Title: Love Me, Love Me Not Vol. 5
Author: Io Sakisaka
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Physical
Pages: 184
Genre: Slice of Life, Romance
Publication Date: November 3, 2020
The Story
Things are starting to heat up in Love Me, Love Me Not Vol. 5. The majority of the manga takes place at a typical festival. Akari, Inui, Yuna, and Rio all go together with Agatsuma tagging along after a bit of an awkward moment where Yuna was waiting for Rio to stop talking to another girl to ask him and Agatsuma just happened to stumble upon her. At the festival, it’s your typical fair of wondering if people like each other. Mix in a few games and your classic ‘getting lost in a crowd’ scenario and it sets the spark for Inui to go searching for Akari.
Akari ended up getting a stain on her yukata from some Takoyaki that she was eating. Inui finds her shows great concern for her. It gives Akari the wrong impression and she ends up confessing her feelings for Inui right then and there… only to be rejected! Heartbroken, Akari leaves the festival and heads back home, citing her stain as an excuse to leave.
Meanwhile, we see Rio and Yun struggle with their feelings for one another. Rio’s hesitation could be his downfall as it appears that Agatsuma is developing feelings for her and makes it pretty clear that if Yuna confessed her feelings to him, he wouldn’t mind it one bit. Of course, on Inui’s side, he’s struggling with his own feelings for Akari all over a huge misunderstanding. There’s a lot of turmoil going on within both camps that could all be solved with a simple conversation but nobody even knows what each other is thinking so it’s a conversation that’s impossible to have.
The volume does end on a note that looks to even further enhance that misunderstanding to an entirely new level!
Characters
Lots of development here between our four main characters! I felt that all four of them got equal time to develop which is a pretty rare thing in manga these days. Usually, a volume will focus on one or two characters and then shift over to the others in a future volume. It’s good to see Sakisaka-san giving all of her characters equal support within the confines of a single volume!
We start out with Akari and Inui as Akari realizes her feelings for him. When she confesses, Inui turns her down, breaking her heart. This is all due to the fact that Inui is still under the impression that Rio is in love with Akari. Every time Rio talks about a girl he likes in this volume, Inui assumes that the girl is Akari. If only he knew it was Yuna instead, we could have had our first shipped couple already because Inui does have feelings for Akari that he is trying to quell for Rio’s sake! It’s going to be interesting to see Inui’s reaction when he realizes that Yuna is the girl Rio likes!
As for Rio, his big obstacle is Agastuma. He’s nice and innocent enough but he’s not really forcing his was into Yuna’s life like Kikuchi did in Sakisaka-san’s other series Ao Haru Ride. I always had mixed feelings about Kikuchi as things always seemed a bit off with him. He seemed nice enough but there was this forceful, jealous, and possibly over-protective side to him that was just offputting. I’m not sensing any of that with Agastuma so he’s already a much better third wheel love triangle character…
There’s just one LITTLE problem here.
Rio isn’t Kou. Kou was all over the place and was someone that a girl should give up on immediately. With the way Kou acted, it made no sense for anyone to try and pursue a relationship with someone as cold and calloused as him. Rio isn’t like that… he’s someone who is very friendly to Yuna. He respects and admires her and doesn’t make it that much of a secret. However, whenever Agatsuma enters the picture, Rio can’t help but feel jealous. The only thing holding Rio back was the fact that Rio already turned Yuna down at the beginning of the series. Rio knew that was a mistake but that awkwardness of trying again is the only thing holding him back. Now, with Agatsuma in the picture, he’s seeing the seconds slip away and it starting to panic just a little bit… although… in reality, Yuna likes him still so there’s all this pressure… all of this overthinking happening and as a great singer once said… overthinking, overanalyzing separates the body from the mind and that’s what’s happening here with Rio.
Final Thoughts
I’m highly frustrated with this series but it’s in a good way. This is the intended emotion that Sakisaka-san was going for and it’s pulled off well! There are just so many small barriers stopping everyone from getting together and living happily ever after but everyone’s own way of thinking is getting in their way!
Why did Inui turn down Akari? What will happen when he discovers he was wrong all this time? Will he be too embarrassed to do anything about it?
What about Rio? Can’t you read that signs that Yuna likes you still? Don’t you know that it’s okay to ask her again? Agastuma is moving in and time is running out… just swallow your pride and do something before it’s too late! Also, at least say that Yuna is the girl you like to Inui so he can’t stop killing off his feelings for Akari!
Agastuma… you’re not doing anything wrong! You just continue being you but I can’t root for you here because Rio isn’t Kou and he’s 1,000x better in the personality and development department. Sorry to say, bud but you’re just a cannon fodder character at this point! Enjoy the third-rate cookies.
This is the kind of frustration I’m feeling but, as I said… it’s good because it’s keeping me invested in the story by waiting for those little moments to turn into huge revelations. Sakisaka-san does need to be careful as stringing people along with this kind of tension can be more damaging than anything. I have a feeling that we’ll get one more volume of this followed by either the revelations or the setup to them in Volume 7. Either way, it’s going to be a wild ride (as opposed to a blue spring ride) and I can’t wait to see where this all goes!
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media
