What do you think?
Rate this book
どうせ、恋してしまうんだ。 [Dōse, Koishite Shimaunda.] #3
Anyway, I'm Falling In Love With You. 3
An irresistible shojo manga offering an all-you-can-eat-buffet of high school drama, adolescent crushes, and childhood nostalgia. Guaranteed to delight fans of popular romance comics like Komi Can’t Communicate and Skip and Loafer .
Mizuha's seventeenth birthday is the pits. Her parents totally forgot, and the sempai she likes isn't interested in her. But when her longtime childhood friend asks her out, Mizuha has to sort out what this change could mean. And her feelings may not be the only ones changing...!
Adding to the challenge is a global pandemic, upending the hopes and joys of high school life. But romance is resilient, and crushes and confessions flourish among Mizuha's friends. A brand-new school love story from the author of I Fell in Love After School !
Mizuha's seventeenth birthday is the pits. Her parents totally forgot, and the sempai she likes isn't interested in her. But when her longtime childhood friend asks her out, Mizuha has to sort out what this change could mean. And her feelings may not be the only ones changing...!
Adding to the challenge is a global pandemic, upending the hopes and joys of high school life. But romance is resilient, and crushes and confessions flourish among Mizuha's friends. A brand-new school love story from the author of I Fell in Love After School !
160 pages, Paperback
Published July 2, 2024
10 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
March 21, 2025
I read the second and third volumes of this manga back-to-back, so this will stand in as a review for both. Since this title runs in Nakayoshi, a manga magazine for pre-teens, things went really fast. Large panels and very few words. :)
I do question a few things about it. I'm not sure that our author should have shoehorned COVID-19 into the story just as it hit the world, because at the time it would have been difficult or impossible to say what its effects on individuals and society would have been ten years into the future, in Mizuho's 2030. I also get a little tired of mangaka writing stories about mangaka. I understand that narrative comics are a big industry in Japan--bigger than they are in my own country--but still. I wouldn't want every other story to be about entertainers or influencers, either, even though that's a very common career for attractive young people.
The heart of the story for me is Mizuho and the boys growing up, and trying to figure out what they want from their futures, in part when events in the bigger world are causing uncertainty and fear. Shin chose his career quite young when . It makes the spoilered thing feel more like a plot point, and it also seems to have affected Shin more than it does Mizuho, oddly enough.
They're also trying to figure out what they'll want from their relationships with each other. Less the whole friendship group becoming a reverse harem, which I rather doubt, some hurt or even severance seems near-inevitable. Those stresses are lightly handled, and strong emotions have been held back rather than exploding, at least so far.
I'm enjoying the peeks into the families and personalities of the four main boys. (Saito was sidelined pretty quickly.) As often happens, the family structures are pretty homogenous, and I don't see a lot of differences in anyone's family life, aside from Mizuho being taken care of by the boys' families while her dad is away, which of course leads to some mild drama when she (innocently) spends the night at Shin's. In shoujo manga for younger girls, I often get the feeling that the lead is being doted on and protected, and that's definitely the case here.
This title hasn't risen far enough above the pack to become a personal favorite, but it's a decent way to spend some time. At $14 a book, it doesn't quite provide enough amusement for the price, though.
I do question a few things about it. I'm not sure that our author should have shoehorned COVID-19 into the story just as it hit the world, because at the time it would have been difficult or impossible to say what its effects on individuals and society would have been ten years into the future, in Mizuho's 2030. I also get a little tired of mangaka writing stories about mangaka. I understand that narrative comics are a big industry in Japan--bigger than they are in my own country--but still. I wouldn't want every other story to be about entertainers or influencers, either, even though that's a very common career for attractive young people.
The heart of the story for me is Mizuho and the boys growing up, and trying to figure out what they want from their futures, in part when events in the bigger world are causing uncertainty and fear. Shin chose his career quite young when . It makes the spoilered thing feel more like a plot point, and it also seems to have affected Shin more than it does Mizuho, oddly enough.
They're also trying to figure out what they'll want from their relationships with each other. Less the whole friendship group becoming a reverse harem, which I rather doubt, some hurt or even severance seems near-inevitable. Those stresses are lightly handled, and strong emotions have been held back rather than exploding, at least so far.
I'm enjoying the peeks into the families and personalities of the four main boys. (Saito was sidelined pretty quickly.) As often happens, the family structures are pretty homogenous, and I don't see a lot of differences in anyone's family life, aside from Mizuho being taken care of by the boys' families while her dad is away, which of course leads to some mild drama when she (innocently) spends the night at Shin's. In shoujo manga for younger girls, I often get the feeling that the lead is being doted on and protected, and that's definitely the case here.
This title hasn't risen far enough above the pack to become a personal favorite, but it's a decent way to spend some time. At $14 a book, it doesn't quite provide enough amusement for the price, though.
June 3, 2022
Mizuho and Kizuki continue their little dance, but it’s a big ballroom floor and the sharks are circling as quickly as I ruined the metaphor. As we delve more deeply into our cast, we learn that a simple head-to-head battle might just have been the prelude to a full-blown battle boy-ale.
The course of true love ne’er, etc, especially when in the hands of a good manga creator. Even as Kizuki abandons whatever semblance of pretence he had left, Mizuho is hamstrung by her own lack of confidence and the other boys are left to try and make what time they can.
And the romance in this one comes out swinging, as we finally bid adieu to one suitor on the way to one particularly epic rendezvous between Mizuho and Kizuki that implies Mizuho’s heart knows her better than she does. This scene is a highlight for the series and it keeps ratcheting up the intensity as it goes. Kizuki’s good with knots is all I’m saying.
There are a couple of reasons that I think make this stronger than the average shojo title and one is definitely the better than usual characterization for most all of the cast (maybe not Shin, but we’ll get to him). This is one of the few stories where the flashbacks and reminisces truly feel like they’re adding to and informing the narrative.
Besides conclusively showing that they all have crushes on Mizuho, we learn something new about every single suitor this time out. Glasses-wearing Shuugo turning out to have a lot more experience with girls and his awareness (and weaponizing) of being nobody’s first choice is a great choice.
Poor Kizuki is forced to be pretty direct; he even accidentally causes his own plot complication (brilliantly foreshadowed) at the end of a confession game that gets a little too serious and had one hell of a second revelation from Airu, the model, to boot.
But between her avoidance and obliviousness, Mizuho needs those hints. As we see, Kizuki has tried a more subtle approach to no avail. Our boy knows how to do sneaky and the way he shows Mizuho that what she thought was him being hopeless was something else entirely? He knows what he’s doing here, it just hasn’t been working.
There’s also an impressive devotion to female fan service, heterosexually speaking, in this series. With Mizuho scandalized at the notion that she might show her belly button, it falls to the boys to show some skin and rock the fashion and the mangaka is only happy to provide. Why have one yukata when you can have ALL the yukata?
Of our stalwarts, Shin gets the most time besides Kizuki, though he’s the most boring. It’s not that he’s especially bad, he’s just such a stock tsundere rival who keeps bottling his feelings around Mizuho. With the dominoes falling that all these guys kind of adore Mizuho, there are far more interesting horses in this race.
This also leads to a particularly dopey scene where Shin decides to take off his shirt and have a scene topless with Mizuho, which seems, admittedly, like a ridiculously teen boy approach to trying to escape the friend zone (this comes at the end of Mizuho spending a couple days house-hopping for suppers with one glaring exception because feelings).
It’s a little odd that they dropped the whole COVID angle entirely this time out and, while Mizuho has her moments and great chemistry with her friends, she’s definitely a more generic style of heroine. She has flashes of greatness - that fireworks scene at the start might be this series’ standout that it never tops - but she’s definitely ‘of a type’. Still, you can do a lot with the basics and this story shows how that’s possible, making for a rather fun time.
4 stars - still a very good series with very good writing and, while it might not have the most ringing endorsement of male-female friendships, it is having a fun time letting all these crushes get a moment here and there amidst the actual romance going on.
The course of true love ne’er, etc, especially when in the hands of a good manga creator. Even as Kizuki abandons whatever semblance of pretence he had left, Mizuho is hamstrung by her own lack of confidence and the other boys are left to try and make what time they can.
And the romance in this one comes out swinging, as we finally bid adieu to one suitor on the way to one particularly epic rendezvous between Mizuho and Kizuki that implies Mizuho’s heart knows her better than she does. This scene is a highlight for the series and it keeps ratcheting up the intensity as it goes. Kizuki’s good with knots is all I’m saying.
There are a couple of reasons that I think make this stronger than the average shojo title and one is definitely the better than usual characterization for most all of the cast (maybe not Shin, but we’ll get to him). This is one of the few stories where the flashbacks and reminisces truly feel like they’re adding to and informing the narrative.
Besides conclusively showing that they all have crushes on Mizuho, we learn something new about every single suitor this time out. Glasses-wearing Shuugo turning out to have a lot more experience with girls and his awareness (and weaponizing) of being nobody’s first choice is a great choice.
Poor Kizuki is forced to be pretty direct; he even accidentally causes his own plot complication (brilliantly foreshadowed) at the end of a confession game that gets a little too serious and had one hell of a second revelation from Airu, the model, to boot.
But between her avoidance and obliviousness, Mizuho needs those hints. As we see, Kizuki has tried a more subtle approach to no avail. Our boy knows how to do sneaky and the way he shows Mizuho that what she thought was him being hopeless was something else entirely? He knows what he’s doing here, it just hasn’t been working.
There’s also an impressive devotion to female fan service, heterosexually speaking, in this series. With Mizuho scandalized at the notion that she might show her belly button, it falls to the boys to show some skin and rock the fashion and the mangaka is only happy to provide. Why have one yukata when you can have ALL the yukata?
Of our stalwarts, Shin gets the most time besides Kizuki, though he’s the most boring. It’s not that he’s especially bad, he’s just such a stock tsundere rival who keeps bottling his feelings around Mizuho. With the dominoes falling that all these guys kind of adore Mizuho, there are far more interesting horses in this race.
This also leads to a particularly dopey scene where Shin decides to take off his shirt and have a scene topless with Mizuho, which seems, admittedly, like a ridiculously teen boy approach to trying to escape the friend zone (this comes at the end of Mizuho spending a couple days house-hopping for suppers with one glaring exception because feelings).
It’s a little odd that they dropped the whole COVID angle entirely this time out and, while Mizuho has her moments and great chemistry with her friends, she’s definitely a more generic style of heroine. She has flashes of greatness - that fireworks scene at the start might be this series’ standout that it never tops - but she’s definitely ‘of a type’. Still, you can do a lot with the basics and this story shows how that’s possible, making for a rather fun time.
4 stars - still a very good series with very good writing and, while it might not have the most ringing endorsement of male-female friendships, it is having a fun time letting all these crushes get a moment here and there amidst the actual romance going on.
June 6, 2022
Bleh they can’t possibly all love the same girl????? And she’s so oblivious to it all?
No thanks. The art is so cute but I don’t want to be on edge the whole time waiting for her to make a decision….
No thanks. The art is so cute but I don’t want to be on edge the whole time waiting for her to make a decision….
March 4, 2024
maybe it's just me, but things are turning a little weird?? obviously, the four or them are into her, but it's a bit awkward, and now a new boy made his entrance. i don't know where this is going but i'm here for the ride.
March 27, 2025
my favorite shipping: airu x ice cream 🍧🩷
October 2, 2025
3.8
I love a reverse harem, but how many signs does this lady need to know that Kizuki loves her??? 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
I love a reverse harem, but how many signs does this lady need to know that Kizuki loves her??? 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 13, 2022
I am so confused!
October 23, 2022
3.5 stars
June 7, 2025
How many men are into her? I still feel like she is a place holder. All the guys have unique personalities and goals and motivations but she just doesn’t feel as developed. I don’t know but with so many love interest potentially it hard for me to feel that tug where I ship any of them. I checked all them out so I will read them especially cause it was electronic but so far I greatly prefer the other series at this point.
July 10, 2023
I'm absolutely loving these! The 10 years look back really makes me wonder what happened in between and why we're having these skips between the past and the present. In this manga Shin and Airu get a little time to shine and it's becoming clearer that all four friends of Mizuho are or were in love with her at one point. Let's see who she ends up with, my clear fangirling for Team-Kizuki from the last book in the series is becoming a bit unclearer...
February 18, 2025
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Já não basta os 4 amigos, apareceu mais um??????????
Esse volume foi cheio de sentimentos Ç_Ç
Acho que ela tá gostando do Kizuki mas não quer estragas a amizade se der bosta.
Shugo definitivamente também gosta dela.
Airu me confunde, não sei ao certo se ele gosta da Mizuho ou o Kizuki. As cenas e falas dele são sempre ambíguas.
E vamos ver o que vai acontecer com o Tougo de férias hahahahahahaha (rindo de nervoso).
Já não basta os 4 amigos, apareceu mais um??????????
Esse volume foi cheio de sentimentos Ç_Ç
Acho que ela tá gostando do Kizuki mas não quer estragas a amizade se der bosta.
Shugo definitivamente também gosta dela.
Airu me confunde, não sei ao certo se ele gosta da Mizuho ou o Kizuki. As cenas e falas dele são sempre ambíguas.
E vamos ver o que vai acontecer com o Tougo de férias hahahahahahaha (rindo de nervoso).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 2, 2026
JUST KIDDING. It is EXACTLY as I originally thought it would be. And honestly it’s wild to me that now 6 guys have come out of nowhere to like our FMC?? It’s just wild and the confessions move so fast. Idk I’m gonna continue (or just watch the anime) to see how it ends but tbh I’m in no rush to continue.
October 15, 2022
No, so this all makes a lot more sense. I thought I'd read this before but couldn't remember how it ended. But that's because it hasn't ended yet. Can't wait to see how things progress in book 4. It better not break my heart!
October 22, 2024
The art is soooo good!!! I love all of the characters, the only thing that I dislike is that all four of her childhood friends are in love with her. I wish there was more of a focus on platonic friendships.
Tougo 👀
Tougo 👀
July 4, 2025
This volume was such an improvement for me! I feel like the other guys got some more time to shine here, and the reverse harem seems to be picking up, which is one of the main selling points. I really like Shin, and I hope that he'll stand a better chance of winning over Mizuho's heart.
November 30, 2025
¡Sabía que los otros dos amigos restantes también tienen sentimientos hacia Mizuho más allá de la amistad!
De repente me desespera que no se aclare ella con sus sentimientos, porque habrá más de un corazón roto.
De repente me desespera que no se aclare ella con sus sentimientos, porque habrá más de un corazón roto.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 21, 2022
coronavirus e teenage reverse harem
Read
December 9, 2022this manga makes me so damn nervous istg if kizuki didn't make it..... whew
January 5, 2023
WHY CHOOSE!? HOW CHOOSE!? So many cute boys...so many potential ruined friendships...THE DRAMA.
4 readers living for the drama out of 5 readers living for the cute boys
4 readers living for the drama out of 5 readers living for the cute boys
February 8, 2023
3,5 Sterne
July 10, 2024
Ehhhhh
July 27, 2024
2024 Goodreads Challenge - Manga #21/25
if she doesn’t end up with Shin or another side character, i may quit the genre
if she doesn’t end up with Shin or another side character, i may quit the genre
September 13, 2025
please be a why choose
January 13, 2026
god, ugh, this is so good
September 19, 2024
給4顆星真的是因為這四位帥哥啊（最後一幕再+1）
水帆～你上輩子到底燒了什麼好香，目前3/4的竹馬都喜歡/喜歡過？你ㄋㄟ⋯⋯然後最後一幕出現的唯一還沒表現出喜歡你的人的哥哥看起來也是很曖昧的動作ㄟ⋯⋯該不會水帆以前喜歡過這位哥哥👀
水帆～你上輩子到底燒了什麼好香，目前3/4的竹馬都喜歡/喜歡過？你ㄋㄟ⋯⋯然後最後一幕出現的唯一還沒表現出喜歡你的人的哥哥看起來也是很曖昧的動作ㄟ⋯⋯該不會水帆以前喜歡過這位哥哥👀
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews