When Will Ayumu Make His Move? Vol. 1 is a romantic comedy series with a shogi spin to it. As Ayumu and Urushi play the game, they also tease each other. As such, it works as a simultaneous competition for them in both shogi and romance.

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Urushi Yaotome and her kouhai, Ayumu Tanaka, are the only members of their high school shogi club. Despite the fact it isn’t an official club, they gather every day after class to play a match. Their meetings aren’t only about the game, though.

The boy wasn’t a shogi player at first, and he’s still clearly inexperienced. As Ayumu learns the rope, he hopes to ask her out after beating her in the game. It’ll be tough, though, as she’s much better than him. She’s not oblivious to his intentions, but he won’t admit it.

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The story is mainly about Urushi trying to get Ayumu to declare his love. But the boy tries to act as if he felt nothing, not telling her about his plans. It’s hard to imagine he’ll back down from this battlefield of shogi and love, but his silence is what ends up making the whole situation a little hard on Urushi.

His actions speak volumes to what he’s feeling after all. He’s constantly calling Urushi cute, which leaves her flabbergasted and gives her a hard time. They’re so close, always next to each other, and it’s obvious, but without him verbalizing it, the girl has no way to know how to act.

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One compelling aspect of the story is how it draws parallels between the game and the romance. It’s already clear from the title’s double entendre, as the term move is a reference to playing shogi and the expression “to make a move on someone.” However, there’s also a sense of them playing with and gauging each other out as if love were shogi.

It’s a cute story that can sell the feeling of chemistry between characters who should frankly just be dating already. Unfortunately, for those already familiar with the genre, it’s nothing impressive. However, the characters and situations still offer the feeling of relatability that makes it all fun.

For people who want to know more about shogi, the volume details a little about how the pieces work. In every chapter the characters play, there’s a list of their moves at the end. That means more eager people can even reenact the matches to learn more about the game.

The art style complements the volume well, mainly being basic and cute. Most panels are focused on the characters’ expressions with a particularly expressive Urushi and the usually stoic Ayumu. The two pretty much carry the whole volume, with very few side characters even showing up.

If I had to pick one word to describe When Will Ayumu Make His Move? Vol. 1, it’d be “cute.” It does a great job at being compelling as a romance story simply by having good character chemistry. Though it may not be a genre-defining work by any means, it’s worth a read.

Rating: 4 🌟
First and foremost, I'd like to express my gratitude to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me with an e-ARC of this manga.
This manga was a huge amount of fun to read. The characters were incredibly compatible with one another, and it's all pure, innocent love and giddiness.🥺💛

My thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

I have mixed feelings about this one. It wasn't great, it wasn't bad. It was very focused on the two MCs to almost the exclusion of any other characters. It's like they were the only two people in their own little world and you don't see much outside of them playing shogi together. Very private. I expected more people to gossip and speculate about when the MC H would make his intentions with the MC h clear. It DOES take place during high-school, gossip is to be expected.

This book was slower and calmer than I expected and it wasn't your typical shojo at all. None of those tropes really came up, which was different. However, since I am used to those tropes, not having them left me feeling a bit flat when I finished reading this.

I am becoming a voracious manga reader and will read volume 1 of just about anything if it strikes my fancy. I also want to be able to speak somewhat intelligently with the manga readers at our store so I can recommend titles to them. This one is recommended, if you are looking for a quiet and calm romance-type manga, where you want something different from the typical shojo tropes. 3 solid stars.

I was unsure if I should try and read this as I deeply disliked "Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie!".

While I don't think I would continue this series, Just because I don't think I could keep on with this will they, won't they for the long term.

I enjoyed Ayumu and Yaotome's dynamic, it caused me to laugh more then once. Yaotome's reactions to the things Ayumu says while she also tries to just get him to confess his incredibly obvious affections.

"When Will Ayumu Make His Move?" By: Soichiro Yamamoto is about Ayumu who has a crush on his shogi club mate\president Yaotome. Ayumu won't ask out Yaotome until he beats her in shogi . Overall an enjoyable read. I liked the main characters dynamic and relationship and will definitely continue the series.

Okay so this was a slow read but I will enjoyed it. It was pretty cute and very much like the the title you can't help but wonder if Ayumu will finally make it move, not in the game but asking her out. Thing is he won't until he wins a round of Shogi against her. It was pretty cute seeing the interactions, her nervousness and his keeping it cool even if he's a ball of fluff inside. This overall cute book I can't wait to see the next book.

When Will Ayumu Make His Move is a cute manga about high schooler Ayumu who is not so secretly in love with his senpai, Yaotome, from shogi club (a game similar to chess). While Yaotome would love for Ayumu to confess at anytime, Ayumu has made a pledge to himself not to confess until he beats her at shogi, but unfortunately for him he isn't good enough to beat her. This volume is full of cute situations where Yaotome thinks Ayumu is about to finally confesss, but then something else happens.

3.5/5 stars!

Yaotome Urushi wants Tanaka Ayumu to confess his feelings. Alas, the stoic first-year high schools student is adamant that he'll confess his feelings to his senior only after he defeats her at shogi. Thus begins this sweet couple's comedic courtship...

This is a sweet start to the series. Each chapter was short and full to the brim with fluffiness and the personalities of the two main characters. There are also a brief guide to the game of shogi as well as showing each gameplay that the two made in each game. I enjoyed the fluffiness of the couple's interactions the most. I didn't mind the shogi setting though the gameplay didn't held my pique much. But for those who loves these kind of strategy games and want to read them in manga form, then this is the series. Overall, it's a nice series with shogi and romance mixed together.

**Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions and thoughts in the review are my own.**

Thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha for give me this digital copy in exchange of an honest review.

Disfruté esta historia, me gusta la dinámica entre los protagonistas. Ayumu provoca angst no solo en Urushi, sino también en el lector, y eso es divertido e interesante de leer.

La historia me recordó a Kaguya-sama love is war, debido a este juego de "guerra psicológica" que libran los personajes para conseguir una declaración de amor. Y por otro lado, igualmente me recuerda a otra historia del mismo autor, Teasing master Takagi-san, la cual presenta su trama en una forma similar a esta historia, donde fuera de la pareja de protagonistas no vemos (o rara vez lo hacemos) a más personajes, y las interacciones son por medio de ironías o juegos.

De todas formas, que el shogi sea el hilo conductor y guía de esta historia me pareció muy interesante. Ese juego típico japonés resulta fascinante y digno de conocer. Desde hace ya un tiempo llamaba mi atención y me deja feliz poder entenderlo un poco más gracias a este manga.

Ahora, ¿por qué no le doy 5 estrellas? Porque creo que puede mejorar en trama, y porque me gustaría que se profundizara más en el personaje de Ayumu. Sin embargo, es una historia digna de seguir y muy recomendable.

This was cute. I really liked the art style. I liked the dynamic between the main characters.
Nothing special about it but it was a fun time, so I would recommend it, especially for those who love rom-coms.

This was very cute, the art work is adroable and the characters are something else. I do want to know if he actually asks her out but other then that the story was not as i was hoping for. I did love most of what i read but just felt like it was missing something.

When Will Ayumu Make His Move is a story about love and shogi.
Along a cute love story between the two members of the shogi school club, we get a lot of info of shogi, how it's played and even the scenarios which the characters play. While that can be really nice if you've interested in shogi, I honestly ended up skipping most of the shogi pages, as the game itself isn't that interesting to me,
The story itself was fun. The characters can be predictable, but it was still an entertaining read. I didn't like the art style very much.
I very much recommend this to anyone interested in learning the basics about shogi.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me with an free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.*

It’s been a little while since I reviewed some manga, but when I saw this one I was curious. I’ve watched a little bit of Yamamoto’s previous series Teasing Master Takagi-San on a friends recommendation. It was pretty and funny and cute, so I was hoping that this would be too.

When Will Ayumu Make His Move follows two high school students who are the only members of a shogi club. Ayumu has a crush on his senpai, Urushi, but refuses to admit his feelings until he can beat her in a match. He’s not that subtle though, and she keeps trying to get him to admit his feelings.

Each of the chapters of this are really short. They’re only a few pages each and they feel like separate episodes, which is pretty typical for these types of comedy manga. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it that funny. It was really repetitive and I really don’t know what to think of Ayumu and Urushi’s relationship. They definitely had some cute moments, but it also bugged me that he kept trying to put her off inviting other people to the club. I know he wants her alone but it would make her happy so why does it take him until the end to agree?

The art was what I expected. I’ve seen another series by the manga-ka, so I know how he draws. It’s not my favourite though. It’s not a series I’d be drawn to for the art, but I don’t hate it either. It was just kind of eh. The female love interests are often quite young looking, which is a little weird with Urushi being older. I think that’s definitely a Yamamoto thing and it isn’t something I’m really that keen on in.

I was actually a little disappointed by this volume. I thought it would be a fun comedy series for me to get into. Sadly, I found it kind of dull.

I couldn't be fascinated by this title, which in practice should be just a collection of sketches or a 4-comma, at best. We have brief clashes between the characters who sit and play shogi and talk funny things or try to overcome the other emotionally. I underestimate their performance, because even in anime it would turn into five minute episodes at best. And I don't like the style of painting, it's not very neat. Everything here was obviously happening quickly.

The original opinion is in Bulgarian, sorry for the translation errors.

ARC Copy...other this is a rare moment where Shogi is name of the game, flirting is also on the agenda. I was surprised how even it is only two protagonists so far in a room playing Shogi, the narrative carries well via the two making moves of the romantic and game kind. Although, cast will be expanded to make the entire series work.

**ARC provided by Netgalley for honest review**

When Will Ayumu Make His Move? 1 by Soichiro Yamamoto was a quick read, rom-com manga collection of vignettes about a high school shogi "club". Each "chapter" was represented as a different shogi game the two members were playing, and at the end of each chapter, a picture and description of the winning board display was illustrated should anyone be interested. Personally I skipped over those, but I thought it was a nice touch for the theme of the manga. This was a cute little story about a boy and girl who crush on each other but the boy will only confess after he beats her at a shogi game. Unfortunately, he's not very good, so it may take awhile...

I really enjoyed my read thru of this fast manga volume and will definitely pick up more if given the chance!

A cute high-school romance of Urushi Yaotome and Ayumu Tanaka who bonds while playing the Shogi game. Urushi is curious about when Ayumu will express his feelings and is waiting for the moment but Ayumu has taken an oath to ask Urushi out only after he succeeds in his condition set by him.

A joyful and quick read.

Thank You Netgalley for this arc!

What a fun and cute read. It was interesting to learn about shogi, I really liked that the rules, pieces and definitions of the game were included. Also, the drawings were so pretty, I loved the style.

I enjoyed it so much because of the relationship that these two had. I loved that she was trying so hard to make him admit that he has a crush on her, and he didn't admit it but ALWAYS said things that made her blush and get all flustered. Hahaha, he never lost his cool but she definitely did.

It made me smile so much, Tanaka was so sweet in his own serious way and it was so obvious that he was head over heels about her. And she was all energetic and full of life, it was a good grumpy/sunshine trope. I'm so excited for the next volumes of this manga.

I received an eARC of this title through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

2.5 stars

"When Will Ayumu Make His Move?" centers around Yaotome, the president of her high school's unofficial shogi club, and her kohai, Ayumu, the only other member of the club. Ayuma has a crush he refuses to admit to until he can beat his senpai in one game of shogi - which is a hard mountain to climb as he's not very good.

I've never read a manga that felt like a bottle episode but this one did. Chapter after chapter we really only see these two characters, and most of their interactions take place inside the makeshift shogi club room. We don't really learn too much about the characters. By the end all you know is that Yaotome is very obsessed with shogi, wants more members, and likes to tease Ayuma about his crush, and for Ayuma you know that he's into his senpai but clearly wants to be 'worthy' of her. Everytime Ayumu does compliment Yaotome she pounces on him, trying to pull out his confession, but it never comes. After a bit the dynamic gets a little annoying.

Interestingly, the book goes into the basics of shogi and tries to frame it in regards to chess, which makes it a bit easier to read, and each chapter bumper shows the board they played and the score breakdown.

"When will Ayumu make his move?" is a story about a president of Shogi club, Yaotome and the only other member of the club, Ayumu.
They play Shogi everyday after school. Ayumu is not good with this game, he's part of the club only because he's in love with Yaotome.

It's pretty obvious that both have feelings for each other but they can't properly say it.
Yaotome try everytime to show the fellings Ayumu feels for her but he made a promise to himself: he will reveal his love only after he beats her at shogi.

The drawings are cute and simple and I liked the double meaning on the title.
I appreciate that the author tried to explain how the game of Shogi works, so that readers (like me) that don't know this game can understand it better.

Unfortunately I didn't like this story a lot.
I don't really like the fact that Yaotome ask everytime to Ayumu "do you like me?" , she's a little bit too insistent and the scenes are too repetitive.
Ayumu is also a little bit too impassive , even if he says a lot of compliment.

Still, I think that this manga can be read easily and can teach you the basics of Shogi!