A cute and funny read, My Love Mix-Up Vol. 1 is a hilarious start to the brand new series. Although it has some imperfections, fans of shojo, yaoi, comedy, and everything in between will still enjoy this adorable volume.
My Love Mix-Up Vol. 1 is drawn by experienced artist Aruko, best known for My Love Story!!. However, this series is the writing debut of author Wataru Hinekure. The story follows Sota Aoki as he becomes entangled in a love triangle. Because of a borrowed eraser from Aoki’s crush, Mio Hashimoto, classmate Kosuke Ida instead thinks Aoki has a crush on him. Misunderstandings begin to pile up, but feelings blossom amid the chaos.
With a pretty entertaining storyline, this series is an easy win in the comedy genre. Funny moments abound in the volume, from hilarious personalities to awkward scenes. I often found myself laughing or groaning out loud! But the comedy is still on par with a sweet romance, albeit one with a lot of confusion and mixups.
The romance does feel a bit rushed, however. Aoki and Ida don’t know each other very well, and yet somehow by the end of the first volume, we’re already pretty far into the development of feelings. The story doesn’t seem to have time to create the reason behind these feelings, and the fast pace makes Aoki’s emotions seem ingenuine and shallow.
Because the romantic moments are still in the very beginning stages – even before that, really – they’re awkward and sudden. This really shows how oblivious Aoki and Ida were to each other before. But still, their matchup is sweet, blending well with their complete opposite personalities.
The artwork complements these personalities as well, subtly helping with character development. Ida is always well-drawn, with handsome lines and soft eyes. Meanwhile, Aoki has many, many different versions, from his glistening ‘in love’ face to an ugly and scrunchy grumpy face.
I honestly was initially put off by these multiple versions, finding Aoki’s personality to be too… all over the place. He is often drawn in a much different light when the writing shows his inner thoughts. The art becomes simpler and less appealing, usually using dark lines to enhance the dark mood. His scrunchy faces were unpleasant to me, and I found the contrast of the other delicate drawings to these scenes to be a little disturbing.
While I got more used to it as I read and found the value in it for enhancing Aoki’s personality, I do feel it takes away from the artwork as a whole. Though it might not have the same effect, I think maybe reducing the number of times that artwork style appears. Or, perhaps even trying to make Aoki more level-headed would have been better for the volume. It felt a little chaotic with so many strong personality scenes, and Aoki comes off pretty flaky and unstable.
While Aoki’s personality impression might be accurate, or maybe just a result of the chaos, it’s unfortunately difficult to tell because of the lack of character development. Each of the four distinguished characters does have its own personality development on some level. However, readers are only able to really gather that in little bits over time. My Love Mix-Up Vol. 1 also has no background on any of them whatsoever. There is no family life, no other friends, and not too much of an idea of the real relationships between them all. It’s hard to realize this while reading the volume initially, but it becomes apparent during certain conversations.
Despite the storyline’s struggle, My Love Mix-Up Vol. 1 is still an enjoyable read. It has many adorable moments that make the characters endearing, and the laughs are never hard to find. I look forward to seeing what development volume 2 brings, along with potential improvements.
