Looking for more information?
Who wrote this manga?
- Ao Mirui
They also wrote “Hanadoki wo Kakeru”!
Who is the publisher?
- Hakusensha
- Hana to Yume
How many volumes are there?
- There is currently 1 volume out, with volume 2 being released in May
- There is no English release as of right now.
What is the genre?
- University romance, drama
Where can I read this manga?
- You can both read the digital, and order the physical from Amazon Japan here!
What happens in volume 1?
Misakiyama is the name of the former all-boys school that our protagonist, Yamada, is currently attending. As the school only recently opened its doors to female students, the majority of students are still male – and Yamada is the only girl in her class.
She isn’t bothered by this, though she doesn’t really get along with her classmates. She had a very specific goal in mind when she applied to this school: get a glowing letter of recommendation from her teacher, and enter a prestigious university. As this school is rather famous for having students who don’t care about academics, rising to the top of the class isn’t all that hard for Yamada. Just to be safe though, she does everything she can to further improve her relationship with her teachers.
A Request from a Teacher
One day, Yamada is given a strange request from her teacher: get Murata to come back to school.
We then quickly learn exactly who Murata is: a boy who was once a member of the archery club, but was forced to leave when he broke his arm while fooling around in gym class. Subsequently, he decided that he would rather hang out at the arcade than come to school, and it’s now been a month since he has made an appearance at school.
Yamada heads to the arcade to meet up with Murata, where she sees him flirting with some random girls; he pays Yamada absolutely no mind.
A Challenge
Yamada tries to convince Murata to come back to school, but he insists that he has not interest in making a return. He then makes a proposition: if she can beat him at an arcade game, then he’ll come back – while it’s clear to the reader that he’s not being serious, to the straightforward Yamada, this is the only way to get him to come back to school.
While she loses the first round, she spends the next while practicing and challenging, and practicing and challenging, and practicing some more, but doesn’t make all that much progress.
After spending all of her cash at the arcade one day, Yamada convinces Murata to send her home on his bike. During the bike ride, Yamada tells Murata about the first time she saw him: he was lazing about in the archery club room, pretending to take a nap. Only after everyone else left the club room did he start practicing, and he was clearly putting in a great deal of effort.
Yamada tells Murata that she thinks he only pretends to not be serious about things like school and archery, and that she would like to get to know him more.
Murata gets incredibly flustered at this, and drops her off at home. Before he can bike away though, Yamada forces him to wear her dad’s incredibly large helmet.
Yamada’s Awful Classmates
Back at school the next day, we learn that being the only girl in her class has made Yamada the target of some rather cruel bullying. Three of her classmates forge a letter from Murata to Yamada, saying that he has something very important to talk to her about after school, and put it in her locker.
This isn’t the first time someone jokingly put a note in her locker to see how long she would wait, however because she has been trying to get Murata to come to school for the past little while, she truly believes it’s from him, and waits outside the front building for hours and hours.
After waiting 5 hours, Murata does actually miraculously show up! He shows up incredibly injured after the large helmet Yamada forced him to wear the previous night caused him to get into an accident, however he came to let her know that he re-enrolled in the archery club.
Murata’s Back at School!
The next morning, Murata is indeed back in the classroom, but he’s really not having all that much fun. He also makes a return to the archery club – though he can’t do much – and also is forced to take part in a school-wide relay race.
When he’s in front of everyone, Murata still really doesn’t do much at all. He complains, and jokes around with others, but he don’t put in any effort. Once alone though, he puts a great deal of effort into training.
Yamada keeps telling Murata that once he gains the will to try, she will be right there beside him. This flusters him, but he continues to train by himself.
Come the day of the race, due to Murata’s efforts, their team wins! Murata tells Yamada that he wants a reward for his bringing the team to victory, and asks her to go shopping with him.
Shopping Date!
At the mall, things are a little bit awkward between Murata and Yamada. While Murata is clearly very popular with both staff and customers, Yamada feels like she sticks out like someone who doesn’t fit in.
Murata makes attempts to get Yamada’s opinions on different pieces of clothing and colours, but Yamada is unable to get into it. Suddenly, some girls who Murata used to hang out with make an appearance and invite him to a light show at a nearby museum. Yamada, while looking uncomfortable, is about to let him ditch her, but Murata instead thanks the girls for letting him know about the event, and drags Yamada away.
At the light show, while Murata keeps trying to get closer to Yamada, Yamada keeps getting flustered, wondering why he’s suddenly being so nice to her. They do have a few cute moments here, with Murata kind of subtly confessing his interest in her.
Class Study Session
With exams and a mixer coming up, the usually unstudious boys of Yamada’s class suddenly request her to tutor them. This tutoring session would consist of two days, one night, and Yamada would be the only girl. Yamada, being rather oblivious and studious, agrees without thinking, and Murata has to step in for her safety.
Murata offers up his vacation house as lodging, and the group heads over shortly.
While it was Yamada’s classmates who assigned her the duty of tutor, they’re still pretty awful to her. They would rather play games than study, and when Yamada tries to sit them down and force them to study, they tell her she’s terrible at teaching.
While it’s true Yamada wasn’t allowing them to take breaks, they knew just how serious she is about studying when they invited her – they also told her to force them to study when they invited her.
After being yelled at, Yamada decides to take a little break in the form of visiting the hot springs. After getting out, she runs into Murata who has her accompany him in bowling for a little while, where he explains the importance of taking little breaks to her.
She thankfully understands where he’s coming from, and thanks to him she is able to clear her head, and return to the group.
Maddies Ratings
The characters
There really weren’t any characters that I loved in this volume sadly, but if I had to pick one, I would pick Murata. Here are some of my thoughts on all of the characters:
Murata clearly is a complex character! While he is indeed a womanizer, that’s not all there is to him. I think he likes to put up a front of what he deems to be cool, and it looks like he finds effort to be uncool. I do like that he puts a great deal of effort into the things he finds important, albeit in secret, and am curious to see how he will grow.
Yamada feels like an incredibly one-note character to me. She is studious, and she is straightforward. She isn’t able to take a joke, and always take people at their word – even when they’re clearly not being serious. While she is clearly very academically smart, she is not at all socially smart. I don’t love her together with Murata, but I do think she may be good for him.
The classmates are just awful. While Yamada is probably rather annoying to talk to, that isn’t an excuse to bully her. Putting notes in her locker pretending to be someone interested in her just to see how long she will wait is diabolical, and they seemingly don’t learn. I hope they will start treating Yamada better after she spends two full days tutoring them, but I highly doubt it.
Romance
Yamada’s lack of emotional awareness made it difficult for me to enjoy any of the romance in this volume. Murata did save it for me, as he’s clearly battling his growing feelings for Yamada throughout the volume, and it was really fun following that part of the story.
I don’t know if I will enjoy reading their story if they become a couple anytime soon, as I really need Yamada to figure her feelings out a lot more first.
Storytelling
This story was rather average for me. While I didn’t love it, there was nothing horrible about it either. Murata really did save it for me, and I would love for the following volumes to follow him more than Yamada.
I would like to see Yamada mature a bit more, and realize that there is more to being intelligent than studying. I would also love to see her form a relationship with one of the other girls in her school, as maybe her being surrounded by boys is making things more difficult for her.
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