As someone who was first introduced to manga in the early 2000's, this title immediately brought me back to my youthful swooning over those desperately gorgeous bishounen boys in all the top shojo manga.
The story opens in 2030, on adult Mizuho's birthday when life hasn't turned out quite the way she had imagined back in her youth. As a group of students pass her, she's mentally transported back to that same day in 2020 during her second year of high school. Surrounded by her four best childhood friends (of course, all very, very pretty boys), life seems pretty normal...that is, until the pandemic starts putting everyone's dreams on hold, causing her to confess her feelings for a boy, only for one of her childhood friends to confess his undying love for her (insert the mandatory kissing panel).
This manga is a perfect example of the type of storytelling and art that had me falling in love with this genre 20 years ago. Highly recommend for fans of love triangles and high school romance.

This book reminds me of that office quote “I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.” It's nostalgic to see how COVID affected these kids, their relationships, and the sport that they love so much.

Mizuha is in love with an older classmate, but she soon realizes that there's someone much closer to her that likes her too. I wish the main leads had more time to get closer to eachother and realize their feelings. The plot progression feels rushed, but it was a beautifully illustrated volume with a wholesome yet somber vibe.

I want to thank NetGalley, Publishers Kodansha Comics, and the author Haruka Mitsui for providing this ARC. Which, I will be giving my honest and sincere review.

This is a very wholesome Manga love story, at Mizuha's 17th birthday she starts realizing that her normal and mundane world started changing along with the friends she knows. Mizuha grew up with the 4 other boys, Airu Izumi, Shin Kashiwagi, Shuugo Hoshikawa, and Kizuki Hazawa. When the childhood best friend's feelings change and all the turmoil that comes with the understanding the evolving from innocence.
The illustrations are perfect I love it so much.
I loved the message the author leaves us with.

Thank you Kodansha Comics for a copy of Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You Vol 1.

"Love in the time of COVID-19? This new series pits the the crushes, nostalgia, and friendship of shojo manga against a crushing pandemic. Can it be that a determined high school girl is more resilient than anyone expected? Guaranteed to delight fans of popular romance comics like Komi Can’t Communicate and Skip and Loafer."

The art is gorgeous and I generally like childhood friends to lover... but unfortunately, I found it a bit rushed and forced to the point that it was cringey. I like how COVID is added to the story and how it affected the characters. I do hope that the next volumes are a bit slowed down and can provide more story on the friend groups' individual personalities.

this was great! i loved the characters and the art is so cute!! definitely going to be continuing this series as soon as possible!!

This manga is the story of a girl, Mizuha and her 4 childhood friends all boys, and what they doing in high school when the pandemic starts.
After being rejected by her crush on her birthday, one of the boys, Kizuki confesses that he has feelings for her. And though he is clearly hot, and girls come to check him out when he is practicing for swim team, Mizuha still needs some time to sort out her feelings for him. To her these four guys are just her childhood besties. I did notice a couple of the other guys noticing her in this first volume so I imagine as the series goes on she will get more confessions. Sometimes I like the love triangle or the "girl picks from a group of guys" tropes but I don't know if this one can keep me entertained for six more volumes. I might still pick up the next one just to see if she does eventually pick Kizuki. He felt a little too persistent for volume one and I'm thinking one of the other guys might be a better match. So I am interested to know where this goes.
So if you like gorgeous art and a shojo plot with lots of boys to choose from, you might want to try this series.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

This first volume was absolutely adorable and I’m a big fan of childhood friends to lovers. I’m interested to see how they develop now that she’s started seeing him differently, and also how Shin is factoring in since he’s the other most prominent of her four friends so far. This is one of the few manga series I’ve seen that not only acknowledges Covid but centers the setting around it and how its effects impacted the lives/experiences of high schoolers who won’t be able to get that time back. I think this first volume made good use of common tropes, I would definitely like to see if the characters get a bit more developed in terms of individual personalities as the series goes on.

Thank you NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for this arc

2.5/5 stars

The art was really beautiful in this, but the story was both rushed and cringe. Her friend basically not taking no for an answer and being so sure he will convince her to fall in love with him is icky and really not for me. I love friends to lovers, but not like this

There have not been many times in my life where I thought a story was too fast-paced and I hate to say that I thought Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You fell into that category.

Friends to lovers is a trope that I adore. Add the splash of childhood friends to lovers and I'm sold. The pacing of this manga never gave me a chance to really get a feel for them and their relationship. Eventually, a few pieces of their backstory were tossed in to give them more depth, but by then it felt a little too late for me.

With a large friend group, I was eager to get to know them, yet once again they seemed to fall into the background... or maybe they didn't. With how fast paced this manga was I struggled to get to know them and really know who was who which led to some frustration.

This manga also brings up the pandemic, but it was so different from my own experience it was easy to forget about.

Overall, this manga was too fast paced where I felt that I couldn't get to know the characters and their relationship. For being childhood friends, this gave the vibes that Kizuki felt like they should be more--he certainly wasn't going to take no for an answer.

While I wanted to like this, I didn't and it's one I'm not sure I can even recommend.

3.5 rounded up

A shoujo manga which starts in 2030 with an older Nishino on her birthday, thinking back to her younger self in 2020. In this way, it is about a young girl who is childhood friends with four guys and is in second year of high school. At this point, only two guys have really made an impression enough to distinguish, but I'm sure that'll change in future volumes. One of the friends begins to flirt with her, demanding to be seen as a man, and explaining to her that he sees her as a woman. The drawing style is simple but she has made the male character very appealing to the audience.

Interesting plot, which is set during the COVID pandemic quite unexpectedly, I think it may be the first one which has incorporated it into their storyline.

<i>I was provided with a complimentary copy of this manga by Kodansha in exchange for an honest review, which I leave voluntarily</i>

This volume 1 of "Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You" is cute story with nice artwork. I hae to admit that the characters are coming across as slightly flat so far but hopefully that improves in the later volumes. It's an overall interesting first volume.

Mizuha is the lone girl in their 5 person friend group from childhood. What happens when one of them starts to see her as more than a friend? Does she risk the stability of the group? Or his disappointment and losing his friendship?

I enjoyed the art style of this manga and I can see it's potential as a series, but it's difficult to judge it this early on and the Covid aspect of the plot hasn't had much impact yet. Mizhuo is in a friendship group with four boys but their personalities haven't been well established yet (and they're even drawn quite similarly) so it's easy to get confused between them. I wish there had been more time spent on the overall friendship group and the dynamics between each of them. Also Kizuki's attraction towards Mizhuo seems to come out of nowhere and he's a bit too pushy towards her and not really respecting her boundaries so that's a bit disappointing. I'd definitely give another volume or two a go before I made up my mind on this series.

Anyway, I'm falling in Love with You is a high school romance manga. Mizuho has been friemds with the same 4 guys since childhood. Kizuki is the yoingest of their friend group and has feelings for Miuho. He is a swimmer along with Mizuho's crush Sentai. Mizuho tells her crush about her feelings and is rejected. She leans on Kizuki for comfort and he kisses her and tells her about his feelings. Mizuho is unsure if she cam see Kizuki as anything other than a friend. They try to navigate their growing feelings and the dynamic changes in their friend group.

This manga was a cute story of childhood friends to lovers. The main characters were both sweet and had me rooting for them. Mizuho never thought of her friend in a romantic way or as a man. She didn't see what other girls saw when they looked at him. He was very popular and well liked by other girls at their school. I love how subtly the shift begins to happen where she begins to believe his feelings but not sure how to accept them. Towards the end of the story it seemed like she was starting to see him in a different light. The story was quick and enjoyable. The artwork throughout the story was nicely done. A great start to a series that I would be interested in continuing.

Well, nothing special really, the characters are a bit one-dimensional, the story moves up too quickly without any build-up, and the rest of the cast is relegated to the back where they could play a more important role in the story. Overall, the story is just basic and not very exciting to read, fast yes but I don't feel the urge to continue with the next volumes because I was not that interested in the plot or characters' arcs.

This book was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love this manga, but I just couldn’t. The art is beautiful. I love the representation of swimming as a sport and swimmers. However, there just wasn’t enough depth to help me understand why swimming mattered. It felt like a throwaway even though it is referred to so many times.

The main characters are a group of 5 friends….1 girl and 4 impossibly beautiful men. It felt like an accidental harem. The love interest between the female lead and one of the male friends just didn’t make sense to me. He kept forcing himself on her and when she finally relented at the end of the book it wasn’t clear to me that she was actually attracted to him.

Thank you Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for a review

4/5- I thoroughly enjoyed this! At first it was a little hard to get into but it turned into a really cute fluffy romance

• Childhood friends to lover
• Slow burn romance
• Love triangle

The art in this is absolutely gorgeous!! There are so many scenes and panels that are exquisite, I wanted to look at them forever. I read quite a bit of shoujo and the quality in this one still surprised me.
I was a bit worried about the story plot-wise, but the reverse harem is treated in a tasteful and mostly realistic way in this volume.
I'm looking forward to finding out more about the other boys too!!

I'm still unsure how I feel about Covid being a plotline in everything over thing published, but the story itself was pretty alright. Don't really have much of a strong opinion on the manga as it seems like it's more about setting up the future than a plot existing here. Still interested in reading more.

#AnywayImFallingInLoveWithYou #NetGalley

Thank you NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the advance copy of this manga. I must admit that the art style was commendable, and the story started so well that it felt nostalgic for my adolescent years. 

The storyline was just fine and a bit typical for my taste. We're following a girl who has a 4-male friend group. One was in love with her, but they'd been friends since childhood, and she fell in love with another male who excelled at swimming. I was expecting to relate more, or, I mean, at least the female lead showed some character, but there wasn't any yet at this volume. I would still like to see how the story goes in the next volume.

I would recommend this to manga readers who love romance and love triangles.