Tsukushi has always cherished her deep friendship with Hinoka, never imagining it could evolve into anything more. But when a vivid dream leaves her heartbroken by Hinoka's romantic rejection, Tsukushi is forced to confront feelings she never knew she had. Was the dream a warning, a premonition—or a sign of something she's been blind to all along? As her mind spirals with questions and doubts, Tsukushi begins missing the subtle signs of Hinoka's own feelings. Caught in a whirlwind of confusion, Tsukushi must decide: Is this the beginning of something beautiful—or the end of everything she thought she knew?

A Yuri Love Story That Begins with Getting Dumped in a Dream has story and art by Hijiki. English translation is done by Faye Cozy and lettering by Roland Amago. Published by Seven Seas Entertainment (January 13, 2026). Rated T.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Not two days prior to writing this I read creator Hijiki's BL omegaverse series Hate Me, but Let Me Stay and really enjoyed it, so I was thrilled to realize that A Yuri Love Story That Begins with Getting Dumped in a Dream was by the same person. And while it so far lacks the poignancy of that other work (and to be fair, that's completely intentional), it's still an absolute delight to watch Tsukushi and Hinoka stumble their way towards love.

The book opens with the title incident: Tsukushi has a dream that she confessed to her best friend Hinoka and was soundly rejected. Not only is this upsetting for that reason, but it's also baffling, because up until this moment, Tsukushi was also unaware of her own feelings. But now that she's figured them out (more or less), it's all that she can think about. She's painfully aware of Hinoka's body and has almost no clue why she's suddenly so overcome with yearning…and also terrified that her dream will come true and Hinoka will reject her if she so much as breathes a word of her love.

This is really just another demonstration of Tsukushi's obliviousness, though, because pretty much everyone else can see that Hinoka loves her right back. In fact, two of their classmates, themselves a couple, are about ready to throttle the pair if they don't figure it out soon, because watching them dance around each other is either painful, annoying, or both. Fortunately, that's not a sentiment that carries over to the reader, and Hijiki's deft hand with the comedic elements of the story keeps it from feeling frustrating. It also helps that they've got a good grasp of the awkwardness of adolescent love. Tsukushi knows (or rather, learns) that she has to ask for Hinoka's consent to touch her, but then goes from trying to hold her hand to flat-out asking to touch her boobs and thigh. She's got no middle ground, and Hinoka, who clearly wouldn't mind if things went just a little slower, isn't sure how to respond, because she definitely wouldn't mind a bit of touching. They're trying to find a balance that works for them as they sort through other things like “confessing feelings” and “is it okay to go from best friends to girlfriends.”

Faye Cozy's translation does a good job of conveying this alongside Hijiki's lovely soft art, and Cozy hits just the right note between the girls sounding like teens without crossing into “hello, fellow kids” territory. It's a sweet, funny book, and it solidifies Hijiki as one of my favorite creators.

Erica Friedman
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A decade ago, I would have rolled my eyes at yet another schoolgirl romance, but things have changed…a lot. Now we have historical Chinese drama and some science fiction and horror, not enough action, fantasy, and isekai yuri. Still no damn sports yuri series, though! We have office romances, and sometimes it's just nice to watch two young women figure it all out. Especially when everyone around them is rooting them on. Tsukushi's the cute, energetic doofus-type, who is only starting to realize that her unconscious figured out what she felt before her conscious mind did, but now she's clueing in.

Of course, “clueing in” doesn't lead to immediate charm and suavity. Tsukushi, worried that she's pushing Hinoka, is awkward and clumsy and completely missing Hinoka's feelings for her. Classmates are cheering them on to their faces, hoping that they both get the same message. In the meantime, Tsukushi is passive-aggressively tromping all over Hinoka's boundaries. Yes, this entire manga is centered around a thing that if only they had the conversation, there'd probably be no plot at all. And yet, somehow, it's not appallingly dull.

I credit Hijiki's art and character building for giving us two kids who we're rooting for, rather than waiting impatiently for them to figure it out. It helps that the lesbian couple's classmate reads the gaydar immediately and supplies most of the humor in the situation.

If you're looking for something deeper than exactly what the title implies, this may not be for you. But it's okay sometimes to just like something for exactly what it is, a schoolgirl's yuri romance. A Yuri Love Story That Begins with Getting Dumped in a Dream isn't going to break any new ground, but it's handling itself cutely with a little service to appeal to those folks it appeals to.

Kevin Cormack
Rating:

As insubstantial and fleeting as a dream itself, this high school-set yuri manga's short first volume barely manages to get started before it's already over, with minimal progression in the central relationship. The wafer-thin premise is that schoolgirl Tsukushi has a dream where she asks her best friend Hinoka out, and is rejected. Her deeply felt reaction to this dream awakens a realization in Tsukushi that she harbors a bit more than merely platonic feelings of love towards Hinoka, and immediately becomes awkward around her.

The rest of the volume is taken up with Tsukushi stressing over tiny details in her interactions with Hinoka, as she completely fails to pick up on the quite blatant signals that perhaps Hinoka is just as much into her. It's a suitably cute, completely inoffensive story where essentially very little happens. The main characters stress about holding hands. They share some food, so there are “indirect kisses”. At a sleepover, they hold hands. Aww. It's like Baby's First Yuri. Now I'm not saying I want these two to suddenly start stripping off each other's clothes or anything, but if the story is going to progress at such a glacial pace, then a paltry 134-page volume like this (of which 30 are non-manga interstitial or title pages) is like rubbing salt into the wound.

There's very little that interests me within these pages that would entice me back to read a second, presumably equally unsatisfying volume. The art is functional but unremarkable. Like awakening from an ethereal, vague dream, the details of this story are likely to disappear entirely from my memory within moments after I stop thinking about it.