God is Telling Me to Fall in Love Review

Summary:

        Chiyoko Nakano recently transferred to a new school due to her dad's job transfer. She wants to fall in love and get a boyfriend because she has been in an all-girl school since middle school. On her first day, her world suddenly becomes an otome game, and she must get all five happy endings from five targets.

Other Titles:

• Kami-sama go Koi wo Shiro to Itte Iru!

Story Info:

Original Author & Artist: Hanamatsu Ayaka

Genre: Reverse Harem, Romance, Shoujo

Status: Complete

Chapter Length: 31 (5 Volumes) (30 chapters, 1 Extra Story/Epilogue)

Content Warning: Self-Harm, False Imprisonment, Violence

Personal Rating: 8/10

• Pros:I love how they explore the concept of love by having each of the "target love interests" represent different perspectives on why it is hard to fall in love. I also love having another person regressing with Chiyoko as this develops their relationship more and has Chiyoko finish her regression cycle as fast and effectively as possible. I also like the extra pages of what-if scenarios and info pages on the characters, as it helps me understand more about them.

• Cons: The ending felt rushed, as did the explanation of why the protagonist had been going through the time loop. This manga does not take the time for the protagonist to react to all of this information appropriately, and the sudden thought of losing her memories of this overall experience makes Chiyoko's character grow all for nothing. While I understand that she was given fragments of those memories, it defeats the whole purpose of her journey to discovering herself and the concept of love.

Regression Mechanism:

    After Chiyoko finishes the ending, she returns to school on the first day. An ending is concluded depending on the targets' understanding of love; a happy ending means they understand, and a bad ending means they either do not understand or mistake another thing for love. After Chiyoko gets a good ending with Kyouya, she learns that she can no longer go for him again, as whenever she confesses to him, the loop resets.

    The last few chapters explain why Chiyoko went through the regression. One of the targets, Minazuki Makoto, confirms that she is part of an experiment from the future in which love is dying. The researchers want to understand more about the concept of love. This is foreshadowed earlier in a small scene depicting people looking at a screen through Chiyoko's perspective as if they were playing a video game.

Chiyoko's life has now become an otome game (ch 1)

    When the protagonist collides with Makoto, she suddenly sees the game functions as if she is in a video game. However, what makes this manga a regression is when Chiyoko gets the bad ending from Natsume Himegi, whom she thought she would date. A twist in this story I did not expect is when her first successful target, Kyouya Akitaka, also got regressed after Chiyoko's 7th regression when completed Makoto’s happy ending. 

Regressor Analysis:

       Chiyoko is a high schooler who wants to find love after only attending an all-girls school since elementary school. Her goal after being regressed is to complete all five good endings to get out of the time loop. In order to do so, she must understand each of the target's reasons for not being able to understand love through their backstory and character traits.

Top Half (Left to Right) are the five targets: Hotaru, Makoto, Natsume, Tetsuhin, and Kyouya

Bottom Half: Chiyoko (ch 3)

     At the story's beginning, Chiyoko grows a loving relationship with Kyouya, leading to them becoming a couple and helping each other to stop the time loop as fast as possible. Due to both having experience talking to the opposite sex often, both have struggles with understanding how to communicate with each other. When Chiyoko clarifies misunderstandings, Kyouya trusts her more and becomes more open with her when communicating. Because of this openness and closeness, Kyouya confesses that he likes her. Chiyoko also felt the same way, as she still loved Kyouya throughout the rest of her time loops. The second good ending target, Natsume, is always worried about how he treats girls, which results in being nice to them all the time. However, Chiyoko points out to him that not everything will be perfect, as there are moments when people take seriousness in his words and bad moments that will inevitably happen. 

    In Makoto's case, Chiyoko tells him how love would feel through a non-scientific lens and explains how being happy around things you like would be considered love. From multiple dates to deep conversations about the concept of love itself, Makoto sslowly understands the concept of love with Chiyoko.  

    Chiyoko helps Tetsuhin Watarai, a friend of Kyouya, to be aware that he is unsure about the difference between being interested in them as a friend and being interested in them as a love interest (quoiromantic), but that does not mean that he can try to learn more about love. Unlike the other routes where Chiyoko is the endgame, Tetsuhin ends up going to his ex-girlfriend, Kimie Kumehara, and lets her know that though he may not understand how romantic feelings works, he willing to work with the relationship to try to understand it and build a stronger connection with her.

    Hotaru Niihashi always pushes himself to become a "somebody" so that people will like him. However, Chiyoko helps him by seeing more into him as a person rather than his perfect persona, in which he learns to love himself more and understand that love means one who accepts you regardless of flaws. She can get all the good endings in 10 regressions before getting her memories wiped out and reset for one last time. 

Natsume accepting Chiyoko's rejection to his love confession (ch 15)

    Chiyoko admits on her first run that she does not truly understand the boys' circumstances and the concept of love. From the first run with Natsume, she seems to judge very quickly about the boys, which results in her making a move on Natsume, assuming that he likes going on dates, but later confirms that he was never serious. It is also confirmed that Chiyoko's idea of love is biased and cliche based on her character notes. Over time, she, alongside the five targets, understands the meaning of love and respects people's boundaries. There are also moments where she does not view her targets as people due to the otome game-like system put in front of her combined with hherbicide which resulted in her getting multiple bad endings from Hotaru since he was the one Chiyoko has the most biased towards due to his persona of perfection and experiencing the first bad ending that is close to the nature of a yandere.

Chiyoko's assumptions on love (ch 1)

    

        Throughout Chiyoko's journey, she learns more about her five targets to guide them to true love. However, the one she focuses on the most and regresses with her is Kyouya, as he is her first love interest and the one who helps Chiyoko throughout the story. After getting a happy ending with Kyouya, Chiyoko never stopped being in love with Kyouya. She felt bitter, realizing she could never confess to him again until the loop ended. Afterr getting the happy ending with Natsume, she breaks down and reveals to Kyouya her situation in the time loop in which Kyouya believed her. Kyouya and Chiyoko strategize on how to get the remaining three boys's endings. Kyouya gives his insights and uses his connection with Tetsuhin to help all the characters reach happy endings. It should also be noted that she did not tell Kyoya about him being a target until Kyouya connected the dots based on Chiyoko's behavior around him and how he has grown to understand love despite not knowing about the good ending Chiyoko had with him. By the end of the series, the two end up dating throughout college despite their long distance and memories being erased.

Kyouya admits his change in character due to Chiyoko (ch 29)

Evaluation on Regression:

    For Chiyoko to get an otome game-like system and the regression as a way to get five targets to understand love, this is a good regression system because it focuses on the issues of understanding love from the scientist's perspective and Chiyoko's views in which they learn throughout interacting with other people.

Final Thoughts:

      I would recommend this manga for its tackle on romance and giving the regression a unique twist. We get to dive deeper into the five boy's minds on love with Chiyoko, which makes us understand the obstacles and ways for others to understand true love. While there are some flaws with the ending, this manga delivers the overall themes of love ideally in aa setting where one discovers the concepts of love throughout our early stages of life.

Note:

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