Otaku Momoka Kirino has devoted her life to her favorite characters — and Shuuto Kametani, the scary, snappish new boy in class, is just her type! When she catches a glimpse of his blushing face and learns his secret fear of embarrassment around girls, she falls head over heels into... stanning him with all her heart?

But a proper fan is dedicated to spreading their love for their favorites far and wide. As Momoka learns of the protective and gentle nature behind Shuuto's intimidating front, she finds herself worrying that she might want to keep him all to herself...

In So Deep, It’s Love Already has story and art by Reida Soragaki. English translation is done by Katie Kimura with lettering by Vibrant Publishing Studio. Published by Tokyopop (February 3, 2026). Rated T.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

When you read a lot, it becomes inevitable that new books will remind you of older ones. In the case of this series, it calls to mind And Yet, You Are So Sweet, a shoujo romance where a girl asks a boy if she can stalk him. In So Deep, It’s Love Already is also a shoujo romance where a girl asks a boy for something socially inappropriate, but to be perfectly honest, I prefer this version of the story. That's because it feels like Kirino has a bit more of a leg to stand on – after an incident not specified until late in the volume, she vowed that she wasn't going to subject herself to the humiliation of having a crush on someone ever again. Instead, she would devote herself to her anime oshi (sometimes translated as “stan”), someone who could literally never embarrass her the way a real live boy can. The only problem is that she can't ever actually interact with them (and no, she doesn't quite get it), so when Kametani transfers to her class and starts acting like her anime bad boy type, she's over the moon.

Except that Kametani isn't actually the Heero Yuy knockoff he at first seems to be. He's a deeply uncomfortable person where girls are concerned, and he'd really prefer not to interact with them. But Kirino manages to be different, mostly because she doesn't act like a normal human being. It's less a case of her being a quirky girl and more that she's weird but nonthreatening and clearly well-meaning. He might not get this whole “be my oshi” thing, but he enjoys that he doesn't have to interact with her in the proscribed ways of high schoolers. And because she's constantly taking him by surprise, he finds it easy to be honest and open with her.

This first volume is mostly about Kirino and Kametani becoming comfortable around each other and starting to (gasp) see each other as people. The story does a good job of showing that they're both coming from awkward places, and while Kirino is generally quite comfortable with her choices, Kametani isn't. Helping him work things through is the main plot of this volume, with Kirino only coming to uncomfortable realizations at book's end, which does a nice job of setting things up for volume two. It's an enjoyable combination of sweet and silly, and while it does play some of Kirino's less admirable traits for laughs, that's mostly because she hasn't figured out yet that what she's doing isn't great. I didn't love the book, but I definitely want to know what happens next, and I feel safe expecting it to turn into something even sweeter.