Title: The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Seen Vol. 1
Author: mmk
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 179
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance, Comedy
Publication Date: April 14, 2026
The Story
Ikezawa was walking to school one day when his friends were talking about a girl named Eguchi in his class. He never paid much attention to her, but that changed when he openly and loudly admitted that the only thing he remembered about her was her breasts. Later in the classroom, he even told her to her face that because she was sweating, her shirt would be quite revealing. What he didn’t expect to happen was for her to objectify him back… pointing out the nape of his neck, how she could see down his shirt whenever he bent over, and suddenly, Ikezawa got a taste of his own medicine!
Suddenly, the tables are turned because Eguchi doesn’t let up! She continues to point out different parts of his body, and it begins to mess with his head. So much so that he starts wearing smaller shirts with undershirts beneath, he’s becoming more conscious of the way he looks, right down to the movements he makes. At one point, he ends up with a stomachache, so Eguchi brings him to the nurse’s office. The nurse is out, but as luck would have it, she is on the health committee! She places her hand on his stomach to warm it up to help ease the pain, but it ends up giving him a fever instead! To make matters worse, she even visits him at home!
All the while, you begin to learn that maybe she’s not teasing as much as she’s letting on… and thanks to a backstory chapter, we know for a fact that she’s not teasing, but the big problem is, because of how things ended up this way, Ikezawa can’t tell whether Eguchi actually likes him, or if it’s all an act… but when he suspects the latter and says something to her, could it cause everything to come crashing down?
Characters
I don’t recall if they ever cited the characters’ full names, but thanks to the magic of AniList, we know them!
First up is Ooutarou Ikezawa… a typical high school boy who has friends, plays soccer, and obviously has zero shame or sense of respect for his words about women. It’s one thing to admit to your friends that you only noticed a girl’s boobs (all guys have been there), but it’s another thing to blatantly point that out to a girl’s face! However, once Eguchi gives him a taste of his own medicine, that personality of his disappears instantly. What we’re left with now is a self-conscious teen boy who is beginning to realize what it’s like to be on the receiving end of objectification. I would say that the experience humbles him quite quickly. What we’re left with, though, isn’t really a character who has learned his lesson, but a character who is nothing more than a hypocrite. He’s always pointing out that Eguchi’s advances, actions, and the things she says are totally wrong, but does he really have the right to speak after what he had done at the very start of the book?
Next, we have Kokoro Eguchi, who at first glance seemed like a quiet, reserved girl that not many people talk to, but in reality, she bears her fangs and sinks them in the split second that Ikezawa tries to objectify her. While she teases him to the point where even he is mortified, we learn that she’s only doing it because she’s had a crush on him for the longest time. She’s using all of this as an excuse to try and get closer to him… in the weirdest and most uncomfortable ways possible.
What ends up happening is that the two of them switch roles and don’t look back. What you can tell about these characters is that neither of them is truly experienced in love. Ikezawa seems like the type of guy who would never get a girlfriend because of his mouth, while Eguchi seems like the type of girl who doesn’t know how to properly flirt… or if she does, she takes it way too far over a simple high school crush.
Final Thoughts
Just hilarious. The series hits you straight out of the gate with shock value as it makes you question how a guy can say that to the face of a girl, but then the comedy kicks in with Eguchi flipping everything around on Ikezawa. What seems like fun and games at first turns into a more serious, dramatic romance as the two of them begin to wonder if they have feelings for one another. While I am highly enjoying this premise, a part of me has to wonder if the trigger was pulled a bit too quickly.
I’m not saying this running gag has to last forever, but I wonder what it would have been like if Ikezawa continuously teased her, said objectifying things to her, and made himself look like an absolute bottom-feeding scum of a human being for the entirety of the first volume? Then, on the final page, you leave everyone on a cliffhanger by having Eguchi at home standing in front of a mirror, looking at herself, and saying something like “what can I do to get him to notice me more tomorrow?” which would strongly hint that she loved it all along. Then, she breaks in the next volume and starts doing it back to him, and he suddenly realizes that she liked it all along.
That kind of a slower burn is something I would have preferred, but it’s not a deal breaker here as I was thoroughly entertained from cover to cover. Even with what we got, flipping the script and having a girl objectify a guy isn’t something you see a lot of… especially in manga, so this is kind of a refreshing take in the romantic comedy genre. I’m sure other series out there like this exist… I just haven’t personally read too many of them. Now that they are beginning to realize their feelings, I wonder how things will go from here? I hope the hijinks continue because the worst thing that could happen now is that the series just falls into a generic rom-com and loses its hook. I don’t think it’ll happen, but you never know, as this running gag can’t keep up forever.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
