Sasaki and Miyano: First-Years, Vol. 1

Sasaki and Miyano: First-Years #1

by Kotoko Hachijo (Novelization), Shou Harusono (Original Story & Art)

Welcome one and all—to the fabulous life and times of Sasaki, Miyano, and their closest companions! Ever wondered how Kuresawa met his girlfriend? Want to find out if Miyano and Kuresawa were always friends? Or contemplated just why Miyano and Hirano are so close? The answers to these questions—and many more—will be revealed in Sasaki and Miyano: First Years!  

Genres: Manga, Light Novel, Romance, LGBT, Slice Of Life, Young Adult, Fiction

178 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 2020

Reviews

[Ophelia ★ · Rating 5 out of 5]

when ur circle small but yall gay

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how cleanly this fills in the gaps of the manga - you'd never know they were written by different people. I think we lose some of the voice differentiation because Japanese has more first-person pronouns than English, but it's still better than other multiple narrator LNs I've read.

[Ronan Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

EL MUNDO ES DE LOS JOTOS Y SASAKI Y MIYANO LO LIDERAN.

[Semo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I personally still prefer the manga as I like the way the author draws facial expressions and conveys emotions through the drawings, but my goal when reading this was to get more sasamiya and hirakagi content, which is exactly what I got, so I'm pretty happy!

I liked the background look into scenes that had only been implied on the manga/anime, and the bonus content we got for Kuresawa and Tashiro.

[Stacie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So cute!!! I loved the different POV chapters and the extra insight to what we’ve already seen in the manga and anime ❤️

[Kay]

not gonna rate this one, it was p cute tho, i was hoping id finish it in one day but hey, moving out of the country is fuckin exhausting

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

SO CUTE!

This is a collection of stories following the Sasaki to Miyano boys. You get to see different perspectives of familiar situations and it also gives more detail of things that were mentioned in passing specifically the fight that got Sasaki and Miyano together.

1. Kuresawa & his girlfriend - shows them meeting and the argument that they had that caused Kuresawa to get snappy at someone, which caused the fight. I'm pretty sure this is the longest chapter. While not my favorite of all the stories, I did like learning more about Kuresawa and his girlfriend.

2. Kuresawa & Miyano - Miyano's perspective of the fight and how he and Kuresawa became friends. Originally I was confused why Miyano said "a student" is getting beat up when he was reporting the fight because he and Kuresawa were friends, but they didn't become friends until after the fight, which makes sense.

3. Hirano & Miyano - This one's my favorite!! It's about how they became the friends they are now. It was so cute!! I love the way Hirano just listens to Miyano even though he doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. He said, if you have something to say just say it and I'll listen. I love them!!!

4. Tashiro & the Captain - This one was my least favorite, mostly because I was confused. But this is about Tashiro trying to quit the table tennis team, but he has to beat the captain if he wants to quit so he ditches practice to go to a bathhouse to play some older men who were some sort of tennis champions. There's some Hanzawa in this too since he's on the table tennis team. The captain before Hanzawa is cute, but he graduates in this light novel so I doubt he'll show up in the main series.

5. Sasaki & Miyano - this is Sasaki's perspective of their little bookstore trip and it's so cute. I love seeing more of Sasaki's thoughts and feelings towards Miyano.

6. Hirano & Kagiura - heehee Kagiura brings up how embarrassing the nickname is, but that it feels special because Hirano is the only one that calls him that. Also the pocky game!! What is up with all these boys and the pocky game.

7. Tashiro's Worry - Tashiro's perspective of why he asks Miyano if he and Sasaki are dating. This was cute because he was mainly worried that Miyano was getting bullied, but then he's like no? What if they're dating?

8. Sasaki - Loveddd seeing this perspective of Sasaki! He just seemed so different, but not in he's not the same person kind of way, but he clearly shows a different side of himself to Miyano. This was a reallyyy short chapter, but basically Sasaki isn't sure about his purpose in life and wishes he had motivations and passions, but he doesn't. It also features his calico hair.

9. Sasaki & Hirano - This follows the two in their first year and how they became friends. :)

I loved that it was mostly moments from the main series just further explained. The continuity was just so sexy. Plus I love that I got to experience different sides of all these characters. Especially Sasaki. I feel like you get more of a feel of his personality. This was great.

[Kenza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seeing the story through the other characters perspective made me really love and appreciate our boys even more (hirano is so precious and must be protected at all cost)

[I’m in your walls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute silly romance 👍

[Darda Appiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I read the manga online and this is just a me personally thing, but I cannot, for the life of me remember Japanese names, is it the first name I should use the last name I do not know, and I cannot differentiate between the character of the series, all I remembered was ok this guy has a girlfriend, that one likes mango, and proceeded to remember the main pairings names but absolutely flapjack on anyone else, if you ask me who the one with orange-ish hair is *Sasaki* right off the bat, the one who everyone keeps commenting is feminine when all the characters in this series kinda look like the belong to the opposite sex? *Miyano. But everyone else pulled me a blank. This book really helped me like realize and know between the other characters. At the beginning of each chapter they go, "I am blah blah b balfhfahfahlf" and it really hit with me because I knew whose pov I was in.

We got like extra details that tweren't really in the manga or cleared up like, How did kuresawa meet his girlfriend? Why does he love her so goddam much? And the side characters got some screentime, we got more depth with the entire kuresawa getting his goofy aah beat in school, how Miyano felt about not being able to help at all, Hirano and that one ping pong guys arc it was all just chefs kiss my guy. IF you like the manga then this is for you, but I wouldn't really recommend it otherwise, it kinda just pops off into random chapters and if you haven't read up to a certain point then womp womp you might knda get a lil' bit lost.

[Trolldemodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sasaki and Miyano First-Years is set in the manga/anime verse of the same name and follows the titular characters through the first years pre the anime.

Of the three light novels in this universe this was my favourite. I loved learning about how each character got to know the others as well as how they ended up in the teams and clubs that they joined! I would say my least fav part was the lack of Sasaki and Miyano! Every chapter was its own short story looking at a different relationship and with only one of them being of the pair the rest were voiced by other characters. So while I was hoping for some deeper insight into the two, we didn’t really get it! But what we did get was sweet, Kuresawa and his girlfriends was great! And the in depth look at how the coming together of characters happened and what their dynamics were sparked a lot of joy!

Overall gave this a 4/5! It got a few happy sighs and more than a few giggles out of me which is important for my fluffy books! It had a bit more of a character introduction then Hirano and Kagiura so made it a bit more new reader friendly, however still heavily aimed at those who have absorbed the rest of the universe content and are seeking more!

[Riana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kotoko Hachijo did such an amazing job novelizing all these scenes. It was nice getting first person point of views for the different side characters, so we were able to find out a lot more about their personal lives, struggles, and thoughts which we don't see in the manga. I feel like I understand Kuresawa and Tashiro as characters a lot better than before, and it was cool to see certain scenes and stories that were in the manga, but received added detail in this novel. It was also neat to see how perceptive Tashiro is in terms of Sasaki and Miyano's relationship, and we even find out that Tashiro witnessed a manga scene that proved what Tashiro believed about Sasaki's feelings, which was a neat and fitting revelation. We even learn more about Sasaki, who was dipping into a negative state during the start of high school, but after meeting Miyano, he starts to make a promise to himself that he wouldn't see everything as a pain anymore. The new illustrations that come with this novel are cute too, and overall this book is a great supplement that adds to what we know from the first two volumes of the manga series.

[Captain Comic Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full transparency, I have never seen this anime or read this manga. Please consider that while reading my review. I wouldn’t go so far as to call this book bad, more that it's just boring. I normally love slice of life books or soft stories, but I guess there is such a thing as too soft. The book is made up of several short stories following the characters in this anime and while they're well written enough (one of them even has a few lines that I specifically took a picture of so I can remember it later), none of them are long enough for me to care about the characters for any real reason. None of them are really thought provoking and if I'm being honest, none of them even make me want to read/watch the source material. The characters seem pretty generic and the plot seems underwhelming. I don't regret reading it, but given the choice, I don't think I'll seek out this series specifically.

[fer bañuelos · Rating 4 out of 5]

ES QUE AMO MUCHO A ESTOS PERSONAJES.

No hay mucho que decir. Soy fan fan fan.

Sí, este libro no es más que info extra de la serie, ¿pero necesito más? No. Sasaki y Miyano han sido de mis cosas favoritas del año. De los casi 60 libros que he leído este año ninguno se ha acercado a lo que esta serie le hace a mi corazón.

Que bonito es el amor adolescente, que bonito es cuando alguien le dice a otro OYE TE QUIERO y no le importa lo que los demás piensen, y que bonito es poder ver juventudes queer experimentar historias de amor de ensueño porque las merecen.

Bye, me regreso a llorar.

[Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book just gave me all of the good vibes. I really loved getting to hear from everybody's POV and also seeing more of their interpersonal relationships. All of the stories in this book were just so fun and relaxing to read about. I would highly recommend it to anybody who wanted to see a bit more about the characters of the Sasaki and Miyano universe or anybody who just wants a light and relaxing read because this book was just so much fun.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a light novel with more details than the manga. However. I suggest you read it after finishing the manga series, which lays out the full storyline. It made more sense that way to give better context and fill in the gaps. This novel was more like an overview to introduce all the main characters.

[the restless bookflea · Rating 5 out of 5]

All this time I sufficed that the anime, the fan-made videos, and fanart brought the best of this, Sasaki and Miyano: First Years made me love the work even more!

This short novel introduces more lovely story strings of the main characters and their adorable quirks that you end loving the entire friendship too much.

Heart-crushingly good!

[Rachel Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg. I am so happy I finally bought this book. I originally thought it was a light novel detailing the manga. It wasn't until I bought it that I realized it was ADDITIONAL STORIES that were not in the manga! Needless to say, I finished it in a day.

[kait · Rating 4 out of 5]

so cute short read <3

[DaLynn Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of cute stories involving a bunch of characters. While I wished it was just Sasaki and Miyano it was nice to see stories about other characters.

[Bea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This light novel basically fills in characters a bit more and has a strong 'behind the scenes' vibe.

[Eliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Explains a lot! Probably would recommend reading this after book 2 of Sasaki to miyano!

[Emily Pedigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's so much fun getting a behind the scenes look at how characters felt and interacted between the scenes of the manga!

[Ashley Allgood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it. It was soooooo cute!

[Hstwdthllczy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm honestly just in love with the sasamiya world

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute glimpses before and during the main manga! I really enjoyed Kuresawa and his girlfriend story the best.

[Lesley Holtby · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I enjoyed the manga and I like the additional histories, POVs and stories this adds to the manga. Already have the second one ordered

[Kayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

I loved getting the story with Yuki and more backstory of Tashiro!

[Randy Teddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

background for the manga

This was a great read and gave insights into all the characters and background to the story line in the manga

[mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

It answered all my questions during the first chapters of it's manga and I began to love the series more than I thought I would.