I See Your Face, Turned Away centers on Mori, an average girl who dreams of romance... for others. As for herself, well she's just meant to be a side character in everyone else's story. She takes on an active role trying to aid the romance of her best friend Mari and her classmate Otani only to find herself falling for him. This first volume deals with both Mori and Otani's crushes and switches perspective. I was quite charmed by how fully-realized they felt and I hope the same approach will be employed for Mari and Asagiri in future volumes. While navigating some fairly standard shoujo romance tropes, Rumi Ichinohe brings some interesting perspective to this series that I'll keep following.

Summary:

Hikari hasn’t experienced love for herself or ever really craved that. Instead, she’s become addicted to shipping her friend, Mari, and a cute guy in class. It started out as a fun way to pass the time and was harmless. After all, she was merely rooting for her shy and pretty friend.

But then Hikari started confusing the events in her mind with reality, and things began to get a bit messy. This change was but the first step into chaos and confusion, forcing Hikari to rethink what she wanted.

Review:

I See Your Face, Turned Away Vol. 1 is a funny and sweet story worth checking out. It’s also not the most memorable story out there, so dive in, enjoy it, and move on.

This tale has some classic elements, including Hikari’s shipping of friends and her confused feelings. It makes for a solid story. It might have been better if it delved a little deeper. Hey! Who knows, maybe that will happen in later volumes?

Things to note: The pacing is a bit on the slower side, which may result in readers struggling to stay invested. Meanwhile, the artwork is entertaining and sweet. It’s perfect for the story, and I would happily read something else by this author for the artwork alone!

Highlights:
Slice-of-Life
Contemporary Romance
Coming of Age

Will I continue the series? Nah

Highly recommended for fans of shojo manga! The art is lovely and the story is unique - it's not your typical love triangle. I will be adding this one to my personal bookshelf :)

This book was fun and easy to read and I loved the story, definitely worth reading if you like manwha

3.5/5 stars


It was really cute, the art style especially. It really gave the atmosphere of a main character thinking they're the side character in a romance story. I just lost interest halfway through because it wasn't really all that interesting? I feel like this plot isn't really anything original and it's not something I'm a big fan of. If you like romance with a bit of angst and drama, this is certainly for you.

This was such a great read. I was pulled into the story from the beginning and the way mangaka masterfully takes our attention tells a lot about her storytelling skills.
The art is gorgeous, the characters are likable and complex and have a lot of depth, even though we basically just met them. I liked how the narration switches between the main characters and I hope we'll get to see the others' perspectives as well. I'll definitely be continuing this series and I can't wait to see what the author has in store for them.

Thank you Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Not really a favourite. Possibly because the two main male protagonists look very similar so it was hard to follow. This is very much about teenage unrequited love and angst. Not really for me. Good artwork though.

"I'm fine with being average. I'm fine with playing the friend. I'm fine with nothing happening"

this is so bittersweet with all the little unrequited love stories blossoming so well and naturally along with the strengthening of other relationships to make it so heartbreaking all around. The art style has the dreamy quality of something romanticized but also something slipping away. The overall plot points that focus on developing the individual characters are really great too I'm so excited to watch them and their relationships evolve and make my heart ache more and more

I liked the characters and the story line. My only complaint is that the 2 guys that are the love interests for the 2 girls look exactly alike. I found it hard to distinguish between them. But I loved the idea of one person trying to find a match for her friend and not realizing that she actually likes the guy instead. Really cute.

"I See Your Face, Turned Away" starts with a sweet concept, relatable themes, and beautiful art. A cozy, promising beginning that leaves me eager to see how Mori's journey will unfold.

This was such a cute debut to a series! The main character is so relatable, just trying to get through school, happy to be on the sidelines when she all of the sudden finds herself tied up in the drama she just wanted to watch from afar. I am so excited to keep reading this series and see where the story goes, because as a slice of life it felt so real, like this could be the story of any young girl going through school just wanting to fit in and get by.

Oh teenage angst. Oh teenage love. Oh teenage heartbreak. A story of unrequited love. It’s very slow and sometimes feels like it’s all over the place but I think that adds to the charm of it. The art is beautiful and I’m interested in where the story goes next as it ended on a cliffhanger and another heartbreak.

I received an e-copy for review from NetGalley.

The first volume of this romance series feels promising, even though it's not instantly memorable.
The art style didn't impress me (I can't even distinguish the two named male characters), but the character work felt solid. The main character, who is also the narrator, slowly takes form through the pages and feels relatable to the audience. We don't know much about the others, but their dialogue and interactions feel realistic and convincing.
Overall, this is a series I would like to continue reading.

the drawing is so good on this one. regarding the plot, I can see the story becoming better in upcoming volumes (or at least more cohesive) but it was confusing and finished at a weird place with the story

3.5 ★ // 15-year-old Hikari Mori is extraordinarily average in everything, from her grades to her monolid appearance - one of her greatest insecurities. One day, she begins playing wing-woman and matchmaker to her best friend—the cute but shy Mari Takahashi—as she imagines a drama-level romance between Mari and the cheerful Ohtani. Little did Hikari know that she would end up being the leading lady in her own romance story...

MY RATING: Maybe it's because this is only the first volume, but the story so far did not do anything to entice me to continue reading the series. It may just be one of those series that gets better as it progresses, with a deeper dive into the individual characters. I did like the soft art style, so a few points there!

THE ARTWORK: I love the cleanliness of the manga panels - not too many on a single page, and not an overwhelming amount of text (especially side dialogue/sound effect text). The layout made it a very smooth read for me.

Ichinohe makes it a point to emphasize Hikari's eyes, which are actually quite alluring despite her insecurity. The amount of detail the mangaka places on the eyes really draw you in and focus (pun not intended) on the whole symbolism of the human eye within the story.

However, I found the designs of the female characters—especially Hikari's—a little odd in that the shoulders/upper body seemed disproportionately large and broad compared to the rest of the body. The two male characters—Ohtani and Asagiri—also looked so similar they were hardly distinguishable.

OTHER LITTLE THINGS I ENJOYED:
- Mari being a huge Ghibli fan
- The nod to Ichinohe's earlier work My Sweet Girl
- "How do you truly feel? What do you really want to do?"

A story about four teenagers surviving high school and love.
This manga was so good. It went through a lot of different feelings and emotions. I’m definitely going to continue reading the series as it continues. I loved seeing the characters develop and grow throughout the story.
Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this book!

I See Your Face, Turned Away, is a nice fresh take on the classic romance genre. It starts with the MC, Hikari, imagining her best friend and the cute guy in class together as a couple. I found her ruminations to be funny and adorable. But as time goes on, she begins to find herself falling for the cute guy.
While it starts off cute and lighthearted, the story seems to take on a bit more of a heavier tone as the story goes along and leaves off with an ominous panel. I don’t know if I was the only one who felt this way, but I thought it took an odd turn. I thought it was going to stay within the fluffy side of shojo since it’s been compared to A Sign of Affection, but it kind of veered off the path the moment the cute guy, Ohtani, started imagining MC’s best friend in suggestive ways. (Albeit his friend was the cause, but it still didn’t sit well with me.)
On another note, I really like the art style. It’s clean, it’s pretty, it makes me think of an updated version of the older style of shojo art. The only problem I had was the fact that all the guys looked the same, so it was a little difficult telling them apart.
Overall, I have complicated feelings with this manga. On the one hand, I enjoyed it, and I loved Hikari as a character. She’s funny, she’s relatable, and I’m definitely rooting for her. But on the other, I’m really sure how I feel about the angle the story took. Maybe I’m just putting too much thought into it. But I would recommend this one for those who don’t mind a little spice and angst in their shojo. More for fans of Horimiya and A Lull in the Sea.
NOTE: I received a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley for review purposes only. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I just wanted to take a peek after requesting this volume, but ended up finishing it immediately.

Romance genre's arguably the most famous trope "not like other girls" is handled really well here. I liked that FL Mori's body is on the lankier side, is quick to come up with witty comebacks, she isn't just cross for the sake of "being different". She's fun, charismatic, kind, and overall an interesting character. I found this to be really fresh and definitely made me want to read the next volume.

I have nothing to say about the art style, it's gorgeous. Love how clean and stylish everything looks, you can clearly see Rumi Ichinohe is a seasoned artist. Male characters suffer a a bit from the "same face" syndrome, there were a couple of times where I had trouble separating Ohtani from Asagiri. Still, it didn't dampen my experience.

Highly recommended!

Published by Kodansha and available May 7, 2024, I See Your Face, Turned Away is a shoujo high school story about teenagers being unable to express their feelings or even pinpoint what they feel. The dialog is a little choppy and I felt through much of it that I was just hearing parts of conversations rather than being privy to the characters’ thoughts and experiences. The art is serviceable realistic shoujo, but the two boys of the friend group look too similar suggesting that character design wasn’t a priority. There is some interesting commentary on beauty standards in the form of Hikari, the main point of view character, thinking she’d be more attractive with a double eyelid than a monolid, but this isn’t focused on for very long. Other than that brief nod to something deeper, this introductory volume didn’t grab me.

I haven't read anything by this author, but it is described for someone who enjoys A Sign of Affection & In the Clear Moonlit Dusk. I love A Sign of Affection and want to read In the Clear Moonlit Dusk, so I thought this would be a perfect series for me to get into. While it does seem to have some similarities and I think you might enjoy it if you like those, I found a couple of differences while reading that really took away from the enjoyment of the manga.

On a positive note the art is beautiful, I found myself entranced by some of the pages. When the characters have their side profile shown (like the title suggests) I just sat and looked and could see why the characters in the story would be mesmerized as well. There is a music element as well, I love music manga so I was pleasantly surprised that the FMC played the French horn in the story. The story line seems like it could be interesting, I'll make sure to give it more than one volume to try it out and see if I like the direction it's going in.

However, there were a couple issues for me. There are 2 guys mentioned in the story and they look kind of similar - it also takes place in a school setting so they are dressed similar as well. This made it difficult to figure out which one was which at times because they are also best friends and in panels together a lot. Along with this the relationships are a bit convoluted. The FMC likes the MCM who likes her best friend, but the best friend likes someone else. It was just a lot of take in, but hopefully as the story progresses the love polygon works itself out. It just all felt a bit overwhelming for a first volume - there was a lot of relationship details to pack into less than 200 pages.

Thanks to #netgalley for an e-copy of #ISeeYourFaceTurnedAway by Rumi Ichinohe to read and review.