Junta Shiraishi is Kellam. Wait, who? Sorry, that was my first thought when our main male lead appeared. Aside from how they look, they’re the same — for whatever reason, no one recognizes or sees Shiraishi in his class. Not his classmates. Not even his teachers. The more you read, you more you find other people (the retailer, random strangers) can’t see him. The kid has no presence! Add his sometimes nonchalant attitude and lack of interaction, that manifests into someone who causes even a student to do a quintuple take before they see him. He basically has to announce his presence to just about everyone.
…Everyone except Nagisa Kubo, who is always able to see him. The more you read, the more you’ll likely guess why.
Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible is another in a long line of romcoms with the obvious already known. It feels like it leans more towards Takagi-san with a bit of When Will Ayumu Make His Move?, just the twist of only Kubo being capable of seeing him. It’s very much a case where Kubo likes Shiraishi for an as of yet unexplained reason, and she can’t help but tease him at times while also at times be sweet to him.
The chapters are relatively quick and short, some more interesting (Shiraishi’s attempt to buy Young Jump ends with him not reading the adult magazine but getting caught anyways, losing his student I.D. at the store, and Kubo’s older sister, Akina, who works at the store, of all people picking it up. She then tells only one basic fact to Nagisa, who is distraught.) than others (Man can’t be standing up in class, which he does because Kubo told him to). The art you wonder about sometimes, but it is relatively clean and gets across enough that Kubo is beautiful and Shiraishi’s too dense to not see her advances.
The main thing is I wouldn’t call this laugh out loud funny so far. There’s humor in Shiraishi’s undetectable persona and the characters so far don’t really grate me, but overall it’s mostly amusing. There’s the mystery of why Kubo likes Shiraishi, but then there’s who else can be thrown in to escalate events. Kubo’s older sister appearing already upped the manga in my mind. But now we will be getting someone else to liven up Shiraishi’s life?
Overall though, there’s enough consistency and some energy to this first volume that makes me curious about reading more. If you’re into rom-coms this is likely worth picking up. From the cuteness of the art to some of the scenarios, it’s done fairly well. For everyone else, it will likely vary on where you fall in the type of romcom you’re looking for.