Title: I Want Your Mother to Be With Me! Vol. 1
Author: Yutaka Tazawa
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 216
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance
Publication Date: May 27, 2025
The Story
Ryo Ishizuka has a crush on his co-worker, Yuzuki Tachibana. Her smile made him instantly fall in love with her; however, he held those feelings inside of him for six long months. The thing about Yuzuki is that she works a second job and is a single mother to a 5-year-old boy named Asahi. None of that matters to him, and one day, he musters up the courage to confess his feelings to her. Of course, he ends up getting shot down, and that puts him in a bit of a funk.
Little by little, Ryo learns about the type of life that Yuzuki leads, how she cares for her son, and how hard she works to make ends meet. Through it all, he feels guilty for having those selfish feelings without taking anything that she’s doing into consideration. While he is on the path to making amends, Asahi runs into his job one day because Yuzuki had to work overtime and couldn’t come to pick him up from school. There, Ryo gets to see Asahi first-hand.
Ryo doesn’t have it easy either. Working and studying for an accounting exam is taking its toll, too, and he tells Yuzuki that he has been having insomnia for the past three days. She discovers that he’s been nourishing himself with potato chips and offers to cook him a meal. There, Ryo and Asahi begin to bond a bit; however, the more Ryo begins to bond with Asahi, the more he begins to appreciate Yuzuki and everything that she does. Could this mean he has a chance, after all?
Characters
First, we have Ryo. He’s young, he’s naïve, and he got into an argument with his father over life responsibilities… namely, not having a job. His father kicked him out to teach him about how the real world works, which caused him to get a part-time job at ECOECO RECYCLE, a place that takes in old items and resells them. Working and studying put a strain on him, but his determination to prove to his father that he can be responsible and win his petty argument causes more harm than good. In a way, he’s very similar to Yuzuki, whom I will touch on in a bit here. Being as young as he is, it’s easy to see Ryo think this way. He’s rebellious, wants to believe that he’s in the right, but at the same time, he’s making an effort to be a responsible young adult. Although admirable, he is naïve to the fact that he can’t truly handle everything on his own, but his stubbornness won’t allow him to ask for help… a typical kid’s way of thinking! He does grow and develop over the volume, but that’s all thanks to our next main character.
Yuzuki is a single mother, but like Ryo, she doesn’t want to admit that she needs help. Working two jobs and being a single mother is tough, especially when there isn’t anyone there to help her because her husband passed away shortly after Asahi was born. She learned to take on everything by herself and feels that asking for help, or even admitting that she needs help, is a sign of weakness, and the last thing that she wants is to look weak in front of Asahi. Throughout the volume, both Ryo and Yuzuki realize that they need to ask for help and that it’s okay to do so. They learn this by observing and interacting with one another; however, the way they interact is uniquely different. Ryo acts more like an adult than a kid, while Yuzuki acts more like a mother towards Ryo than a co-worker/friend.
Then, we have Asahi. You want to scold him from time to time for being so demanding, but you also have to remember that he’s just five. To him, the world is a magical place filled with bugs for him to collect. He doesn’t fully grasp the way the world really works, why his mom needs to work, and why she can’t always be there to pick him up from school, but at the same time, he is aware that she works. At some points, he seems like he’s mature enough to at least be aware of what’s happening around him, but at other points, he’s still a typical 5-year-old boy. He has his cute moments, then he has his ugly moments… just like any child. Although just being a typical child ends up teaching Ryo some valuable lessons, in that sense, he might as well be a sage of wisdom!
Final Thoughts
This was a great first volume! I will admit, with the way it started, I thought that Yuzuki and Ryo would have gotten together, and we would be thrown into a romantic comedy about a mother having a younger boyfriend and treating him like she treats her actual son. Then, the series took a hard left, and what we were given was a cornucopia of life lessons in manga form wrapped around two characters, one who is going through a maturation process, and the other who proves that even though you are a mature adult, it’s okay to ask for help.
What I liked the most was Ryo’s maturation. He realized that his feelings of love were genuine, but misplaced in the order of importance. He never tried to fully understand Yuzuki, but when he peers into her life and slowly becomes a part of it, that love is still there, but it is also being paired up with empathy and respect. He’s beginning to understand the true meaning of love and what kind of dedication is required to be in a relationship, especially with a woman who has a child, and is used to not accepting help and doing everything on her own.
Slowly, they are breaking through each other’s barriers and growing together, proving that as a child, you still have much to learn, and as an adult, you don’t always have all of the answers. Thankfully, I do have all of the answers when it comes to whether or not I enjoyed this series. I certainly did enjoy it, and I’m looking forward to reading the second volume!
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This item was provided for review by One Peace Books
