The Angel next door spoils me rotten vol 1 by suzu yuki

High schooler Amane lives alone in a small apartment and clearly has no life skills - he eats convenience store food or take out, rarely cleans his apartment, and seems perfectly fine mixing his clean and dirty laundry around his home. He also happens to live next door to Shiina, the class “Angel” who is perfect — she’s beautiful, poised, and put together. The two are in completely different leagues, and Amane wouldn’t dare to approach her even if they are neighbors. When he sees her sitting on a swing in the rain one day, he can’t help but intervene, causing an odd-couple friendship that brings Shiina into his messy life in the form of dinner leftovers, apartment cleaning, and inspiration to get his act together.

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Cultural context: Long time readers of manga won’t be shocked by the storyline that high schoolers are living on their own at the age of 15, but new readers might have a bit of culture shock to see Amane and Shiina responsible for an entire apartment, shopping, and laundry by themselves without parental supervision.

This started as a fun tet-a-tet between the two of them, but quickly became a reinforcement of gender stereotypes. Amane is helpless to do cooking or cleaning without Shiina, and her offer to clean his apartment for him felt a bit like Amane tricking her into it with his learned helplessness. Here’s to hoping he has absorbed some of what she taught him while organizing and he can keep his apartment clean without having to have her come over. At this point, I can see why Amane would have feelings for Shiina, but I don’t see why Shiina would reciprocate other than Amane is the only guy who can have a conversation with her without falling madly in love at first sight.

Square Enix rates this for Teen, and this book would be fine for most middle and high school libraries. However, given the one-sided nature of the romance there are better school life stories that would be better to include in collections that don't encourage half the population to continue to rely on the other half for their meals and laundry services.

Sara's Rating: 6/10
Suitability Level: Grades 7-12

Publisher: Square Enix
Publication Date: February 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781646092703 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 6/10. Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manga, Romance, School Life, ​Square Enix