On the day her best friend is moving away, Yuna has a couple of odd encounters. First, a handsome boy wipes her tears but then points out the…ah-hem, excretion on the ground. Then, a girl her age begs her for money, promising to pay Yuna back the next day. The borrower, Akari, shows up the next day and wonders why Yuna is skittish and quiet, but it’s because Akari was headed in the same direction — the same building in fact! Now neighbors and schoolmates, the girls share their views on romance and are a bit taken aback by the other’s perspective.
Love Me, Love Me Not is the rare manga with dual protagonists who are not the main couple. Romance manga tend to focus its character development on the main character and their love interest, but usually any love square (or polygons) ends up with a main couple and a secondary couple. Here, while a slight edge is given to Yuna in the vein of Nana K. in NANA, both Yuna and Akari appear to share this manga’s spotlight like in that series.
The girls also have a similar dynamic to the heroines of NANA. Yuna is no Hachi, but she is a dreamer versus the more pragmatic Akari. Yuna dreams of a prince-like figure and feeling that instant connection. She begins to believe in that fate when that guy she met, Rio, turns out to go to her school. Akari, who has romantic experience, believes you need to get to know someone before you start falling in love. That’s why she thinks Yuna’s childhood friend Kazuomi would be a good match for her idealistic new friend.
There’s a bit of a Pride and Prejudice feel to the story in that while you think it’s just about how Yuna learns that getting to know someone is important while Akari trusts that little spark, the girls also have to address how their beliefs affect their friendship. Yuna, despite being a fan of fairy tales, buys into the rumors about Akari. Akari, who considers herself the outgoing type, isn’t the kind to talk about her feelings. I like how Love Me, Love Me Not shows that these two are instant, perfect BFFs but need to work on their friendship as well.
As for the two guys, they seem a little less down-to-earth and relatable. At this point both seem…I don’t know, kind of flat? Typical? Full of advice that the girls are going to apply to them? Rio physically lifts Yuna’s head since she tends to look down at the ground, and Kazuomi praises Akari for addressing her faults. I don’t know if they’re going to become friends because of the girls, but maybe it would help make them more rounded characters. The focus is more on Rio as we learn about his unrequited feelings, but Kazuomi is a big brother type and not much else.
Plenty of shoujo fans are probably familiar with Io Sakisaka already, but if you haven’t read any of her works before, her art is soft and polished. The one thing is that I prefer Yuna when she has a thinking or a sulking expression, as it gives her more of a cat-eyed look and makes her face contrast more with Akari’s. I guess Sakisaka didn’t want her to appear too serious or pretty (she’s shy and supposed to be rather average-looking), but it gives Yuna a fresher appearance versus Sakisaka’s previous heroines.
Love Me, Love Me Not will appeal to a wide range of shoujo romance fans thanks to its two protagonists, allowing readers to get dashes of both realism and idealism. The girls may need to work on their friendship with each other, but volume 1 does a solid job of making the readers feel like they’re a part of Yuna and Akari’s circle.