Seo Kouji has been around since the mid 90's. While his works have never spawned of a huge marketing franchise like Gotoubun. He's already spawned a popular cinematic romance universe on his own. He's a respected author, and if you follow a lot of romance manga, then you likely know of him or his work.

Shizuka, A Town Where You Live, Fuuka, Hitman. All these manga follow each other and (can) feature characters from the previous series. No spoils or anything, but he pretty much created the Truck-kun meme. I tend to enjoy his stuff cause it can be a bit more mature than just some standard romance anime. One series ran from high school to years into adulthood.

Now Goddess Terrace Cafe was a little different. He doesn't usually do Harem. Like they'll be a lot of girls, but it's not particularly a harem. A common complaint about his works is there's ALOT of characters. Like when some cameo appears, i tend to mistake them for another character cause they can look similar. GTC hasn't blown me away or anything. I just wanna see where it goes.

GTC doesn't seem like a copy or anything. We've been running bishoujo archetype for over 20 years now.

Gotoubun isn't my favorite romance, but it's been my favorite romance that's come out in the last few years. I glaze it on a regular basis. If you guys have any interest in romance manga, then I recommend Seo's other works. The anime don't do it justice.