The Strict Megane Teacher Who Stole My Heart: After School Affair- Shinichi Kagari Review

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So after an unbearable amount of waiting and pinning, Voltage finally decided to release Shinichi Kagari’s route for After School Affairs…Okay, I know I’m exaggerating, but damnit he should have been the first released route to begin with! If you follow me on Twitter or Tumblr you’ll know I was none to pleased with the decision to release Shinichi after Rikiya…but it was totally worth the wait! I couldn’t have been more pleased with this strict megane math teacher, he was more than I could have hoped for and the MC *sigh* I couldn’t be more proud of her! After playing Amnesia I can’t tell you how happy I am to have an MC that talks…and to actually have a personality to boot, I could cry!

Shinichi is strict and meticulous when it comes to his job, expecting nothing less than perfection from his students and coworkers. He starts off with a huge stick up his butt, quick to criticize even the slightest mistake. But, he only pushes people he sees potential in, so I guess it’s coming from a good place. On the other hand his home life is a mess, he reminds me of Tsugumu Kido from Our Two Bedroom Story in that respect. He is definitely not as strict with his home as he is with his school affairs.

 

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When His Glasses Come Off

Shinichi Kagari is the archetypal Voltage ice prince. He is a strict megane math teacher and one of the top instructors at the former Seika Ladies’ Academy. He, Rikiya, and Kenzo were classmates at University and remain friends to this day. I loved how both Rikiya and Kenzo teased him throughout the route and at times offered their support to the MC when Shinichi was being particularly anal. It offered more depth to his character. Shinichi is a brilliant educator who always manages to motivate his students into obtaining academic excellence. He demands excellence from his students and from himself, in fact he’s harder on himself than he is on anyone else. He became a teacher because of an incident with his younger sister. When she was younger she fell in love with a teacher and became pregnant, but the man left her to raise the child alone. Disgusted that such a man would become a teacher, he vowed to one day become a responsible teacher…(It sounds weird when you write it out like that, but I assure you Shinichi tells it better.) It’s because of this that Shinichi has a negative outlook on love as well. He thinks its a foolish and irrational emotion, and he has no time for it. In fact, he was the person actually responsible for the implementation of the no dating rule in the first place. So when boy’s and girl’s schools merge into Seishun he uses disciplined teaching style to whip the students and teachers of the former Kasuga High into shape.

He and the MC start off with a rather negative relationship, she thinks he’s a hard ass and he thinks she’s too soft. He even goes so far as to call her a bad teacher, constantly criticizing her teaching methods. However, he is extremely impressed when he learns that she scored the highest of all the Kasuga High teachers on the Teacher’s Exam. Seeing her potential, he works hard to make her into a respectable teacher, making her his co-teacher for the Accelerated Learning class. He helps her with her lesson plans and even goes out of his way to get fellow Seika alum and English teacher, Hidetaka to sit in on her lessons. He really goes out of his way to help her improve as an educator, and the results speak for themselves when her students manage to get the highest scores on the practice exam.  However the partnership is not without conflict, especially when the pair are put in charge of the school’s Study Camp. Their teaching styles come into conflict when the MC allows the class to take an unscheduled break from studying. Initially Shinichi is upset that the MC once again allowed her emotions to get in the way of her teaching. But, when the boys score higher on their exams as a result she gains some brownie points with him. As they work together, Shinichi begins to soften up, he allows the MC to make her own decisions and dare I say it, actually respects her opinions and thoughts.

So Voltage tried to create a love triangle between the MC, Shinichi, and their student Chiharu. But, you know what it was actually done well, it wasn’t the main focus of the route and Chiharu (bless him) backed off when the MC turned him down. Now I do find it hard to believe that Shinichi would be that jealous of a student with a crush, but hey, it allowed for some character growth so you won’t see me complaining much. I will say that Chiharu’s declaration of love was too much though, he sounded like a whiny kid, especially when compared with the cool and composed Shinichi…there was just no competition! Like the MC it wasn’t until about halfway through the route that I really started to fall for Shinichi…for the first couple of chapters I wanted nothing more than to bash his head into the wall. The harsh criticisms became sarcastic quips and his hard looks became soft smiles. Slowly, before I knew what was happening, this hard man wormed his way into my heart. There were so many sweet moments between the MC and Shinichi, but there are three that really made an impression on me.

The first being the scene where he helps the MC cheer up when she is feeling down on herself. Before this moment, whenever the MC would doubt herself, Shinichi would just yell at her, but in this scene he runs his fingers through her hair and actually complements her. I melted like butter in the sun! The second happened when Shinichi caught a cold after the Study Camp, he’d been pushing himself so hard during the week that his body just gave out on him. So the MC has no choice but to take care of him, and by take car of him I mean spoon feed him soup (she even did the ‘open up, ah’ thing) and clean his filthy apartment. In his fever-y state Shinichi grabs the MC’s hand and begs her not to leave him…I died in that moment, he was just too cute and vulnerable. The final scene is of course the Big Damn kiss from chapter 11! To see a man who does everything based on logic throw caution to the wind and act on impulse was a sight to behold. That was the moment that I knew that Shinichi wasn’t a robot. but a man, a normal red blooded man!

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Teacher With a Crush

So the MC…is awesome! I take back all of the bad things I said about her in my First Thoughts post, she was so much more than I expected! She is a capable teacher, who has amazing rapport with her students. She can be a bit of a push over, but when she puts her mind to it she can be just as strict as Shinichi. I love that the character development in this route was two-fold, both the MC and Shinichi learn from one another and become better teachers as a result.

Personality wise Miss. MC is hilarious, she can snark with the best of them! She doesn’t just take Shinichi’s barrage of insults lying down, she gives just as much as she takes.

Her internal dialogues had me rolling, she’s really quite spunky. But, she is able to take constructive criticism, using it to better herself and her teaching. Especially when Shinichi gives her practice math problems, she works hard to improve her dismal math skills, much to the surprise of everyone, including herself. I want to commend the MC for handling the Chiharu situation the way she did, she didn’t lead him on nor did she try to spare his feelings much when she rejected him. Even when she almost loses her job because of it, she never once blames anyone. She takes responsibility like an adult and accepts he punishment with grace. This MC is a trooper!

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Do I Recommend His Route?

Absolutely, this route was definitely worth the wait! It had me going for a minute, Shinichi was a bit of an ass in the beginning…Okay I’m lying he was a huge ass, but the more I read the more I began to like this snarky man. He really is a great teacher and all of his criticisms came from a good place, so at the end of the day it was all well and done. There is so much more to this prim bespectacled man, behind the mask is a messy, cigarette smoking man…and the ending definitely made up for all of the earlier snarking, who knew he could be so passionate?

There are two endings for this route, the Climatic Ending and the Amorous Ending. Both are great, in the Climatic Ending, Shinichi himself comes to the MC’s aid arguing against her dismissal. The MC and Shinichi then confess their love for one another…only for Chiharu to cockblock, declaring that he will be back to steal the MC from Shinichi in the future… (cue the Frozen music)… In the Amorous Ending, all of the teachers and students storm the headmistress’s office and demand that the MC be reinstated. The joint display of loyalty (and the results of the practice exam) sway the headmistress into changing her decision. The MC and Shinichi then confess their love (with no interruptions) and share a bittersweet (because of Shinichi’s cigarettes) passionate kiss. To be honest I prefer the Amorous Ending, it was more dramatic and seemed to flow better with the rest of the story…plus rule breaking Shinichi is sexy!

I laughed, I raged, and I got those little fluttering butterflies in my stomach! This route was amazing! This was absolutely worth the wait, I highly recommend this route, let this strict megane teacher steal your heart! 

Thank you for reading and Supporting Blerdy Otome! If you like what you see be sure to drop a like or a comment to let me know your thoughts about Shinichi’s Main Story!!

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