Say I Love You., Vol. 7

好きっていいなよ [Suki tte Ii na yo] #7

by Kanae Hazuki

FIRST YEAR OF FIRST LOVE It's been a full year since eccentric loner Mei Tachibana set out onto the seas of love with the self-assured Yamato Kurosawa, but there's a storm ahead! Yamato's friend Kai has confessed his feelings for Mei. Will it sow the seeds of doubt, or just deepen her affection for Yamato? Meanwhile, Megumi's scheming forces her into greater and greater social isolation. With all this churning in the background, what'll happen when Mei and Yamato leave for an overnight anniversary trip?

Genres: Manga, Romance, Shojo, Contemporary, Graphic Novels, Young Adult, Comics

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

かなえ 葉月 is a manga artist and writer.

• Name in native language: 葉月かなえ
• Birthday: September 1980
• Blood Type: B
Twitter username: @kanaehazuki

Reviews

[Bookishrealm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m still not a fan of Megumi but I like that this volume gave more insight to her as a character. I’ll be interested in seeing if she changes in the next few volumes.

[Mehsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I expected: Lots of Mei-chan and Yamato action, but sadly the manga was mostly centred around Megumi and her drama. Don't get me wrong, what happens/happened to Megumi is bad, but after all her shit, and all the stuff she put Mei-chan and other people through? I can't like her, I can't just say, aww that poor little thing. Just because she had a tough life with bullying and growing up without much money, doesn't mean she has to become a bully and be a bitch towards everyone. Throughout this book I was just sighing and shaking my head and also being quite a bit bored. I don't think I can ever like Megumi, I can see that she still has darkness in her, and that it is just itching to get out and play and ruin people.

I did like how she and Momo got together, they are great friends and I hope that Megumi will appreciate Momo a bit more this time.

Again, after the last volume, I was so hoping for our couple to finally do a bit more than just kissing and hugging, but alas, I guess that is not how the manga goes and that is not how Mei-chan rolls. Still, I am sad, after 7 books I was just hoping for a bit more romance and stuff. It just feels odd and strange now. I can imagine that Mei-chan is shy, and worried and all that, but they have been together for quite a bit of time, yet they are still so awkward around each other.

Mei-chan is growing and I am happy to see her get out of her shell more and more. I loved the last part with the yukata and the festival. It was really sweet of her to do this (even though she needed a nudge in the right direction by her mom). Yamato is lucky to have Mei-chan.

The art is still gorgeous and I really enjoy how everything is drawn. Though I still think the girls are drawn a bit too skinny (they almost look anorexic) and at times it creeps me out a bit. Especially considering that one of the characters had weight problems in the past and now is also totally super skinny. I wouldn't mind seeing a girl with normal weight or who looks normal.

I do hope the next volume will focus on our couple again, and I hope that Kai and Megumi will stay far away from everything. I could use a volume with only Yamato and Mei-chan again.

Still, I would recommend this one to everyone. The manga is pretty realistic and features some very heavy topics, which might not be for everyone, so be warned.

Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Carolina · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 70%

[Lex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this manga! I like how Megumi started to change herself for the better. :) Yay for Yamato and Mei! :)

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really love this story, but I do wish some of the cute-girl side characters didn't look so much alike. I get confused sometimes.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I'm commited to reading this series, and I'm really impatient to get to the material that is new to me (having seen the anime version of this) but I'm just a little burned by all the problematic things which are often, but not in this case, offset by sweet moments.

[Katt Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this one. As the story progresses we move a little outward from Mei's romance, and get to know what's going on in the lives of other characters. I think there was a lot of depth to what was done with Megumi here, and I like the growth I'm seeing of her character. While I'm a little disappointed that we don't have more of Mei, I'm ok with this too. There's plenty more volumes to come for that.

[Aurelie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume touches a bit more on jealousy, but at least not in a toxic, possesive way most shoujo tend to do. It also dives a bit on more serious subjects (although only a bit lightly) such as depression, online bullying and binging, so heads up for that.

[Khari · Rating 2 out of 5]

終わった！

七巻までは無料にもらった。七巻まで読んだけど続きには興味ない。買うつもりないし立ち読みもつもりない。

成長したよね！若い時には必ず全部を読むはずでももそのフェーズから卒業した。万歳。

[Warda | وردة · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so mad at how the anime adaptation made Yamato's neck long as hell. He looks really good in the manga.

[gretch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg!!! I finished this one last night before bed (so technically today, but who cares lol). I really liked Megumi’s character development in this one. I empathize with her a lot, it can be hard not to self destruct sometimes, especially with the pressure of the internet and bullies. The perseverance of these characters really gets to me. I love the girls so much, and a lot of the guys too. Asami and Aiko are such good friends to Mei, it makes my heart swell. I love seeing such positive female relationships where the characters are all sooo dynamic. It makes me really happy that despite it being a romance novel, it takes the backseat to platonic and familial love a lot of the time. It’s constantly showing the importance of love in all of its forms. And the author’s notes at the end always make me cry (happy tears). Overall, i just really have fallen head over heels for this series lol. Plus who doesn’t love a good slow burn 😮‍💨

[Laura Martinelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I need to cut back on the high school romance series for a bit. (Which is totally not happening because hi have you met me.) Not because I think that the plots are bad or too drawn out (most of the time), but the fact that they’ve all been so good that I have to look for more.

Say ‘I Love You’ keeps moving right along with Mei and Yamato’s worries about taking their relationship further and we finally pick up on Meg’s story from the last volume and we start seeing her becoming a better person. And although the pacing of the volume’s events can feel a little too slow at times, this is one of the reasons that I really like Say ‘I Love You’—it gives us enough character development entwined with the plot and Hazuki Kanae does really delve into her characters and their motivations for the things that they do.

Plus, they’re complicated. Unlike Kimi ni Todoke (which I kinda can’t help comparing these two series, bear with me), which is about a very sweet girl who meets very sweet people and makes ~*friends*~ (except for one or two people who are eventually swayed by the Power of Friendship), Say ‘I Love You’s characters act more like teenagers who do have flaws and mess up and do things for the wrong reasons. As I said in the last volume, I really liked that while Mei and Yamato do talk about having sex and are clearly thinking about it, they realize that they just can’t handle it emotionally at the moment and they’ll just work their way up to it for the time being. My experience with a lot of manga is more of the “OMG WE’RE IN THE ROOM TOGETHER! SLEEPING TOGETHER! What if I see his naked chest noooo!” Not to say that this specific reaction is invalid (and Mei does do this a bit), but after seeing it so many times, it is refreshing to just see high school students hashing things out.

As for Meg-tan’s story—I’ve really liked Meg, since she’s been taken off the list of “Girls who want Yamato and hate Mei.” And I was really interested in her backstory of using make-up and fashion to get back at her bullies and manipulating them, and that she really doesn’t think that she has anyone to call a real friend. I actually really liked that this also focuses on the perception of celebrities and people in the public eye and showing Meg’s private reactions to being hurt. The only thing that I really didn’t like is Meg’s coping by stress-eating and locking herself in her apartment—not that it’s not a valid reaction, but just how her gaining weight was handled and her reaction to it. (I’m a fat girl who does stress-eat—no, it’s not good for anyone, but there was just something about how Meg was talking to Kai that put me off a little.)

The other reason that I like about this series is that I really don’t know where the series is going to develop next. Yes, this hits a lot of typical shojo romance manga tropes, but I like how the characters react to those situations and that they don’t give a typical reaction to being in them. And even though the pacing of events has slowed down at this point, the characters are still completely engaging me. (I would love to go and watch the anime. Sadly, I am so behind on everything else.) Still really loving this series, and seriously can’t wait to see where the plot’s heading next.

[Sleepy Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ship sails further!! Mei and Yamato are so cute together I can't even....
Anyhoo Megumi, as much as I hate her (yes still) I don't like her being picked on; I mean that's why I dislike her in the first place. However I'm glad her character is developing into something more tolerable. Kai is still an adorable button, enough said

[L. J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This short review will be repeated on every single volume. Previously, it sat at four stars; I was young and into dumb shit.

Because it was trendy to like books where the popular guy gets with the nerdy girl, I liked this back then. Now, I’m so over these tropes. He’s not even that great. Hell, just about everyone sucks here.

[Amanda [Novel Addiction] · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main couple is just so cute - but that's all that is keeping me reading. I'm starting to get annoyed with most of the other characters.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28

[Eлина · Rating 3 out of 5]

Megu is honestly a pain in the ass.

[Alya Atiera · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Suki-Tte Ii Na Yo a.k.a Say I Love You

❝A light read filled with positive messages.❞

(The rating and review are conclusion for all of the volumes excluding the synopsis. Beware of spoiler.)

《 Plot 》
The pace of the story is good. Although there are 18 volumes all over, it doesn’t make you lose interest in it. The story starts by introducing Mei who's a bully victim. She doesn’t have any friends because she always distances herself from people. This is because she has been betrayed by her friends back in the middle school. Ever since then, she never trusts people anymore. However, she begins to change when she gets to know Yamato. Yamato is a popular guy that has many friends and is wayyy too friendly with girls. He starts to approach Mei when she kicked him because of some misunderstanding that happened. Yamato pursues Mei every day which eventually leads them being together. The story starts to develop from there and it’s being told from Mei’s POV.

《 Characters 》
❐ Mei Tachibana, the heroine
When Mei starts falling in love with Yamato, she feels scared of showing everything to him. I can relate to that a lot because you don't know how things will be so it's scary. There are other moments that I can relate to but I won't tell you to avoid spoiler.

At one point, Mei begins to change herself by engaging more with people around her. That's what makes her strong and kind girl. She is very observant of people around her and tries to help them the best she can. I love her character development.

❐ Yamato Kurosawa, the hero
Yamato is a typical cool who is popular for his kindness. Despite being a cool popular guy, he still has his own flaws. There are some issues that he struggles with but didn't let people see him in that way. I wouldn't really picture him as a really good guy. He has his flaw but he learns to change little by little.

《 Pros & Cons 》
☑ Realistic & healthy relationship
↳ There are several couples born in this comic and each of them shows what relationship is likely to be in real life especially Mei’s relationship. If you have been in a relationship, several situations that happened will make you go “Omg, I went through that too!”. On top of that, most of them are in a healthy relationship making it enjoyable to read.

☑ Positive messages
↳ It touches the issue of bully and friendship. Although Mei has been bullied, she doesn’t retaliate at those who had betrayed her back then. It also shows that life is more wonderful with loyal companions being by your side.

☒ The art drawn
↳ It’s not that the art are bad or anything. It’s just not really my cup of tea. I noticed that the art was changing slightly as the volume continues on. It got better in my opinion.

《 Extras 》
My favourite manga! I keep going back to this whenever I feel like reading something light and fun. This is my first manga that I read when I first started to read comic. I was so happy when I found out this comic had completed in English version. These are several quotes that I love from this story.

“Nothing makes a girlfriend more insecure than a boyfriend who's kind to everyone.”

“No matter how beautiful you are, when you're dating someone, all of your flaws come out.”

“If you want to move forward, sometimes, you can't keep doing things the way you've always done them. That peace of mind ruins you and hurts people.”

“You can get stronger by loving others and letting them love you.”

⚝ Who should read? ⚝
❥ Enjoy high school story.
❥ Love friendship theme story.
❥ Can tolerate typical “famous guy” falls for “unpopular girl”.

✎ Synopsis Volume 7
Megumi faces hardship despite planning everything so well to live a good life.

[isrhat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A summer festival, couple sweetness and a depose insight into harsh reality problems that are still prevalent to this day!

I really liked how this volume explored Megumi’s character development. At first it wasn’t that I didn’t like her but as soon as I realized she was a model I realized that she was that way for certain reason. And then learning about her hardships with money while growing up really made the picture clearer. She’s always been under this pressure to improve and people were always so nasty to her and still are!

The internet is a very scary and mean place all for the reason of the safety of anonymity. Once I felt thoroughly disgruntled in a sad way because some rando said my drawing sucks on scibble io.

Scribble io for gods sake!

A while back I was drawing (literally just putting bare effort bc I was bored) on my 2012 Mac book that weighs 50 pounds (probably) and a mousepad that was way past it’s prime time. I knew it was ridiculous for even getting a little upset over but it just goes to show how much an impact words can have on a person! Especially when they’re in high school! God I was a mess in high school when the wrong words were uttered at me, god forbid if I was ever under the close scrutiny of being a model!

Looking forward to looking over Yamato and Mei more <3

Also this is where the anime ends and actually this time lol I kept getting it wrong every time I would finish a volume because i would forget certain scenes that would appear later haha

[Ya Boi Be Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up as the Megumi storyline was handled so well here! Megumi's storyline continues and gets better with her finally getting the hint that she's gotta change and embrace those who care for her over those she’s jealous over. But before it's better it gets worse with her focus on how others view her getting more terrible after reading internet criticism and hatred against her leading her to shut herself in. I've been iffy on Megumi's arc in the past but its done beautifully here with her finally growing and taking active strides to reorient herself as in charge of her self-image and trying to grow.
Adjacent to Megumi in this volume is Kai. Kai gets a haircut and I hate it since it's very similar to Nakanishi’s haircut and it's hard to tell them apart now. But we get some Kai x Megumi here which I enjoyed. The festival in the second was fun and seems like a spark for Kai x Megumi. I think the coupling is cute with them both trying to grow and change from their past and with having done unsavory things because of it. The lines “When we do find ourselves maybe we'll stop talking to each other.” "Maybe. But if we do won't that mean we've both grown up.” Really hit me since it shows a clear focus of growth and development for both of them and sorta hinting Kai is trying to leave the love triangle he has with Yamato and Mei leaving him space to date someone like Megumi. But Megumi also maybe has a thing for Yamato with the volumes finale though luckily it seems like she's handling it better with not fucking over Mei.

[Ariz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great volume. It discusses how harmful the internet can be and it gave more depth into Meg's character which I appreciated. The beginning really showed how much Yamato cares for Mei and is and the festival scene was fun too. I love how different Aiko and Asami are, yet they are both wonderful friendsEspecially when Aiko was like "just have sex with him" and Asami thought it was sweet to wait. And of course I am liking Kai more and more. He's like a mix between Mei+Yamato which is the best of both worlds.

[-moonprismpower- · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mei found the most patient guy. I love that he can tell that she’s changed so much in the year that they’ve been together but she’s still not quite ready to have sex. I wish my first serious bf could’ve been like Yamato!!!

Anyway, there’s LOTS of character development in this volume. Megumi is becoming a better person. I really hated her in the beginning but she’s growing on me. I loved that Asami was trying to defend Megumi and stop those mean girls from bullying her. She’s a true friend.

And the end? Mei wearing that cute yukata just to show it to Yamato??? Sooooo cute!!!!!!!

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow...going back to teenage years in high school. Kids can be mean. In today's world, bullying isn't just in person anymore...cyberbullying is a whole other monster. The internet can be cruel. People can hide behind ugly words and actions towards another person.

At the end of the day, it's up to us to be strong against whatever is said AND to learn not to let what others say affect you. YOU DO YOU. Don't let others define you.

[Anastasia ⋆｡☽˚｡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, after the last volume, I was so hoping for our couple to finally do a bit more than just kissing and hugging, but alas, I guess that is not how the manga goes and that is not how Mei-chan rolls. Still, I am sad, after 7 books I was just hoping for a bit more romance and stuff. It just feels odd and strange now. I can imagine that Mei-chan is shy, and worried and all that, but they have been together for quite a bit of time, yet they are still so awkward around each other.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series keeps getting better with every volume. The author keeps exploring relationships, friendships, identity and social pressures among teens in an intensely emotional way. I can't quite think of the word I want to use to describe how this manga is written that it is so affecting. I really can't recommend it enough for older teens and adult lovers of manga and YA.

[♡Kayla♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

*2.5*

For some reason I just really didn't care for this volume. In fact, the only chapter that I enjoyed was the one themed around the festival, and getting to see Mei look absolutely stunning in her yukata. Otherwise I just felt so bored reading everything. Hopefully volume 8 will pick up a bit.

[Tiffany ✨ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I took a break from reading this but today, I finally finished. I hope the next book gives Mei some much needed development because I am tired of the constant Megumi screen time. Also there's way too many characters and everyone except for Yamato and Mei are starting to look alike since everyone is drawn so similarly to each other.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 too much Megumi for me. I am glad she has depth but I don’t have empathy for her at this time she didn’t apologize to the right people IMO which is fine. Kai and Aiko are still my favs. I’m going to be honest I don’t thin Mei is as cold or blunt as people say she is. She is considerate of others and other people in this story are much more upfront about things.

[Kore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Nice

This volume felt like a series of stories that bridged the gab between moments that happened previously in the series, which is good. As always a great plot and illustrations.

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 but i’ll round up to a 5 because i love seeing the character development with every volume!!! i love seeing everyone grow and self-reflect. also, the afterword from the mangaka is such a nice touch that makes me excited to keep reading their work.