Pink Habanero
Sugar, habanero, and everything nice.
Disclaimer: This copy of Pink Habanero was sent over by Yen Press for review consideration. All thoughts are my own.
Take Maid Sama! and Katy Perry’s song Hot N Cold mix them together and you’ll get Pink Habanero by Mika Satonaka. In this series, the tsundere boy is the one with an embarrassing part-time job that that has him balancing a chivalrous and sweet persona while he’s on the clock with his IRL hot head personality when he doesn’t have to pretend in order to get a paycheck. Our female lead is a shy cutie patootie who now has the upper hand since she knows our hot head’s secret. Will he behave in order to keep his part-time job a secret from his classmates?
Genre: Romance, slice of life
Age Rating: Teens
Publisher: Yen Press
Status: Ongoing, two volumes out in English so far
Synopsis:
Mugi is a shy high school girl who’s tired of being ignored by the boys. She just really wants a boyfriend and to be doted on for her beauty just like her best friend Lili who always has boys swooning over her. The problem is Mugi is not only shy but lacks confidence. Lili encourages Mugi to put on lip gloss to boost her self-confidence but despite feeling herself, the only reason why boys want to talk to her is to get closer to her friend Lili. That’s where our hot head boy Kei enters the picture, he may have a IDGAF attitude but the boy is incredibly perceptive and he forces Mugi to put on the lipgloss for herself but then immediately turns cold on her again.
Kei is hot and then cold. He’s yes, then he’s no. He’ll be sweet to Mugi one moment and then humiliate her the next but he has a secret… he works at a knight cafe where he has to charm his female customers with his chivalrous knight persona. After discovering his secret, our girl Mugi has the upper hand because if Kei wants to keep that job a secret, he’ll have to be a little nicer to Mugi.
Favorite Things:
Mugi: Our female lead may be shy, but when she feels comfortable she can be quite outspoken and even sassy. I love how she carries herself when she’s with Kei, she doesn’t just let him get away with his words and attitude.
Bickering: I know some people don’t like when the leads bicker but I personally think it's adorable when our two leads pretend to dislike each other so much that they end up bickering like an old married couple. I think the hot and cold dynamic between the two leads made for a fun read.
Notable Things:
Kei’s backstory: The reason why Kei had to take up his embarrassing part-time job makes me sympathize with him more and it reminds me so much of Maid Sama!’s Misaki. Seeing young characters put their embarrassment aside in order to help their families just makes me appreciate them even more.
Rating: ★★★ / 5
This was a really cute first volume! It introduced me to our leads, made me laugh a little with their bickering, and also made me sympathize with our male lead by learning more about the real him. I do see myself picking up volume 2 just to see how their dynamic changes as they get to know each other more. I have a feeling that our tsundere boy is going to be the one who falls much harder than our female lead. Behind every hot head male lead, there’s a sweetie pie who just wants to defend a cute doe-eyed girl.
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