Title: The Secret of Friendship
Author: Kazune Kawahara
Page Count: 252
Publish Date: December 12, 2023
Publisher: Seven Seas
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Synopsis:
Eiko and her best friend Moe couldn’t be more different. While Eiko is a shy, average-looking girl, Moe is beautiful and constantly gets attention from guys. Though their personalities are total opposites, the bond between them is incredibly strong. Moe might have an endless supply of suitors, but when it comes to actually dating them, she has a condition: her boyfriend must value Eiko more than he does Moe. No one has yet been able to meet her condition—not until a boy named Tsuchida appears, at least. What will Eiko do when her relationship with her best friend begins to change?
The Secret of Friendship
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My Review:
I picked this book up on a whim while seeking out one-shot manga. The premise sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a try.
Moe and Eiko are extremely close friends, almost too close. Moe is always being hit on and confessed to but she always makes a point of saying any boy must treat her friend Eiko better than they treat her because she wants to protect Eiko. It doesn’t make perfect sense but that’s what she decided on.
While she does get one guy, Tsuchida, to agree with that. However, one small slip-up by him leads to them breaking up. This seemed a bit extreme, but I suppose it shows Moe is 100% committed to her dating rules.
Enter his friend, Narugami. He seems to dislike women – finding girls annoying, based, from what I can tell, on his annoyance with his sister and how she treats other girls in her life. This leads him to assume that all girls are like his sister.
As we watch these friends chat, mostly focused on Tsuchida talking about Moe, Narugami begins to become curious about the two friends. Which seems odd, given his feelings towards women.
This is where my dislike of Narugami begins because he decides the best course of action is to start bullying Eiko. However, he soon realizes she’s “not like the other girls” and begins to develop feelings for her.
Moe is clearly thrown off by Narugami for a number of reasons but mostly because she has never had a guy pay attention to her – even if it is bullying. Having lived in Moe’s shadow all these years she has no clue how to act and assumes he is only getting close to her to go after Moe.
There is a decent amount of misunderstanding that happens and it feels like a lot of it is based solely on how dependent Eiko is on Moe. Their friendship is quite weird, with Eiko barely being able to do anything without Moe there and it makes it feel like Moe has held Eiko back all these years.
If it works for them and they are happy, who am I to judge, however, it does seem like a slightly toxic way to approach things.
I wanted to like this book more but there were a lot of things that didn’t sit well with me. The whole ‘bully a girl because I like her’ is so annoying and such an old-fashioned way of thinking. If you like someone you should treat them nicely from the start.
While overall slow, I think the story was okay. The friendship dynamic is too strange, the bullying is annoying, and neither of the male characters is that memorable – especially Tsuchida.
The idea behind the story is what drew me in but I felt the execution of it was where it lacked. I will likely add some of the author’s other books to my TBR to see if I enjoy them more.
I hope you enjoyed my review of The Secret of Friendship. Have you read this book?
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