A lovely shojo that will be on my bookshelves this fall. This is a great read for those who enjoyed Kimi Ni Todoke and Say I Love You.

This manga follows Maaya. After admitting her feelings to a guy he turned her down and wrote about it on social media ridiculing her. After this, popular guy Chigira-kun overheard her muttering about the situation and instead of making fun of her, he comforts her and offers the strangest opportunity ever! She can feel one-sided love towards him and essentially stalk him, obsessing over everything he does.

I just found this so strange and while I was intrigued by the premise before hand, I just wasn't interested while reading which is a shame.

And Yet, You Are So Sweet (Volume 1) by Kujira Anan is a manga style graphic novel. Maaya Kisaragi, 16 years old, finally confessed to her crush...only to be flatly rejected and ridiculed on social media after. To make matters worse, the most popular guy in her grade, Chigira-kun, overheard her despondent muttering about the whole thing. But instead of making fun of her, he comforts her...and proposes an odd solution to her heartbreak!

And Yet, You Are So Sweet is a sweet graphic novel about crushes and figuring out what you really want. Maaya usually has a crush, and does the stalker like actions to find out more about them and get to see them more. Being a fan of another is fairly low risk, and that is how she likes it. Chigira is popular, with his share of girls crushing on him, but he seems to have no interest in them, but plenty in Maaya. I love romance when both characters are good people, but clueless about how the other feels about them. I enjoyed getting to know both characters, and seeing them dance around their feelings as they struggle to come to terms with them. I really enjoyed the story, and will be on the look out for volume two.

This book was such a cute, light, fun read. Perfect for summer.
I found myself completely pulled into the sweet story, and cannot wait to continue this series.

By focusing on a one-sided love but with a twist, And Yet, You Are So Sweet has stolen my heart. A slice-of-life shojo romance taking place in a high school, this series isn’t necessarily reinventing the creative wheel, but it is utilizing tropes in an innovative way. The series is created, written, and illustrated by Kujira Anan. Additionally, And Yet You Are So Sweet Volume 1 is published and localized in English by Kodansha, translated by Jacqueline Fung, with lettering by Nikki Dubois—both from Local Manga.

In And Yet You Are So Sweet, Maaya Kisaragi is 16 years old and has finally worked up the courage to confess to her crush. But while the opening pages look like it may be an adorable confession, her crush doesn’t take it that way and not only flatly rejects her but also ridicules her on social media after. To make matters worse, the most popular guy in her grade, Chigira-kun, overheard her despondent muttering about the whole thing. So instead of piling onto the bullying, he has a proposal for her in hopes of comforting her: rewrite the heartbreak with him. The only catch is that our shojo heroine isn’t jumping into a relationship; nope, she’s taking him up on a proposal to have a crush on him under the certainty that it will be one-sided.

In true shojo fashion, though, of course, it isn’t. There is a sweetness (pun intended) to this manga that lets you feel the warmth building up between Kisaragi and Chigira. They start to spend time together. While it’s originally under the guise of Kisagragi’s crush list—a list she uses to tell him what types of things she’s doing which is borderline-stalking—it slowly develops into friendship and then the “badump” lettering gives it all away. Anan masterfully crafts a story out of a concept I scoffed at when the two characters began talking about it, and they do it by making sure that we see both perspectives.

While the boy-crazy Kisaragi had been glued to her phone, pining over her other crush, Chigira had been riding the same train as her, looking at her, and in an undeniable way past the middle of the volume, crushing on her. While I do take issue with glorifying some stalker elements, I understand that Anan used it to drop Chigira into the classic high school romance trope by letting him be in “the know” of Kisaragi’s behavior. Additionally, The panels are drawn with such a softness that it’s hard to find fault in our awkward shojo heroine.



Overall, And Yet You Are So Sweet Volume 1 is wholesome, and by the end, you can see yourself envisioning the next volume and the moment that the two leads finally confess to each other. For now, though, you’ll have to be satisfied with the two vocalizing that they want to keep spending time together. Which, honestly, for a shojo high school romance, it is moving at a pretty fast pace.

And Yet You Are So Sweet Volume 1 is available now digitally.

I've been given an arc in exchange of an honest review.

I will be honest, the concept was a bit odd? I understand the fake-dating trope but this was just... strange. It was still enjoyable, I even found myself liking the character of Chigira-kun at times! But going further into his and Maaya's personalities would have been nice. Some scenes were really cute, Chigira-kun is quite nice with her if you don't acknowledge the slight jealous/territorial aspects.

Thank you Kodansha for the arc and trusting my opinion!

I really wanted to love this manga.
But I found it cliche. The characters were generic and I just couldn't get into caring about them.
The artwork is gorgeous!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Extremely stereotypical shoujo school romance, but it's well-executed. The art is very dreamy-feeling, which fits with the protagonist's head-in-the-clouds attitude perfectly.

Couldn’t get into this one, I’m afraid. The whole premise was a bit strange, and I couldn’t get invested in the main couple to care about their romantic moments. I’m not a big fan of the fake dating trope, but the characters behaviour throughout put me off. I kept getting a tame “Scum’s Wish” vibe, with the guy using himself as a replacement, but without the edge to keep me interested.

Sadly, it didn’t work for me, but I would recommend for those interested in it.

I am usually a huge fan of shojo mangas, so I was looking forward to some cute fluff (and cliché) romance when I picked up "And Yet, You Are So Sweet". Now I have to admit, I am a little disappointed and even found myself a little lost at the beginning of the story. The set up of the plot is rather strange and felt a little out of the blue due to the lack of build-up. The main character Kisaragi appears as quite flat as well, as you learn close to nothing about her except for her obsession of "one-sided crushes" and there are no side characters at all to support the plot. Chigira is a sweet love interest and portrays the role of the silent, mysterious male protagonist perfectly.
After I got past the rather weak first part, however, it turned into exactly the cute manga I was hoping for and was quite enjoyable (even if very predictable - but that's why we love it, isn't it?). ​I loved the art style, it's really soft and pretty, so that's definitely another plus. There's room for improvement but I am positive that the manga will reach its full potential with the next volumes and am already looking forward to reading them.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this!

This is the perfect manga if you want light and fluffy. This was just a good time I fell in love with the characters and the storyline!

Will be continuing!

**ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review**

And Yet, You Are So Sweet by Kujira Anan was a very...you guessed it, SWEET high school shoujo romance manga. It's pretty predicable so far, but I didn't mind it. It was a light, fluffy read about a girl getting rejected by her first love and the popular guy saying she can have a one-sided crush on him. No problems with it other than maybe being a bit forgettable.

First, I would like to thank @netgalley and @kodanshacomics for the opportunity to read And Yet, So Sweet. I am really enjoying this series so far (both the art and story) and wish the second volume was out already!
Chigira is my favorite character so far, you can pick up on how he feels through his actions/what he says to Maaya and I really hope he can help Maaya gain more self confidence. I did find it funny when Maaya went to go get a sneak peek of him at the ramen shop, he was actually watching her. Throughout volume one, we see Maaya do the actions she had written on the one-sided love mission paper; but we also get hints that Chigira has been doing some of them too (even before Chigira had mentioned them)-which I enjoyed seeing it wasn't just her.

Quick Summary:
Maaya Kisaragi confesses to Yamada, he rejects her then rights about it on his social media mentioning that she was ugly. Afterwards Maaya decided to never confess her feelings again. When she was talking to herself in the library, Chigira overhears her and after hearing her out he proposes an idea to have a pretend one-sided love for him. At the end of volume one another student, Tezuka, appears but we have to wait to see what happens in the next volume. Will this pretend one-sided love become a reality for Maaya?

I treasured this sweet romance! It follows a girl, Maaya, who is harshly rejected and humiliated online after her first love confession, who strikes a strange deal with the most popular guy in her grade, Chigira, in order to get over it. After hearing her muttering to herself, he convinces her to pretend she has an obsessive one-sided crush on him, and from this develops a silly friendship that might grow into something more.

I loved the sketchy art style of this manga, which gave it a dreamy quality overall, perfect for a shoujo! The start was a bit slow, but I loved seeing both of the characters get drawn closer together by their bargain! I'm a sucker for earnest, devoted popular guy and easily flustered, shy girl romances, and this had even more of my favorite tropes tucked into it! Shoujo readers are sure to love this one.

Maaya confesses her feelings to a guy who rejects her and Chigira overhears her, so he gives her a solution to how overcome her heartbreak: she can fake having feelings for him instead.

Now, I feel a bit bummed about this story. Whilst it did sound like something I would have loved, I got a problem with the MC: she was just your typical girl with a crush –and she wasn’t mean or anything, but I just can’t empathize with someone who’re constantly belittling themselves. I just can’t.

I feel like she doesn’t even know what self-love means and probably that’s why she liked that awful guy in the first place. I like my MCs strong, confident and you know, with a little bit of personality. I felt Maaya was just plain boring.

The art is real cute as expected from any shoujo, but I just know this series isn’t for me.

Ahh, mangas like these are my secret not-so-secret guilty pleasures. They're just the right amount of cringey, and remind me a lot of the mangas I would love as a young teenager. Nowadays, I do look at this a bit more critically, but to be honest, it feels good to just not care about the problematics in this and just enjoy it for a fun break of all my stress.

What I don't quite like about the main character, Kisaragi, is that she constantly doubts herself and has reaaally low self-esteem. She refers to herself as ugly and unspecial uncountable times and insists on developing "unrequited feelings" for guys just to keep herself busy, because she doesn't believe any boy would fall for her back.

But then comes Chigira, a boy who insists that she should fangirl over him instead of anybody else. And I get the feeling, that he actually has feelings for her as well and uses this as a way of spending time with her. This kind of gives me xx-me vibes, a mange I've read endless times and probably need to re-read now, to hold me over until the translation for volume 2 of And yet, you are so sweet is released!

All in all, if you don't mind the sometimes cringey romantic manga, I'd recommend this to you!

I was granted access (thank you so much!) by @kodanshamanga and @netgalley to read the first volume of “And Yet, You Are So Sweet” by Kujira Anan. The story follows 16 year Maaya Kisaragi who plucks up the courage to confess to her crush but is ultimately rejected and made fun of all over social media. She comes across the popular boy at her school, Chigira, who proposes an interesting solution to her love dilemma. This manga was a very cute read and the main character is a very relatable girl who shows us what it is like to fall in love in high school (Also all her interactions with Chigira made me s w o o n) The art work is also stunning! If you love shoujo manga, slice of life realness and high school drama/romance then you need to pick this manga up!

Maaya Kisaragi gets rejected by her crush who doesn’t even remember who she is and then is made fun of on his social media account. Chigira-kun, a first year student like her and one of the most popular boys in her grade happens to hear about her troubles. Instead of making fun of her he asks her to have an unrequited crush on him instead. It’s a pretty weird request but you get the feeling there is more at play here. It’s basically a fake relationship and you can see where it’s going to lead. She ends up making a list of missions she has to accomplish for this unrequited love “game”. It’s full of sweet moments and high school life. The art is pretty and it’s fun to get lost in.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest review.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Going into this manga I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy the premise of this one. At the beginning it felt a little cringey, but honestly that's part of what made it enjoyable for me. If you're looking for a super corny and cringey romance manga give this one a try!

First of all, I want to thank NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me with an electronic copy.

It is the first manga that I read by this author and I really loved her drawing style. In relation to the story, I think the plot is a little bit strange, or I am a bit confused with the behaviors of Japanese teenagers. Although I think the main characters are so innocent that you just want them to end up together as soon as you start reading.

I'm waiting for the translation of the second volume because the story is only focusing on the main characters and there are no supporting characters.

In general, it is like any manga of the same genre and the cliché of the mysterious male protagonist.

And I suppose that Chigira was already in love with Maaya from before, and I will be on the lookout to confirm my theory.