I always find it at least a little bit funny when a series portrays an incredibly capable person in a field that requires a lot of social interaction only for the twist to be that they actually have no social skills whatsoever. Maybe there are some people who can just always be in a sort of business mode, but when it comes to embracing more casual or fleeting forms of social interaction, that's when things get a bit harder. I will admit that it was a little bit difficult to immediately understand the premise of My Awkward Senpai. I think that stems from the fact that it is sometimes hard to portray the archetype that Kannawa is supposed to represent. She's incredibly hard-working and revered by many but she also doesn't have any friends and struggles just to say good morning. However, as we get to learn more about her, I do like the overall character set up that is done.

What starts as comedic social awkwardness soon becomes an example of someone who is a workaholic and plagued by a deep fear of emotional dependency. When you grow up not really being able to rely on anybody, it makes sense that you would develop a complex of needing to always do things on your own. This explains why Kannawa seems to always be in work mode and why she is able to excel at reprimanding others or presenting herself in a business sense but has no idea how to ask somebody out to lunch. Putting her in charge of somebody who is the exact opposite of her is an easy way to generate conflict and there was a lot of potential with this premise.

Kamegawa is insecure for different reasons as he's very likable and a bit of a social butterfly, but he is worried about making trouble for others because of his lack of experience. He admires Kannawa because of how hard-working and capable she is. In time, Kannawa ends up respecting Kamegawa because he's eventually able to draw out more interactions than she ever thought that she would be able to accomplish. The series is technically a romance, but honestly, the best parts about these chapters is this looming idea that adults don't have everything figured out. Everybody in this series is at least a little bit awkward, which I think is part of the joke. You expect adults, especially successful adults in the work field, to just have everything locked down, but it's clear that Kannawa and everyone at this office has something awkward going on in their lives. I really like that.

There's a lot of solid character building that goes on throughout the book like how Kamegawa starts overthinking a bit more as he gets more accustomed to his job and learns Kannawa's communication styles. Kannawa, on the other hand, tries juggling being a workaholic and trying to indulge in these little forms of social interaction, especially with Kamegawa. I think if the series was just about this then I would probably have liked it a lot more as we progress into the later chapters but this is still a romance, as it's made clear very early on in, and to the story's credit, it doesn't take an incredibly long time for the seeds of romance to start blossoming between the two. The problem is that the series really comes off like it doesn't know what it wants to do with the relationship between our two leads. The relationship reaches a certain emotional point and then doesn't advance beyond that for dozens upon dozens of chapters. Granted, there is a narrative reason for why that doesn't happen but by the time I reached the latest up-to-date chapter, I felt like a lot of what I read was the story just going in circles.

It just takes so long for there to be any real progress that feels emotionally satisfying to read and a lot of that does come down to Kannawa's character. While I understand why she is the way that she is, the series really drags out her emotional development and seems to swing back-and-forth with regards to what direction it wants to take her. One minute she seems on the verge of discovering how she wants more out of the life that she's led and then the next minute she ends up self sabotaging. That's a gag that starts from very early on the show, but as the emotional stakes get more involved, that running gags starts to drag on a little bit more and I start feeling bad for Kamegawa, who is a lot more forward and upfront about how he feels about everything because of his more versed emotional maturity. I think these two have good chemistry together and I want the relationship to blossom, but it doesn't feel like it's allowed to. In some ways, it almost feels like the series is a victim of overthinking the very characters who are also overthinking about each other. That can be fun in a narrative way if you choose to look at it that way, but it's not very satisfying from an entertaining or emotional one.

At least the story is very pretty to look at. Kannawa is a very well-designed female lead and there's so much detail crammed into every single chapter. I like the detail of how most of the manga is in black-and-white but almost every major character introduced gets to have a distinct eye color. It really draws your attention to all the characters' facial expressions, which have the right amount of subtlety and exaggeration. It almost feels mesmerizing flipping through each page with an incredibly simple layout. Having said that, I did notice quite a few instances of really strong panel frames utilized for the sake of comedic timing. I actually did find myself laughing quite a bit at some of the other jokes in the story, especially when it was a supporting cast member reacting to one of Kannaw's weird comments.

I feel like a lot of young adults could read the first couple dozen chapters of the story and actually find it pretty relatable. A lot of people get sucked into their work or feel like they need to do everything on their own so social skills are not going to be a strong suit. However, you're never too old to teach an old dog new tricks so if there is hope for Kannawa to eventually come out of her shell, then it can feel pretty empowering to read what is ultimately a lighthearted office romance story featuring a character like that. The problem is that the series wants to be a lighthearted office romance, but that last element ultimately ends up being one of the weakest parts of the story. I could recommend this for the characters and the setup, but I also wouldn't blame anybody if they lost interest after the first dozen chapters because it does become a bit of a slog after that. I managed to push through it, but I don't have a lot of confidence that other people will be able to do the same.