Title: The Babe at My Back Has Her Eye on Me. I’m Done For Vol. 1
Author: Koharu Michinoku (Original Story), Maromi Saya (Art), Higure Hizuki (Characters)
Publisher: Seven Seas Entertainment
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 170
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance, Comedy
Publication Date: June 9, 2026
The Story
Sandai Fujiwara is just a lonely otaku who prefers a quiet, peaceful life. On the way home from school, he notices a popular girl who sits behind him in his class, Shino Yuizaki, stuck in a ditch with her clothes ruined. Since she lives an hour away and needs to be at work in 90 minutes, he lets her use his shower to get cleaned up. Once she’s done, he harshly throws her out, thinking that, with the event over, he can return to his normal, quiet life.
How wrong he was.
As a thank you, she gives him her contact information, but he throws it away. This leads to day after day of her poking him in the back at class, hoping that he would turn around and pay attention to her. When he finally caves, he thinks he’s ended things and can return to his normal, quiet life.
How wrong he was again.
A typhoon hits the area, and since Yuizaki was on her way home from work, the first place she thought of was his apartment, so she stops by and spends the night. The next morning, she cooks him breakfast as a thank you, then walks together to school with him. There are already rumors going around because she’s spending so much time with him lately that seeing them together doesn’t help matters. What’s even worse is that Fujiwara gets roped into helping his homeroom teacher with a task, and she’s practically playing cupid with him!
Then, he finally adds her contact info and ends up getting roped into helping her practice baking on a Sunday. When she arrives, she brings her little sister Miki with her, who acts shy and sweet, but she’s anything but! She’s the devil herself, and her primary goal is to talk Yuizaki into kissing Fujiwara and being assertive with her feelings! Will her plan work!?
Characters
Fujiwara is a bit of a different type of loner. Most otaku are portrayed as shy, nervous, or socially anxious, but he’s different. While he prefers to live alone and be left alone, he still has a kind heart and will help someone in need. Even though he’s not against helping others, he will turn a bit cold and pushy if it means protecting the lonely life that he has. We see this early on when he feels his good deed was enough, and he tries hard to return to his normal life. Slowly, though, he opens up a bit more and begins to help Yuizaki out. As he does, he never expects a single thing in return, and it’s this nonchalant attitude that causes her to develop feelings for him. He is the epitome of making a girl fall in love with him for doing, quite literally, nothing. (Well, I should say he’s not TRYING to do anything to make her fall for him.) That’s an approach I haven’t seen yet in this growing genre, so it was a bit of a refreshing take on the otaku male lead archetype.
As for Yuizaki, I don’t know how I feel about her because I think the fact that she fell in love this quickly is a bit unnatural. Then again, there were some hints that something might have happened to her in the past, so the reasons for her falling for him so quickly aren’t justified just yet. To me, she came off as a bit desperate… like she felt time was running out, so she attached herself to the first person who was actually nice to her without an ulterior motive. She said a few things throughout the first volume that would lend a bit of credibility to this theory, too. She was also described as very reserved and put off by men, yet she instantly dropped all of her walls around Fujiwara. They’ve built up the eventual reveal of her backstory, so I hope it’s something unique and pays off!
Miki is a little rapscallion, isn’t she? She’s cunning and devilish, but the fact that she was pushing VERY hard for Yuizaki to fall in love with Fujiwara tells me that she knows something about her big sister’s past, and that ties into the mystery of what happened to her. Despite being a brash little brat (who is surprisingly independent for someone her age), she means well, and you can tell that she genuinely cares for her sister. I will say… she was pretty fun to read, though. I might just start nicknaming her Little Devil.
Final Thoughts
This was a very solid first volume, and while I won’t spoil the ending to it, it seems that this manga isn’t going to waste any time. I like how the ending was approached, though. It wasn’t instant. There was conflict. There was reflection. There was a natural reaction based on people’s lifestyles. I thought that was a nice touch, but it seems as if there is a group of girls who aren’t liking what’s happening, which makes you wonder what they are up to.
This isn’t just an open-and-shut premise. There’s going to be some more depth to it here, and that’s the intriguing part. I also love the dynamic between two completely polar opposite characters. Even though they are polar opposites, I can tell that there might be some facets to Yuizaki that suggest that, at one point, she may not be as opposite as Fujiwara thinks she is. Add in the fact that there was a scene that tore down the gyaru stereotype, and that lends even more evidence to that theory.
There is a growing number of series these days about the lonely otaku lucking into becoming friends or something more with the popular girl in class. This is the fourth series that I am reading and reviewing that uses this premise, and two of them just wrapped up the first season of their respective anime adaptations. So, when you get a flood of a particular premise, you need to do things to stand out, and I feel this series did enough of that to make itself feel different. Plus, this seems to be a one-on-one love story, and not a love triangle, so there’s that positive aspect to it as well.
Either way, this was some good stuff, and I’m looking forward to more from this series!
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