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A review by opalmars
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All, Vol. 1 by Sumiko Arai
lighthearted
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
3,5 *
✘ The art style is AMAAAAZINGGGGGGG!!! I’m literally obsessed with all the details! It’s just so pretty!
✘ I wish their relationship had been developed a bit more. Aya’s crushing on Mitsuki right from the start, and Mitsuki pretty quickly shows interest in Aya too. Additionally, their friendship seemed to develop mostly off-page?? Like, they talked about how they were friends (to the point where they even had a falling out!), but we didn’t get to SEE much of that friendship, tbh. There were even big moments and events that straight up just happened off-page. Too much *telling* instead of *showing* 😕.
✘ The story felt veeeery disjointed. The chapters felt more like little moments in the characters lives, rather than a full cohesive narrative, so when you read the whole thing, it doesn’t feel like a full story, just short fragments of a story. ☹️
✘ There was a bit of ~*I’m not like other girls*~ rhetoric, with the whole “I’m the only one who knows Nirvana and Aerosmith” thing. Like, at some point Aya literally says “There’s no way people at school would know Radiohead” 😭. Bitch…. Those are some of the most popular bands on earth. Be so fucking for real. 🥴🥴🥴
✘ The writing was a bit weird, at times, but I’m assuming that’s mostly because of the translation (though I wish I could unread the sentence “That’s totes embawkward” lmao). Additionally, it wasn’t always clear what piece of text was dialogue, or thoughts, or narration (the speech and thinking bubbles were incoherent and varied a lot, and sometimes there were no bubbles at all, making it hard to distinguish what each piece of text was supposed to be). The clunky writing + the fact that it wasn’t always clear what was dialogue/thoughts/narration + the disjointed chapters made this story a bit hard to follow.
✘ Still overall an alright story. I’m hoping book 2 will be better.
✘ The art style is AMAAAAZINGGGGGGG!!! I’m literally obsessed with all the details! It’s just so pretty!
✘ I wish their relationship had been developed a bit more. Aya’s crushing on Mitsuki right from the start, and Mitsuki pretty quickly shows interest in Aya too. Additionally, their friendship seemed to develop mostly off-page?? Like, they talked about how they were friends (to the point where they even had a falling out!), but we didn’t get to SEE much of that friendship, tbh. There were even big moments and events that straight up just happened off-page. Too much *telling* instead of *showing* 😕.
✘ The story felt veeeery disjointed. The chapters felt more like little moments in the characters lives, rather than a full cohesive narrative, so when you read the whole thing, it doesn’t feel like a full story, just short fragments of a story. ☹️
✘ There was a bit of ~*I’m not like other girls*~ rhetoric, with the whole “I’m the only one who knows Nirvana and Aerosmith” thing. Like, at some point Aya literally says “There’s no way people at school would know Radiohead” 😭. Bitch…. Those are some of the most popular bands on earth. Be so fucking for real. 🥴🥴🥴
✘ The writing was a bit weird, at times, but I’m assuming that’s mostly because of the translation (though I wish I could unread the sentence “That’s totes embawkward” lmao). Additionally, it wasn’t always clear what piece of text was dialogue, or thoughts, or narration (the speech and thinking bubbles were incoherent and varied a lot, and sometimes there were no bubbles at all, making it hard to distinguish what each piece of text was supposed to be). The clunky writing + the fact that it wasn’t always clear what was dialogue/thoughts/narration + the disjointed chapters made this story a bit hard to follow.
✘ Still overall an alright story. I’m hoping book 2 will be better.