Book 952: My Love Mix-Up! (Vol. 1) – Wataru Hinekure & Aruko

I ended up with this one from the library after seeing My Love Mix-Up! (Vol. 4) on NetGalley. It wasn’t an immediate OMG I must read these, but more of an awww that looks cute, I haven’t read a good manga in a while I wonder what it’s about. And then when I found out it was a comedy of errors, so I checked to see if my local library had it, they did and I requested it.

Thankfully, it became available in between two books and I could do a slight schedule modification to squeeze it in and not miss any galley deadlines. We’ll see if the next volume does (my library does have through volume 4!).

My Love Mix-Up is the story of Aoki who has a crush on Hashimoto at the beginning of the book but by the end of the book has fallen for Ida, who he thinks Hashimoto likes only to find there’s another twist at the end! The whole story starts with a couple of comedic instances with who the eraser with someone’s name carved into it belongs to, whose name it is, and who likes who! And it just goes from there.

Aoki’s character is a bit over the top, but I really enjoyed how he changed throughout the first volume from being in love with Hashimoto to questioning if he likes Ida to finally realizing and confessing to Hashimoto that he’s fallen for Ida. Aruko did a great job of portraying the extreme emotions Aoki goes through even if there were a few scary panels that looked more like horror than romance/manga. Ida and Hashimoto were much more steady and less emotional with less over-the-top extreme reactions.

My favorite part of the story, though, was Aoki and Ida both being open to liking another boy. Ida, after he thinks Aoki is in love with him due to all the confusion, doesn’t turn him down outright but instead says let’s be friends first and see what happens. While at the same time, Aoki is freaking out because he thinks he’s keeping a secret for Hashimoto but as he gets to know Ida better he realizes he’s everything he wanted in a girl so why couldn’t it be in a boy. It was just so well written and engaging.

I went back and re-read it a second time immediately to focus more on the graphics and less on the words and it was worth it. I was able to pick up on all the hints and clues that lead to the big reveal at the end! If there’s one thing about manga that I really enjoy it’s the readability of it and my ability to read it basically in one sitting with a second slower follow-up.

Recommendation: OMG I cannot wait to see where this series goes! I randomly stumbled across it and enjoyed every second of it. The style was a little different than what I’ve read in the past, but the story was adorable and the three main characters (Aoki, Ida, and Hashimoto) were just perfect. I already have Vol. 2 on hold at the library and will put Vol. 3 on hold when I get the second one!