Im sure most of you have seen a show which would have been breathtakingly bad except every time you wanted to cringe you also wanted to laugh. Thats generally so bad its good style but sometimes it shows the writers genuine comedic talent. This is what Absolute Boyfriend is. As a romcom its great and ridiculous. As a deeper story and there are plenty of places for it to be one it stumbles. Plot The story is about a high school girl who really wants a boyfriend and cant get one. So she orders a robot one online. He shows up to her door with a million dollar price tag attached The real plot of the story essentially follows their cohabitation. In order to not be in debt to the company forever she needs to give this robot who she calls Night life experience and data on women while thats essentially just a plot device to keep them together it does keep interfering with their lives. In addition to Riikos other love interests and friends causing conflict Nights a born sexy yesterday kind of character who needs help to stop from causing chaos. Honestly? Im a guy but its very refreshing to see that trope with a male character instead of a female one. Comedy Its pretty absurdist though it doesnt rely on that. Basically the story runs at a rapid pace with the protagonist Riiko especially creating chaos at every turn. The characters will say anything with no real sense of discretion. Its pretty great. 220https://i.post.cc/s2HHqZqF/image.png The creator openly just makes wild story decisions for gags and its a great ride if thats what youre looking for. Another upside is that unlike other romcoms it never has the joke of the female lead beating up the male lead. Or vice versa. Its jokes are more versatile than that which makes it more enjoyable even if you dont mind that trope. Characters If youre writing a manga like Absolute Boyfriend where the premise of one of the characters is that hes the perfect man you have to nail making him lovable. Is Night lovable? For me at least the answer is a resounding yes. In addition to being pretty handsome I think and genuinely gallant hes also really cute and endearing in a puppydog like way. Hes innocent sweet and will do anything for Riiko. 220https://i.post.cc/cH4B48BT/image.png Honestly by the end of the story I got pretty concerned for him. He looks like a high school boy and has no life experience but his jobs basically to be a sex doll. Unfortunately this story tends to hide from its serious implications and thats never really explored. 220https://i.post.cc/TYR0tFDB/image.png The other characters arent very good. Riiko the protagonist is refreshing because shes funny and never really sexualized but she doesnt have anything special going for her and also doesnt deal with her situations very well. I didnt remember her name until a decent way through the manga which should tell you something. 220https://i.post.cc/Jh0ydcrN/ScreenShot20240131at74906PM.png Theres also Soshi Riikos childhood friend and Nights rival in love. 220https://i.post.cc/7PBmbDhX/image.png ...I dont like him. Basically hes meant to be a serious character genuinely pining for Riiko. But the mangaka isnt great at writing serious stuff. at least not for this manga. Soshi mostly became to me an annoying guy without many gags maybe because I liked Night so much and wanted him to get Riikos love but also since Soshi didnt have a purpose outside that I felt like any time we spent on him was kind of useless if he wasnt going to be the one who got with Riiko. Which apparently the mangaka didnt decide until a long way through the story but at the time it felt like a foregone conclusion to me. Hes not the naked guy on the cover and not the guy the main plot is about. Other than that there are 2 pretty forgettable girls though the second one with dark hair does have her charms shes not well written enough that I can even remember her name now another guy who I wont go into too much for spoilers Gaku a genuinely fun character and a little kid whos Gakus boss. 220https://i.post.cc/1zsBgdK9/ScreenShot20240131at75639PM.png Girl 2. Gakus the marketing guy for the company who made Night: he dresses in cosplay all the time and has a great chaotic presence. Underneath it all though hes actually pretty normal and he ended up being one of the characters I was rooting for most at the end as he started to consider leaving his shady company. 220https://i.post.cc/Gh7Cd9ZQ/image.png Summary I spent so long on the characters because characters tend to make or break a comedy in this case I think they make it but also to avoid spoilers. Theres a lot of exciting things that happen in this manga but a lot of them feel pretty contrived. Whether you like it depends on whether you live for silly drama or not. Personally I do but even as a fan of love triangle plots the love triangle specifically felt really weak. Without the comedy and just the existing drama this would be a pretty bad story. Luckily theres comedy. Another weakness is that the creator doesnt really want to write a science fiction story especially not a story about almost fully sentient/sapient sex robots nor really a story about whether those robots ARE sentient or not despite having set herself up to write all three. Nights implied to have broken out of his programming and to feel the full spectrum of emotions by the end but his perfect personality never really changes in response and so it feels ambiguous which isnt the feeling you really want looming when your main couple gets together. Plus the story could have been much more interesting that way. That said I think anyone judging this manga should think of how common these stories are for male audiences. A lot of people will read this kind of fantasy with genders swapped and not question it but then call this story silly and bad. Yeah its silly both versions of these romances are silly But both can also be good entertaining fun and sweet and I think this mangas pretty good in all of those regards.