Turns out that Takibi Amamori’s Too Many Losing Heroines! (Makeine) isn’t just another light novel series—it’s a direct response to a trope that has frustrated countless fans: the “losing heroine.”
In the Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! 2025 Edition, Amamori revealed that his inspiration for the series came from his dissatisfaction with how these characters are often sidelined in favor of main heroines.
Specifically, he pointed to Darling in the Franxx and Ichigo’s role in the story as the spark for his creative journey.
In DITF, there is a blue hair heroine (Ichigo). She’s MC’s childhood friend, a representative, somewhat crabby, has small slender stature, but she had all the elements of a losing heroine.
And sure enough, she lost to the main heroine in the story. As I were watching this, I thought about writing a novel in which a childhood friend wins. However, if the childhood friend wins, that means another girl becomes the losing heroine.
That made no sense, so I decided to focus only on losing heroines, and that was the beginning of “Makeine”.
For those unfamiliar, Ichigo is a classic example of a losing heroine. She’s the childhood friend of the protagonist, Hiro, with a genuine emotional bond, yet she’s ultimately written to lose in favor of Zero Two.
To Amamori, Ichigo embodied everything that makes these characters compelling: she’s flawed, relatable, and heartfelt, but the narrative treated her as an obstacle rather than a true contender for Hiro’s affection.
Amamori didn’t just want to write a story where the childhood friend finally wins—many stories have done that already. Instead, he wanted to dig deeper into the archetype of losing heroines, exploring their perspectives and giving them the spotlight they often don’t get.
The realization that someone else would have to lose if the childhood friend won pushed him to embrace the bittersweet nature of these characters entirely. This became the foundation for Too Many Losing Heroines!, a series that focuses exclusively on the losing heroines and their stories.
Too Many Losing Heroines! debuted as a light novel under Shogakukan’s Gagaga Bunko imprint in July 2021. It was quickly followed by a manga adaptation in April 2022, illustrated by Imigimuru, which serialized on Shogakukan’s Ura Sunday and MangaOne platforms.
The series’ success reached new heights with an anime adaptation by A-1 Pictures, which aired from July to September 2024. The anime series scored an impressive 8.21 on MyAnimeList.
What sets Makeine apart is its ability to take a tired trope and turn it into something fresh and introspective. Losing heroines aren’t just side characters in this series—they’re the focus. The story doesn’t try to “fix” their archetype by making them win; instead, it celebrates their journey, struggles, and emotional depth.
Source: Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! 2025 Edition via X
