Sometimes even beautiful people have trouble finding love. Those not in that group could deem it a first-world problem for those types of people. However, it’d be kind of cruel to say that good-looking folks don’t have a hard time with matters of the heart. Satoru’s Doing His Best to Confess is one such tale, where good looks don’t matter if you lack the courage to tell the person you like how you feel.

Natsuaki is the guy most of the female body dreams of being their boyfriend. But his heart is set on Nashida, a short-hair klutz who leaves him smitten. Sadly, despite having the looks that should scream confidence, Natsuaki just can’t find the right way to say those magic words to Nashida. With little help from his friend Mashima, the class hunk sets out to find the right ways show his crush how he feels about her.

There’s a lot of sweetness placed in Natsuaki’s choice in women. While Nashida is quite the looker, her personality and mannerisms don’t really scream prom queen material. Perhaps this is why it’s nice seeing the #1 hunk in school falling for an Average Jane, rather than have two gorgeous folks have their hearts playing a game of telephone for X amount of chapters. As such, Doing His Best to Confess has some potential of standing out from the other shojo series out there.

However, I can’t help but feel that author Satoru is having some trouble with Natsuaki’s overall presentation. He’s showcased as a man whose feelings are hard to read, which should lead to some big laughs. Unfortunately, the way his leering at Nashida is framed makes him look more like a stalker than a heartthrob. Because of this, I couldn’t help but feel weirded out by Natsuaki’s personality.

Thankfully, this framing nearly vanishes halfway through the first volume. Natsuaki wanting to buy Nashida a thank you present may seem odd at first, but it leads up to a rather convenient situation where she needs the very thing he wants to give her. It’s when the two participate in a school outing where the possible romance really gets going. Not only is it cute watching Natsuaki fawn over Nashida’s energy, it’s also hilarious seeing him overcome his fear of heights just to save face!

Doing His Best to Confess has a very rocky start. But by the volume’s second half, the heart of this story is put on full display. It’s fun watching the most handsome boy in school freeze up in front of the girl he loves, even if his stoic personality might be hard to crack. Perhaps with the way things end in the first volume, Natsuaki might have found a golden opportunity to share his feelings with Nashida. Then again, considering it’s entitled Doing His Best to Confess, it might still be a long road towards that coupling…

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this.

This is such a cute and awkward story. Natsuaki is trying to get the courage to confess to the girl he likes. He appears cool but is actually awkward and shy.

This is just the beginning of this story, and looking forward to more in the series!

The art is beautiful but the story didn’t grab me. If you like fluffy simple shojo stories, this one’s for you.

Thank you to Netgalley for letting me read a digital copy!!

This book is so cute, and the art style reminds me of older manga. If you like anime like blue spring ride, then I highly recommend you read this manga.

Rating: 3 🌟
First and first, I'd like to express my gratitude to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me with an e-ARC of this manga.
It was a cute and short read, but I found the storyline to be a little tedious.

The sweetness of how genuine this boy likes his crush is adorable!

So our main character is a himbo, and he cannot for the life of him figure out how to confess to the girl he loves, but instead of panic or chaos, this book is filled with admiration and dimwittedness.

So, reading "Doing His Best to Confess", written by Satoru was a pleasant surprise for a shojo manga as it is written from the main male character's perspective.

Natsuaki-kun is the main high school boy we follow, as usual he is a good looking, generally lovely boy, except his emotions don't show on his face. This makes him appear cool and aloof and stoic, when he is far from it. In fact, he is in love with a classmate: Nashida-san! And he is desperate to confess - but can he manage it!

The artwork is cute and sweet, and you know I love a good chibi! So funny! And that is what was a gold star for this manga - the comedy is A+! I laughed out loud multiple times while reading this.

This quick read is a great introduction and this first volume does everything that you would want a first volume of a shojo romance to do: introduce lovable characters, make you root for them, and laugh at their antics! All in all, a better first volume you couldn't get!

3,5/5 stars

Doing his best to confess tells us how Natsuaki, a high school boy, lives his first love, and everything he does to create an opportunity to confess his feelings towards Nashida, his classmate.

The story is fine, but it is not one of my favorites. What I like the most is how much I have laughed at the misunderstandings caused between the main characters and how much Natsuaki tries to confess his feelings even thought later it does not turn out well. There is also Mashima, Natsuaki's best friend, who does not who is Natsuaki's crush even thought he has her near.

A cute manga perfect to pass the time.

This was a cute high school romance where the boy Natsuaki is considered the cool handsome guy on campus but is actually shy and kinda goofy. His crush is Nashida, a quirky girl who is clueless and blasé, she even cuts her own bangs crookedly and doesn't seem to care. This whole volume is basically Natuaki trying to maneuver into the perfect situation to confess his feelings to Nashida, but nothing goes quite as planned. It's hard to imagine how they will make an ongoing series out of this premise, but it had enough cute and funny moments to make it an enjoyable read. And with that cliffhanger... I will be reading volume 2!

Natsuaki-kun is in love with his classmate Nashida-san, but he struggles with how to confess his feelings. He is a popular boy that is a bit aloof, and extremely hard to read. Nit even his closest friend can read him. His fairly neutral expression causes his true emotions to stay hidden.

After countless moments that slip past for him to confess will he ever find the right moment to do it?

This first volume of a new manga series was absolutely adorable, and right up my alley in what I love. I'm so excited to read more volumes of this manga and see how the story unfolds.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this first volume of this manga.

This was adorable and kept me entertained enough to read through.
It felt like there's something missing to really hook you in and make me want to pick up the next volume.
Overall I think it was okay, but pretty generic.

This manga follows Natsuaki-kun. a popular boy at school who everyone thinks is cool, aloof, and hard to read. But internally, he's got a lot of feelings - especially about his classmate Nashida-san! He wants to confess his feelings but is having a hard time with it -especially because nobody is able to read him.

I really enjoyed this manga. Natsuaki is utterly infatuated with Nashida and thinks everything about her is cute - he is utterly simping after her for the entire volume and it was so cute to read about. I also never thought that him liking her and trying to confess to her was pushy or creepy, which is a thought that I have had in other manga that I have read before. I do wish there had been a little more depth and character durlopment, which I hope to see in a second volume, but that didn't bother me too much because of how adorable and silly I found Natsuaki and his feelings.

rating: 4/5

Natsuaki is something of a school heartthrob, with his good looks and taciturn personality. Yet, unbenowst to others, beneath his quiet demeanor, he is nursing a huge crush on his blissfully unaware classmate Nashida. As he struggles to confess his feelings to her directly, Natsuaki slowly gets closer to Nashida and uncovers new things to love about her each day.

This was so stinking cute! It was really refreshing to read a teen romance manga from a boy's perspective in which he is just so earnestly in love. In that regard this series may call to mind "My Love Story!!". Both leads in this are sweet and endearing, though I really hope to get more insight into Nashida beyond Natsuaki's gaze going forward. Her hand sheared bangs and cheeriness definitely have me understanding what he sees in her so far though. This will definitely be a series I keep an eye on!

This was a super cute story of young love. Natsuaki the class hot-boy who's a loner and a guy with the most stoic expression on earth is secretly infatuated with Nashida, a clumsy but apparently cute girl. His struggle trying to confess his feelings to her form the crux of this volume of the manga. It was cute and sweet.
3.5 stars

This manga was a nice change. Instead of following like usual a shy girl who is in love with the popular and outgoing boy, here, we follow Natsuaki, the popular guy, who is trying to confess his love to Nashida.
The characters are quite cute. I enjoyed how Satoru drew Natsuaki so that, most of the time, his face is emotionless. It makes a lot of situations quite funny. Nashida, on the other hand, isn’t afraid to do and show what she likes. She is kind of a refreshing shojo heroine with her short hair and clueless behaviour.
I recommend this manga to anyone looking for an entertaining story that changes from the original shojo line.
3.5/5

This is such an adorable manga! I loved how the roles are reversed in this one and its they guy whose completely smitten and trying to confess!

Very light-hearted and cute!!

I received an e-ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wholesome and feelgood are the best ways to describe this book. Natsuaki, is a daydreamer with the facade of an aloof lady killer (that he puts no effort into), and he's pining after the one girl in class who doesn't look his way - Nashida. What people find odd about Nashida, Natsuaki finds endearing, from the way she tries to twirl a pen to how she picks at her cuticles.

Page after page we watch as Natsuaki builds up the courage to make his confession, and what seems at snail pace to me (and his best friend) is immense strides to Natsuaki. What we usually see as the typical shojo girl-protagonist POV, is flipped, and put onto Natsuaki. It's refreshing seeing a guy pine after a girl in a way that isn't creepy or pervy. The cliffhanger ending certainly sets up the reader to come back for more to see if his wholesome boy gets his girl.

Very cute and flows well. The only thing is that it’s clear he’s not going to confess throughout the book because of the title so it feels a little predictable in that way. But it’s adorable and sweet.

*More like 3.7 stars than 4.*

This was adorably fluffy from start to finish. The problem was that that was all it was: fluff. There was little substance or depth here, which was sad because this had the potential to be a great romance manga not just a cute one.

Still, the art was pretty great. I loved the fact that the female love interest had short hair and still looked pretty (often I find short-haired girls are not drawn as well as long-haired girls in manga, and short-haired girls are usually delegated the unfortunate role of second female love interest).

I’m interested in seeing where this goes, especially after that classic manga cliffhanger ending, but I don’t expect the sudden manifestation of any character depth. It’s likely a high level of cuteness will be all this manga continues to achieve.

Let’s face it, who’s never had a hard time trying to confess their love to their crushes at least once? The struggle is real, and Natsuaki-kun can tell you a thing or two—maybe more—about that . . .

In this shōjo manga, there is a nice twist that spices things up by inverting the roles. While it’s usually a shy girl having difficulty to confess her feelings, here’s actually the guy who can’t figure out how to do it. And this is precisely what made me want to read this manga in the first place. The awkwardness of Natsuaki-kun is just too sweet for words, and the embarrassing moments it creates are really funny. Even though readers can only cheer for him, sometimes it can’t be helped but hoping he won’t succeed (yet) because the situations he suddenly finds himself into—and those he thinks ‘might help’—are truly something. I lost count of how many times I laughed during the read, but also all the ‘aww’ that escaped my mouth. I believe it just comes natural for both guys and girls to sympathize with him. At the end of the day, we all have been there!

Quite an adorable and genuinely funny manga. I recommend it, you might end up wanting a Natsuaki-kun trying to confess to you, too.