Even though I am a self-described (and other-described) Book Person, I try very hard not to get too caught up in the idea that the originating novel or manga is always going to be better than the TV adaptation. But sometimes it turns out to be true, and this is one of those cases. Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You does work better in manga form. There are a few reasons for this. One is simply that the art looks better in Haruka Mitsui's original; the proportions are consistently off in the anime, particularly when it comes to things like “arm length.” The other major issue is that the balance of the past and future functions better in book form, where it feels more like glimpses of where everyone ended up (or is now) instead of a terrifying inevitability reliant on tragedy. All of this is to say that if you're an anxious person or were burned by Orange, a book where you can easily flip ahead to double-check where events are going is much more reassuring.

Not that this is an inherently tragic story, much as elements of it try to brand it as such. The “past” segments take place in 2020, which you may recall as being the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mizuho and her four best (guy) friends are all seventeen, in their second year of high school, and they're not prepared for the way the so-called “new disease” (the show never uses the name “COVID,” which frankly feels disingenuous) will upend their lives. For Mizuho and Kizuki in particular, COVID cancels the school sports that they were hanging their crushes on. With no competitions, both of them lose their made-up goalposts for confessing, and that fast-forwards the change in their relationship, because while Mizuho likes a third year, Kizuki is in love with her.

Given the closeness of their core friend group, Kizuki's feelings always risked upending relationships. At least one of the other boys, Shin, is also in love with Mizuho, while a third, Airu, adds a different angle to the love geometry. The only one who appears well and truly out of it is Syugo, who has his own romantic issues. Most of the past revolves around Kizuki's attempts to woo Mizuho while she struggles with this drastic (to her) change in their dynamic. There's a well-done sense that she's willing to try to like Kizuki if it will keep them all together, but also that she's not ready for a real romantic relationship. She's trying to kick off a manga career, and one of the “encouragements” her editor consistently gives her is to focus more on the sparkling aspects of her adolescence.

As I'm sure some of you recall, “sparkly” isn't a term that best describes the reality of middle and high school. But for adults who don't remember their own experiences with the harsh light of reality often play those days up as being “the best” of their (or your) lives. Probably the most thematically interesting element of this first season (a second has been announced as of this writing) is the way that Mizuho makes the same wrongheaded assumption once she's an adult, too. When we see her grown up life, she's a manga editor (which in itself speaks to a dream either deferred or unfulfilled), and in episode two she gives the same advice to a young manga creator as she was given by her editor. The flashbacks, therefore, are framed as Mizuho trying to recall her adolescence in a rosy light – and only partially succeeding. Because while some aspects were wonderful, others were decidedly not, and it feels like adult Mizuho is trying to reconcile that.

I mentioned Orange earlier, and anxious viewers, and that is an angle that the show feels like it's deliberately trying to play up. (It's present in the manga, too, but not, I feel, as pronounced.) COVID aside, we also know that Kizuki has asthma, and everything, from who we see in the future to the way Mizuho acts, is designed to manipulate us into being worried about his survival. And it does feel manipulative, as if it's being artificially manufactured to increase viewer engagement, but it's done in such a way as to make it feel off-puttingly obvious. And this is all without considering that Kizuki's behavior itself can make him somewhat more obnoxious to viewers than it's intended to be. The boy needs to learn to keep his hands to himself.

Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You isn't a bad story. In anime form, it's simply a story that's presented poorly. Between the washed-out colors, anatomical issues, and directional choices, it's just not as good as the source material. The English dub doesn't help, as there's something just a little off about the way lines are delivered, but the original Japanese track is fine. It is a story worth experiencing – just maybe pick up the books instead.