Sekai de Ichiban Dame na Koi

I read WA2 in the timeframe from when I stalled it to when I picked it back up. From there, I was able to experience the similarities and differences between WA2 and Damekoi much more clearly and get a better grasp of Maruto's writing.

Maruto is a master of character relationships and dynamics. These are displayed in full throttle yet again in Damekoi. Each character is fleshed out and has their own arc. Each relationship formed, and broken, is complex and exploring the deeper facets of the characters is always a treat. While the structure is pretty "episodic" and formulaic, which can get boring, that does not diminish the character writing. What it does ruin for me is the plot narrative, which is definitely not the focus of Damekoi, still something that ended up bothering me nonetheless.

It is apparent that Damekoi is a prototype in some ways for WA2. The three way dynamic between Mitoko, Asami and Osamu is definitely the inspiration for Haruki, Kazusa and Setsuna. Many of the more emotionally charged scenes feel reminiscent of WA2, with similar ideas and themes being thrown around. The whole forbidden love aspect is also something tackled in WA2, though I won't go into much detail about that, but it is always intriguing to compare aspects of the two and how they execute similar ideas in different fashions. Damekoi definitely takes a more optimistic route, which has its unique takes compared to how WA2 handled it, though neither is inherently better than the either (but I do like WA2 more regardless). The setting of throwing broken people in the same environment and forcing them to adapt to each other is always an interesting way to set up character growth. It would be unfair to Damekoi to completely trash it in comparison to WA2. Damekoi serves as an important stepping stone for WA2 and laid some of the key foundations to make WA2. It is obvious to see where Maruto realized his mistakes and cleaned them up for WA2, creating a much more cohesive tale because of his past works.

However, Damekoi, being the test pilot for WA2, has some flaws that stuck out for me during my read through. While yes, comedy is subjective (I don't really like saying that because any part of fiction is subjective, but oh well), Damekoi for the most part did not jive well with me. The reason WA2 appealed to me so much more is that it stripped all the unnecessary comedic fat and presented a raw, emotional human drama. While I can definitely see how the comedy can appeal to others besides myself, alas it is something I can do without for my own reasons (as I find comedy the weakest point in many VNs I read). Besides that, the drama moves a little too fast and at times, it doesn't feel like the characters don't have time to catch up to the sometimes absurdly fast pace of the story. Asami and Mitoko's route felt very short in particular, and while it had some good drama, resolved things way too quickly and moved through events at an absurd pace, not letting them have the emotional impact that they deserve. Finally, the epilogue is the culmination of all the things I dislike about Damekoi thrown into one package. It has a higher density of jarring comedy, absurd pacing that destroys the narrative for the epilogue and for good measure, hamfists a random villain out of nowhere because why the fuck not, we need some "interesting" twists to keep the readers engaged (which, btw it did not). Honestly, the epilogue soured my taste buds in regards to Damekoi, as it was an unnecessary end to an otherwise pretty solid read.

Oh and one last thing, the animations for the h-scenes are fucking terrible, a complete disgrace to look at and makes me scratch my head as to why they added it in the first place. If you can, read the original version without the h animation, PLEASE.