Rating: 3.83 leaves out of 5
-Characters: 2.5/5
-Cover (+art): 3/5
-Story: 2.5/5
-Writing: 5/5
Genre: Romance, Shojo
-Romance: 5/5
-Shojo: 5/5
Type: Manga
Worth?: Eh

Want to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.

Your typical love triangle or harem, shoot I don't even know. I keep going into these thinking it will be different but they are all the same just with different faces.

I love this manga!!! This book captured me from the first pages. I love how everything continues after the controversial beginning. For more information, please read the book 🤭.
Overall, this is an entertaining and sweet read. A perfect sports romance, best friend to lover. I can' t wait for the next release!

Our FMC is a future mangaka who grew up with a group of boys that are on the swim team. They are inseparable and very supportive of one another. When she is rejected by the boy that she likes, she finds solace in her friends. But then, one of the boys confesses his feelings for her and vows to make her fall in love with him.

The story started out pretty confusing. I must admit that I didn't know what was going on in the first 2 chapters as some of the panels were hard to follow and several of the characters looked similar. Then there were younger versions of themselves and sometimes their hair was a different color. I didn't know what I was looking at. But at about Chapter 3, it all started making sense and became more linear and easier to follow. The ending of the volume was a bit of a cliffhanger but I'm not on pins and needles to read the next one.

3.5 stars

This was unwhelming surprise. The story seems fascinating at first, seeing how these character could have handle being a time that was so uncertain. I thought it was going to be a complex nonlinear story but it immediately went back to a flashback of the friend group in highschool.

The romance did seem a little forces by one of the guys considering her giving mixed signals a lot. That cliffhanger was predictable tho. I have a minor interest in continue only to see how things go but the dynamic is just meh.

I think this volume was a nice start to this shojo series. The main characters are a high school girl and a group of boys from her neighborhood. They all grew up together, so they are close and comfortable with each other. Each of the boys are distinct looking and have different personalities and interests making them easy to tell apart. The art is wonderful and very cute. There is also a sports element as a few of the more prominent characters are on the swim team. The only thing I didn’t really like was the pacing. There is already a lot of development/ change in one of the FMC’s relationships with one of the boys. And while I hate when they drag stuff like that out over 6+ volumes, I think spreading these events over 2 volumes would have been a bit better.

Read the eArc via NetGalley

I love the art style! The emotions are conveyed through the drawing and it's easy to figure out how the characters feel.

While this is your usual high school romance it does have some differences
First is that this story is set during THE pandemic. Even though it seems their normal daily doesn't seem as badly affected as some other countries, they do get hit with restrictions.

Second is that both parties are a part of the same group of childhood friends.

I enjoyed the read.
Thank you for the eArc NetGalley

Friends to possible lovers. He falls first.

I haven't read a he falls first in quite awhile and this one was absolutely adorable! I love that this group of friends feels realistic. Things are flowing well it's not a bam I love you and we are in love. Things are budding slowly and I'm very curious to see where it all goes! Will she risk her friendship group or previous crush? I can't wait to see!

This had a cute premise, but it just didn't land for me. The romantic events felt rushed, and I felt completely disconnected from the characters. The plot having COVID as a driving element feels like it was hastily thrown in. They say in the story that the COVID infection rates are high enough to close down other schools and sports meet-ups, but you never see characters wearing face masks. There are also way too many main characters. I found myself getting confused about who was who, and who had feelings for who. The art was beautiful. It's a very soft and romantic style, the artist did an excellent job. But the somewhat disjointed plot made me come to the decision of not seeking out a second volume.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

This is an incredibly cute story, however i am more excited about the actual lockdown part and see where the romance leads!

4.5 stars
Adorable, yet stressful. This first volume has me falling in love with the main characters (faster than Mizhuo, I think). And therefore, I am braced for the troubles that are going to crop up to keep the story from being over too soon.

The story is one giant flashback, sprinkled with even older flashbacks. Add in a possible RH (the manga variant), and I am definitely wanting more ASAP.

First the art was really pretty and I like the sideplot of wanting to make a manga.

Besides those points, I don't really have positive things to say.
I found the story a bit chaotic and I had a diffucult time to follow the story.
Also I really found Kizuki a bit aggressive in winning over Mizuko. Sometimes it didn't feel consensual at all. So I won't finish this manga series unfortunately.

Omg I enjoyed this so much!! I got kind of confused a few times because so many characters are introduced at the same time, but honestly, I thought it was so cute and such an easy read. I’ll for sure be continuing with the series!

A cute start to the series! 'Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You' follows Mizuho Nishino and her four guy best friends, as she navigates highschool life and attempts to make it big with her swim-themed manga. But with the recent COVID-19 developments, trouble may be fast approaching along the horizon.. How will this affect our 5 and their friendship?

Personally, I found the plot a little too fast-paced and stereotypical for my tastes.. but I think you'll enjoy this if you're a fan of highschool harems where the FL is kind of a klutz but all the hot guys are somehow in love with her. It's a popular trope, but I honestly consumed way too many manga series with that plotline during my own highschool days, so it stands to reason that i'd be a little bored of it now.

Whilst there were definitely a few moments that had me smiling, I generally felt like the male lead was a little too handsy for my tastes

Even so, if you haven't read a ton of manga with these tropes then you might enjoy this one!


_ Thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for providing the eARC for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

This manga begins at the start of the pandemic. School and community events are getting canceled and that's just the beginning of Mizuha's troubles. After her parents forget it's her birthday and her crush turns her down she's confessed to by one of her childhood friends and doesn't know what to do next.
Gods, I'm a sucker for a sweet shojo every time. The artwork was exactly what I would expect and enjoy in a high school romance. Most of the story was light and cute with the added suspense of my memories of what happened during peak covid-times. Mizuha and the main love interest are both precious (although it really does give the vibes that all her childhood friends are secretly in love with her). I would absolutely pick up the next volume of this series.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Great start to a series. The translation was good and had no errors. The art was expressive and it was easy to tell the characters apart from each other. I liked the friendship between the main 6 characters and i’m excited to see where the romance goes.

I really enjoyed the sports element added to this Shojo romance, as well as the mention of Covid and the effects of lockdown to the characters lives.
I am looking forward to the second volume and I’m hoping for a love triangle to emerge!

This manga is great meh. Like nothing was developed. Generally the first volume is where we meet the characters and the conflict occurs or where the story is going to go. Here we do know where the story is going to go (or at least where it would start to go), but the characters seem to stay SUPER flat and I couldn't connect at all.

I also felt that the link started very quickly (I don't know how many volumes there will be, so I can't criticize this too much), and I also felt that he wanted to cover a lot in a single volume. A lot of loose information everywhere and well, then we'll see what happens. Sometimes it is better to go little by little.

I would like to know how it continues to see a little more of the characters, I think they have great potential!

Thank you Kodansha Comics for the ARC I read on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Man, Mizuho's birthdays suck! But this manga isn't particularly about that.

This is mentioned in the afterword, but initially the mangaka's vision was a romance centered around a boys' swim team and then switched to making a manga to support students as the pandemic caused school and those activities usually partaken in in youth to be cancelled. All of this is noticeable in this first volume, which contains the first four chapters of the manga.

The manga is a reflection of the developing situation with the virus, and the as the story progresses it's impact starts to become more prominent. While this is happening, Mizuho tries to make the best of her youth alongside her four male childhood friends.

I would have liked to see how the story develops in the next volumes, but Kizuki's advances on Mizuho are coming on a bit too strong for my liking this early in the story (Mizuho and Kizuki have grown up together, but I'm just meeting these characters for a couple of chapters and it feels rather aggressive).

I liked the relevance and timeliness in incorporating the pandemic experience as it will be a time many will look back upon for a long time to come, the art is great, and I enjoyed the short interview at the end of the volume.

The start to this shojo series was great! It's not often I get a win on my first read of the year, but that sure happened with this one!

We are following a young woman who grew up with 4 boys. She has a crush on a 3rd year at school. When his final swim meet gets cancelled due to the pandemic, she tells him not to lose hope, and confesses her feelings. One of her childhood friends is also on the swim team, and tells him to back off. He thinks of her as a woman, and he's going to make it known to her.

He starts to, and she is warming up to the childhood friend. What she doesn't expect is *SPOILERS NOT GOING TO SAY IT HERE*

I am incredibly excited to keep going with the series!

It's difficult to depict childhood love with a refreshing perspective such as this one. The author's take was airy but meaningful, light but with depth. The tight=knittedness of the main characters was well-conveyed by the readers, and the effects of the pandemic of school life an ambitions was portrayed very well. I look forward to reading the next installment in the series, and look forward to the author's future series as well!