Series to Watch Out For #1: Renai Boukun (Updated 12/5/18)

Renai Boukun is a manga by Mihoshi Megane releasing monthly in the digital magazine Comic Meteor. It's currently 45 chapters long which has been collected in 11 volumes. As of writing this it also has an anime adaptation airing, with episode 9 being the most recent. (Update: Renai Boukun has ended with a harem ending. You can find the page for it here.)

You might be wondering why I'm writing about an ongoing series, which can't possibly have a harem ending if it hasn't ended yet. The reason for that and the reason for this column is to talk about ongoing series where a harem ending is likely to happen, and Renai Boukun definitely fits the bill.

For those unfamiliar with the series here is the synopsis from MAL: "A Kiss Note is a powerful notebook that makes people who have their names written together instantly fall in love if they kiss each other, regardless of any circumstances. This magical and very familiar item belongs to an angel named Guri whose job as cupid is to create couples. However, she accidentally writes down Aino Seiji, a regular high school student, and unless he kisses someone, Guri will die. She convinces Seiji to go kiss his crush, Hiyama Akane, the school's popular girl who turns out has even stronger feelings for him, bordering on obsessive and psychotic. Eventually Akane and Seiji come together but not before Guri decides that she likes Seiji as well. What seems awesome to most guys becomes hell for Seiji who just wants a normal relationship with girls."

Now for the reasons why I think it will get a harem ending. Two of the harem members, Akane and Yuzu, are half-sisters who share the same father. Their mothers have appeared over the course of the manga and have been shown to have a poor relationship with each other. I don't know if it was just me, but from their altercations, I was under the impression that the father left Suou (Akane's mother) to be with Ameisha (Yuzu's mother) before leaving her as well. But recently their father Kanzou was introduced, and we learn that he was married to both Suou and Ameisha at the same time. With polygamy being established into the series, and Suou and Ameisha now pushing Seiji to hurry and give them grandchildren, I think a harem end is inevitable.

Things aren't set in stone, but I believe a harem ending is the end goal for this series. With chapter 45 introducing two new female characters and starting a new arc, the series shows no signs of ending anytime soon. I'll continue reading and enjoying the series, and hopefully sometime in the future I'll be able to add it to the list of series with harem endings.