Amano is a genius who sits at the top of his class in sports and in grades without even trying. Because of him, the smart, hardworking girl Takahide always found herself in second place despite her best efforts. If only she could find a weakness in Amano somehow...! But when she kept glancing at Amano with that thought in mind, Amano misunderstood and thought that she liked him. So he suddenly confessed to her...? Can she beat him at "love"? A school love comedy between a genius boy and a bright girl!

I’ll Never Fall in Love With Amano! has art and story by Haruna Harumaki. English translation is done by Katie Kimura. Lettering by Vibrant Publishing Studio. Published by Tokyopop (October 28, 2025). Rated T.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

There's one specific issue that kept bothering me as I read this volume: Amano's dead-eyed stare. I'm sure that's not what it's supposed to be – as the book goes out of its way to demonstrate, Amano's awkward, not creepy or scary. But the decision to give him light eyes with no shine in them makes him look alarmingly off-putting, and it kept getting in the way of my enjoyment of the otherwise very silly story. Given that manga is a visual medium, that's an issue that merits me docking half a star from the score…especially since the rest of the art isn't great either.

That's not to suggest that this is poorly illustrated. Creator Haruna Harumaki mentions in the afterword that this is their first serialized work, and I think that the awkward angles, fish eyes, and disproportionate bodies are simply evidence of an artist still honing their craft. And it does get better as the book goes on; where in the first half of the book characters sometimes look like they're superimposed on the backgrounds rather than part of a scene, by the end they're more fully integrated. So this is an issue that's likely to improve, if not go away entirely as the series goes on.

And the story itself does merit reading more of to get to that artistic point. Although nothing new in the YA romcom space, it's a fun take on the genre. Hypercompetitive Takahide has always been the top of her class due to her hard work, so she's horrified and angry when Amano shows up out of nowhere and displaces her due to his natural genius rather than study skills. Furious, she looks for his weakness, only to realize that he's noticed her staring at him…and taken her explanation the completely wrong way. Now he and the class have the misconception that they're dating, but like Takahide, he's got no real clue what that means, taking his cues from the racy shoujo manga his big sister offers him. Thus do the two of them begin stumbling towards what they think might be love, but neither of them feels knowledgeable enough to say either way.

The plot is built on misconceptions upon miscommunications, and if it's not quite laugh-out-loud funny, it's still a blast. But it also has a lot of genuinely sweet moments, too, such as when Takahide faints after seeing the assembled crowd for their school festival play and Amano refuses to go onstage without her. His commitment to Takahide is touching, but her absolute panic at realizing that more people than expected came to see the play also adds a very good touch of realism. Given that that's the last chapter in the volume and is miles above the first chapter in terms of skill and storytelling, I think this series has a lot of potential. But the sooner Harumaki gets better at drawing eyes, the happier I'll be.

Kevin Cormack
Rating:

I’ll Never Fall in Love With Amano! reminds me of Kaguya-sama: Love is War, though without the madcap humor and extended cast of weirdos. The central relationship is between two top-class students, one of whom, Takehide, is a slightly neurotic, studious girl, while the other, Amano, is an over-achieving guy who never needs to expend effort in order to excel. Their path towards mutual love is strewn with self-inflicted traps, mainly due to Takehide's relentlessly competitive nature. She's incensed that she spends long hours studying in order to maintain only the second-top grades in the class, while Amano beats her every time, seemingly effortlessly.

She resolves to beat him when it comes to love, embarking on a weird sort-of relationship, where she tries to one-up him in all things romantic. Of course, nothing goes to plan, and while the plainly earnest Amano doesn't quite seem to grasp exactly how relationships work (I wonder if he's meant to be written somewhat neurodivergent) it's very clear he's extremely interested in Takehide. Takehide, however, is desperate to keep Amano at arms length, but can't keep herself from gradually falling for his slightly socially awkward charms.

While to begin with there are some potential alarm bells about consent in regards to Amano's pushiness towards Takehide, that's resolved pretty quickly once he understands about her reluctance to progress their relationship quickly, and he becomes very considerate and patient with her. It's a really sweet, gently amusing romcom featuring two adorkably awkward leads, neither of whom fully comprehend what they're getting into with one another. There are some really funny facial expressions, mostly from Takehide as her brain BSODs on an amusingly frequent basis. Surprisingly for this kind of manga, there's even solid progression in the central relationship, which gives me hope for future volumes not wasting readers' time with contrived delays, like many other romcom manga I could mention. There isn't a whole lot to distinguish I’ll Never Fall in Love With Amano! from other entries in the genre just yet, but based on this enjoyable first volume I'd be happy to read more.