Reddit reviews Beautiful Fighting Girl

Hi, outsider here. Note that (as far as I can tell) I don't experience romantic feelings at all. I've spent a good amount of time reading about what romance and romantic relationships *are* in more mainstream areas, to mixed success, so I wanted to ask a few questions here too.

• To you, what exactly distinguishes romantic feelings towards a character from feelings of, say, friendship?
  
• To you, is there any distinction between a) romantic feelings towards a character and b) taking her as a waifu?
  
• Have you read any genuine, serious (preferably academic) literature on waifuism? If so, what were your thoughts? How closely were they describing and discussing the types of feelings you feel? (I'm considering reading Beautiful Fighting Girl soon, among potential other things, and wanted to know the perception of works like this among the community before diving in.)

Based on your phrasing here, I'm assuming this take is built in part on Saito's book? I have a copy, but haven't read it yet, so just curious.