the female characters. Almost every female character is distinct from each other. I don't know how faithful the manga is to its source (which is ''The Tale of Genji''), but it seems like all the female characters are based on the women Genji had relationship with. Every one of them is a representative of different character archetypes, which can be a plus for some readers. This also enables the readers to find at least one character whom they can relate to or find likeable.

Well, the fact that pretty much any girl Terumi meets, almost instantly becomes sexually attracted to him is still very, very absurd; but adding relatable backstories to them definitely helped me sympathize with them more. Their character development throughout the entire manga is noteworthy as well. How Terumi helps them overcome their struggles is weirdly heartwarming considering the overly sexual nature of the manga; it's kinda inspirational as well.

The most prominent character, without a doubt, is Terumi's aunt Kaoruko Fujiwara. The "trashiest" parts of the manga usually revolve around her, and I would say those are the most interesting parts of the manga as well. One might find the incestuous relationship of Terumi and Kaoruko existent throughout the entire manga very questionable and bothersome, but the fact that Kaoruko plays a really pivotal role in the story is simply undeniable.

Later on in the manga, Terumi's traumatic experiences from middle school are displayed, which made his gynophobia a lot more reasonable. Despite this, though, Terumi is not a great protagonist in any way. There isn't anything very appealing about him to begin with (besides his face, I guess), and he doesn't receive much character development either. He does get rid of his fear of women and goes through slight change at the end, but most of his actions remain very questionable for almost the entirety of the manga.

Another flawed aspect regarding the characters is that some of them remain fairly underdeveloped. Although developing all the characters equally when there's more than a dozen is pretty hard, it's an inescapable issue in Minamoto-kun Monogatari's case. Characters like Chisato, Noriko, Iyo etc. were considerably less prioritized, which became very apparent in the later parts of the manga and felt very odd.

The worst aspect of the manga, however, is its rather haphazard and rushed ending. Terumi's relationship with a few of the characters aren't properly established even after 350+ chapters, which left a lot of readers, including me, kinda dissatisfied with the ending. Even how Terumi and Kaoruko's relationship came to its conclusion is show poorly, which is honestly very disappointing.

Regarding the art, it isn't anything spectacular, but it is fairly decent. All the characters are drawn pretty nicely. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, the manga contains a lot of sex scenes. And I mean A LOT. Obviously, the sex scenes aren't shown entirely. If they were, this manga would've become a hentai, you know? And it's already really close to being one.

Overall, Minamoto-kun Monogatari was a decent read, but it's certainly not something I would recommend to an average reader. And even if you don't mind the ridiculous plot and the excessive amount of sex scenes and fanservice, I can't assure you that you will have an amazing time reading it.

But hey, if you are as trashy as me, give Minamoto-kun Monogatari a try. As I said before, it does have some genuinely praiseworthy things to offer; but keep in mind that, in the end, it's just a manga about a guy trying to get into the pants of more than a dozen girls. So yeah, don't expect anything too great.