My Hero Academia’s Minoru Mineta Is Made Adorable in New Manga

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Older Elite Knight Is Cute Only in Front of Me!

Minoru Mineta‘s lecherous proclivities terrorize his female classmates and teachers in My Hero Academia to such an extent that he has developed his own hatedom. But Haru, who shares the same perverted tendencies and relentless drive as Mineta in the manga Older Elite Knight Is Cute Only in Front of Me, is somehow portrayed as an endearing boy in love despite his lewdness as well as the obvious turmoil he inflicts on his crush.

Even though everyone (possibly even Deku) is fair game to Mineta, the relationship that most effectively captures Haru’s obsession with his beloved Captain Karen is the one between Mineta and his teacher Midnight, for Haru is a young, 16-year-old recruit of a cavalry unit who’s smitten by his commanding officer, 29-year-old Captain Karen. Mineta usually goes after his classmates, but Midnight is still a frequent target of his advances.

Older Elite Knight Is Cute Only in Front of Me is essentially if the hero Mineta just fawned over and embarrassed a much more innocent version of Midnight. Not at all like the R-Rated hero, Karen is a classic tsundere, her temperament changing within the course of panels rather than chapters. The ever-advantageous Haru often teases her by leaving out crucial words in statements, the absence of which leaves much to the imagination, before quickly repeating what he said in a less risqué fashion after his earlier comment caused her to explode in rage or blush.

Of course, the fates seem to favor the little whelp as the two continually find themselves in circumstances that promise to yield overly flirtatious outcomes. These instances never fail to deliver like the time they are forced to reside at an inn whose owner mistakenly (or purposefully) confuses the times in which they will bathe in the inn’s spa and reserves them a room with only a single double bed.

Oddly, Older Elite Knight Is Cute Only in Front of Me portrays Haru warmly as opposed to My Hero Academia‘s Mineta who’s lechery comes across as just plain creepy. It’s ironic, especially as Mineta’s tendencies are usually confined to his innermost thoughts, though they oftentimes spew out in the form of almost incoherent ramblings as he mumbles his deepest desires. Although his desires are undeniably uncomfortable, he rarely acts on his urges physically and seems to just be satisfied with articulating his perverted thoughts. Of course, he does sometimes achieve physical contact, but usually his inappropriate advances are successfully thwarted. Conversely, even though Haru keeps his harassments almost exclusively verbal, there is an almost aggressiveness displayed in their demeaner, especially as they’re always directed to the same person. But the manga somehow depicts him as endearing and maybe even charming to an extent just because it’s clear that he truly loves Captain Karen and finds it adorable when she’s embarrassed. Maybe Minoru Mineta‘s circumstances are different as there’s something inherently off-putting about hitting on everyone under the sun? Or maybe it’s just his overly grotesque facial expressions that appear whenever he’s thinking something inappropriate. Haru usually just blushes innocently in a devilish sort of way.

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