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A review by princess_starr
Say I Love You, Volume 6 by Kanae Hazuki
4.0
Say ‘I Love You’ feels like the antithesis of Kimi ni Todoke for me. Both deal with awkward teenage girls who get bullied for their scary demeanor, popular guy in their school takes an interest in them, and romance blossoms while dealing with the ups and downs of the high school social mores and population in that relationship. But while Kimi ni Todoke encapsulates the super-warm fluffy aspect of romance shojo manga, Say ‘I Love You’ has a little bit more realism to it—Mei’s bullying is more up front and brutal, and there’s been more consequences to the characters’ actions.
Volume 6 is a little more filler than the previous volumes so far, but what I really like about this series is that Kanae Hazuki puts in the seeds for future conflicts early on. This starts off with Meg’s slowly dissolving façade of being the nice, sweet, cute girl and how manipulative she’s learned to become. We get Meg’s backstory of getting bullied for being “poor and ugly” before she learned how to weaponize make-up and being cute and innocent. And although it’s not really resolved by the end of the volume, I like that we start to see hints of her friends beginning to call her out on her bullshit.
The majority of this volume focus more on Mei and Yamato’s upcoming one-year anniversary and that Yamato’s friend Kai having a crush on Mei. While it could getting annoying that Mei doesn’t realize that two boys are really in love with her, it makes sense to me because she still doesn’t know how to completely read people. (To be fair on my hand, I read this back-to-back with High School Debut which has the same kind of plot thread in that, so I was a little “Oh, this again.”) And to be honest, I’m really not a fan of how even though Kai explains that he’s backing off on Mei (but will continue to protect her), Yamato’s first inclination is to go ballistic on Mei. Yeah, I get that they’re high school students and no one really can spit out the truth to each other, but sometimes the trope does get a little overdone and frustrating. The rest of the volume is spent with Mei and Yamato’s trip to ‘Land,’ which cute and fun, and has Mei being adorable so the plot is slightly redeemed for me.
I also like that the ending trip is framed by Mei’s nervousness about spending the night alone with Yamato, but I do like that she’s become more mature in their relationship—she’s still nervous about the idea of sex, but she’s more comfortable being alone with Yamato and more open to the possibility that it could happen. (Side note: I LOVE MEI’S MOM. She’s only a cameo character at points, but she’s so funny each time she shows up. More of her in the rest of the series.)
Although Volume 6 felt more like a breather volume, I did still really enjoy this. I think what makes Say ‘I Love You’ work for me so much more is that even though the story is 100% romance manga tropes, the characters really aren’t—Mei’s just not interested, Yamato can be an outright jerk (and gets called out on it), and the side characters aren’t perfect either, even after everyone becomes ~friends~. I’m really interested in the Meg subplot that’s shown up, and I can’t wait for the next volume next month.
Volume 6 is a little more filler than the previous volumes so far, but what I really like about this series is that Kanae Hazuki puts in the seeds for future conflicts early on. This starts off with Meg’s slowly dissolving façade of being the nice, sweet, cute girl and how manipulative she’s learned to become. We get Meg’s backstory of getting bullied for being “poor and ugly” before she learned how to weaponize make-up and being cute and innocent. And although it’s not really resolved by the end of the volume, I like that we start to see hints of her friends beginning to call her out on her bullshit.
The majority of this volume focus more on Mei and Yamato’s upcoming one-year anniversary and that Yamato’s friend Kai having a crush on Mei. While it could getting annoying that Mei doesn’t realize that two boys are really in love with her, it makes sense to me because she still doesn’t know how to completely read people. (To be fair on my hand, I read this back-to-back with High School Debut which has the same kind of plot thread in that, so I was a little “Oh, this again.”) And to be honest, I’m really not a fan of how even though Kai explains that he’s backing off on Mei (but will continue to protect her), Yamato’s first inclination is to go ballistic on Mei. Yeah, I get that they’re high school students and no one really can spit out the truth to each other, but sometimes the trope does get a little overdone and frustrating. The rest of the volume is spent with Mei and Yamato’s trip to ‘Land,’ which cute and fun, and has Mei being adorable so the plot is slightly redeemed for me.
I also like that the ending trip is framed by Mei’s nervousness about spending the night alone with Yamato, but I do like that she’s become more mature in their relationship—she’s still nervous about the idea of sex, but she’s more comfortable being alone with Yamato and more open to the possibility that it could happen. (Side note: I LOVE MEI’S MOM. She’s only a cameo character at points, but she’s so funny each time she shows up. More of her in the rest of the series.)
Although Volume 6 felt more like a breather volume, I did still really enjoy this. I think what makes Say ‘I Love You’ work for me so much more is that even though the story is 100% romance manga tropes, the characters really aren’t—Mei’s just not interested, Yamato can be an outright jerk (and gets called out on it), and the side characters aren’t perfect either, even after everyone becomes ~friends~. I’m really interested in the Meg subplot that’s shown up, and I can’t wait for the next volume next month.