Arc was given by Kodansha & NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Content/Trigger Warnings: Mentions of a pandemic, astraphobia (fear of thunderstorms), trauma, loss of a parent, grief



Remember when I said I spend a lot of time in romance manga? Yeah, this is one of those times and I’m so excited for the next volume to come out! Look, look… I love a book who loves to kick the door in with a controversy! And this manga, this freaking manga, delivered with the goods, my friends. Truly, this manga gave me the burst of serotonin that I have been craving lately.

The year is 2030, Mizuha is celebrating another bad birthday when she suddenly remembers another bad birthday ten year prior to this one. Though being surrounded by all of her childhood friends at the time, this was probably one of her toughest birthday thus far. Not only has her crush turned her down and said some mean things to her, but no one of her childhood friends is trying to change their friend group by confessing his love to Mizuha. All of this causes a mixture of feelings with her along with trying to deal with celebrating yet another birthday without her mother.

Truly, the blessing that is this manga because it gives us all the fluff we could want. If you want fluffy goodness then you’re going to love this manga. The author really said give them all the sweetness. One of my favorite themes and tropes within books always has to do with childhood friends. I think my favorite part is how supportive they all are to one another. Always looking out for each other and doing little acts of kindness to help. Not only do we get childhood friendships, but the childhood friendships are built around a reverse harem theme. There’s also the childhood friend to lover trope slowly coming into play, as well. Though everything is such a slow burn and I think that’s the best part. The slow burn hooks you only to pull you into a love triangle. It gave me butterflies on how everything was going to play out.

Of course I have to talk about this single parent household theme. I think one of the most commonly, overlooked themes in books in the single parent household theme. Maybe I’m just a sucker for single parent households because I, myself, am from a single parent household. However, single father households, in my opinion, are so uncommon and deserve to be recognized. I believe with my whole chest that single father households deserve the spotlight because often times we see the single mother household, but rarely ever see the father side of things. The author really captured what it’s like to have that single parent household and even though they’re only glimpses, it warms my heart to see this theme in another manga I enjoyed.

I think my only issue with this manga was how short it was. Now look, I know some of us can read a manga like it’s no one’s business, but this just felt shorter to me. It felt like there could have been more details packed in or even an extra 40-50 pages into this manga. Normally, I spend about an hour reading a manga book, but I flew through this book in thirty minutes. It made being invested in the characters really hard especially when it came to the childhood friend group. It would have been nice to see more of that or get a feel for how everyone views Mizuha, not just her crush or the guy from her childhood friends.

Overall, I think this is a really light-hearted read despite the content warnings. As I already mentioned, I flew through this manga and I wish there were more pages because I have no doubt I would have been more in love with this book, enjoyed it even more. If you’re a manga reader or you’re looking for something that’s fluffy and sweet then I definitely recommend picking this manga book up!

Thank-you NetGalley and Kodansha for the chance to review this manga.

I am incredibly invested in this now!
That cliffhanger!

I won't say this is something completely new because I find it that often quality wins over originality.
Things have been done before and they will continue to be made.
This is a perfect example of that, this is a cute story that we as Shojo readers have seen in the past but it's the execution that really sold me on this.
Incorporating COVID in the writing was very clever because it helps us relate to out lead Mizuha.
You have a very big cast of characters and I'm excited to see more of them in volume 2.
But a definite standout is Kizuki! I absolutely loved him.
The art in this manga is stunning which isn't a surprise because Haruka Mitsui's work is always a joy to look at.

Disclaimer: I received this manga from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This manga was super cute with plenty of romance tropes. Love triangle, friends to lovers, sports romance, reverse harem? All of the above! The timeline covers 10 years of Mizuha's life with her four male friends and includes a pandemic in the 2020 timeline. The ending has a little cliffhanger that will draw readers to read volume 2.

I loooved the art style. It was really cute and probably my favorite part of the manga. The characters were very well drawn and easy to distinguish, which is difficult to pull off with 4 boys who are the same age wearing school boy uniforms.

The story itself was just lacking for me. It felt repetitive after a while with the "you don't see me as a man/I'll make her like me" thing. I wish the characters were expanded on a little bit more, and maybe that will happen in the second volume, but I would rather the overarching story be told more slowly with better development than to be rushed through and followed up on in later volumes.

I finished this, the art is fine…. I didn’t really take to this. The opening is strong, it’s 2030 and our main character flashes back to 2020 in her memories to understand what happened to her. There is a “virus” going around which is causing sports competitions at the school to be cancelled. I thought this would be good, thinking it was a reflection of our times with Covid and seeing how this would be incorporated in the story. Beyond the virus being used a plot device for sports activities to be cancelled there isn’t more to it. I’m not sure if this gets elaborated in the next volume but I don’t plan on reading it to find out.

While I don’t mind tropes in these types of stories I am so fed up with the “guy keeps going and going until girl is forced to fall in love” approach. There was a lot of potential here to make a familiar story interesting but my main takeaway from reading it is Mizuha’s friend overstepping boundaries until she goes ok then.

The setting is surprising. There's this relatable collective pain and you'll know what I'm talking about once you read it. This is not anything but cute only. There are also generous twinges of fanservice masquerading as sweet or nonchalant. And those meaningful glances in highschool mangas that I can't get enough of! Even though I originally thought it wasn't a full-blown reverse harem I really cared for them. And for a first volume, I have this overwhelming powerful feeling of caring for them. See more of full review on https://reverseharem.blogspot.com/2021/12/manga-review-anyway-im-falling-in-love.html

Super cute and fun. A genuine good time and refresher. I tend to drift to these when I need a break from the dense books I normally read and this one was exactly what I needed.

A cute story about a girl being in love with one of her best friends, its very dramatic. The characters are interesting. Hopefully the next books will expand the story more.

Mizuha is reflecting back on her teenage years as an adult serialized manga writer. She lives in a neighborhood where she connected with four boys and they have been lifelong friends. Mizuha draws manga and is really close to her boy friends in the neighborhood. She has a crush on a member of the swim team but he refuses her confession. She is devastated but comes home to a surprise birthday party thrown by her friends. She and one of the boys go to get the cake and on the way back he sneaks a kiss and says he wishes he was her boyfriend. The rest of the story is about how the pandemic affected their school life and how Mizuha is handling her friendship with the boys. The boy who confesses to her is just a little creepy about it but it may also be overfamiliarization due to their lifelong friendship. Either way it was a little cute but also a little basic. Nothing extraordinarily different but still interested since it ended in a semi-cliffhanger.

Thank you netgalley for the chance to review!
I thought this was adorable! Childhood friends to lovers. I would recommend to friends who like romance manga.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha for the arc.

I thought that it was okay. it's honestly quite basic and doesn't bring really anything new. I thought the art was stunning though and was something that grabbed my attention to even pick up the series. I also liked the mention of the pandemic which I wasn't expecting but thought was a nice touch. I think if the pacing was a bit slower and they built up things more I would have liked it more even if it is basic.

Only thing that bothered me slightly was how one of the childhood friends had a crush on the main character and would things about how he saw her as a woman but she doesn't see him as a man and stuff. Like it made me have the biggest mental eyerolls and I would have liked it if he kept his hands to himself honestly. Overall, I think if you are looking for a quick read and you live for shoujo romance moments then this might be for you. Main character also has a group of hot childhood friends so thats a big appeal too. Anyways, I'm Falling For you was mostly meh but lowkey that ending makes me wanna pick up volume 2. Because I am a sucker for shoujo and just because this was pretty mid for me it was also really inoffensive to me as well.

Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You. is quite good and I'm such a sucker for a friends-to-lovers setting. Mizuha is friends with these four boys since childhood and she's the oldest. It's her 17th birthday and one of the boys, Kizuki confesses to her. He's the baby of the group and Mizuha has hard time seeing him as anything other than that. It's obvious there's going to be a love triangle though, since it seems Shin is into her too. I do enjoy settings like this in a sense, but I wish more time was used to lay the groundwork. Already in this first book you get the big feelings, which eats credibility. I'd love to get to know the characters better and make them work for the love, haha. I hope there's no reverse harem though, we've seen too many of those...

The art looks nice, nothing too spectacular, but finally we have some backgrounds too! The characters all look different and the atmosphere is good too. Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You. is a nice romantic school series that makes your heart flutter even if it doesn't offer anything new. It's a good solid series.

Rating: 4.25 🌟
First and foremost, I'd like to express my gratitude to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me with an e-ARC of this manga.
From the start to the end, this manga was filled with fluff.🤍🥰
• Childhood friends to lover
• Slow burn romance
• Love triangle
• High school setting
• Supportive friends
• Sports romance
• Protective boyfriend

Definitely not your typical romance manga!

The author captured a piece of history that has impacted all of us and has created a wonderful manga out of it. The characters are likable and easy to relate to. Our heroine, Mizuho, is portrayed as being caring and creative. Her goal is to publish her own manga! This is the first time I’ve read about a female manga artist in a romance manga. Her crush unfortunately rejects her on her birthday, but childhood friend Kizuki steps up and confesses that his wish is to be her boyfriend. Suddenly she’s having a hard time seeing Kizuki the same as she did before.

It is really enjoyable being able to read a romance manga that presents a different approach to the romantic aspect. Being set in a time frame that everyone can relate to is also really incredible.

I highly recommend for usual lovers of romance manga or those just starting!

I received an e-galley of Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You by Haruka Mitsui from Kodansha via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'd really enjoyed Haruka Mitsui's I Fell in Love After School and was very excited about this new manga series. The art style and storyline is the typical high school romance manga that I really enjoy and I thought that the this first volume of a new series is one that pulled me in and I'm looking forward to seeing how this story is going to go. I really enjoyed the character of Mizuho and her friends. Definitely a lot of romance and drama happening or that has been hinted to happen between all these characters. I thought it was an interesting and quite relevant decision for Haruka Mitsui to write a manga set specially in 2020 during the pandemic and showing how that will affect the lives of these high schoolers.

It's okay.
Let's talk a bit about it's faults.
-sports, even swimming gives me the hives.
-one of the main guys is too aggressive romantically. It gives the wrong impression.
-while having this story take place during the pandemic gives it a sense of the present... what happens when the pandemic is long behind us?
I do think the art is super strong and there really isn't anything wrong with the story if you like high school love triangles.

I enjoyed the art style of this volume, and I find it really unique that it takes place during the beginnings of a pandemic. However, unfortunately that's the extent of my enjoyment. Our main character is close friends with a group of 4 boys, and honestly I found that two of them didn't add anything (which I'm sure will change in later volumes!). It seems like a love triangle is being set up, which isn't my favourite but is something I'd still be willing to give a try. My biggest problem however was our male love interest, and how pushy he was with our protagonist! A lot of the things he does to "confess" his feelings came off as a bit uncomfy, despite Mizuha clearly not reciprocating his feelings. I'm unsure how the rest of the story will progress, however I am willing to give another volume a try.

I really love the art style in this book, and the main character was soo cool. I would totally recommend this manga to my friends.

The pandemic (or at least a pandemic) has made its way into shoujo manga and with it comes a plot of childhood friends who live close to each other. They're in a a bubble, you could say. Feelings are being developed and confessions are made amidst a backdrop featuring sports meets and school trips (a milestone in Japanese kids' childhoods) being canceled. It's an interesting start to a reverse harem story, and at the end of the volume you start to wonder if the other boys are hiding something as well. If you want some fluff, I recommend this book.

While I really liked the art and the concept of childhood friends falling in love with each other, I was pretty annoyed by how pushy the male protagonist acted towards the main female character (insisting that she had to "see him as a man"). That spoiled an otherwise pretty cute story.

Awwwwwww 🥰🥰🥰🥰

The older I get the more I fall for the childhood friends to lovers trope. This volume was tooo short 😭😭😭 I really want to know what happens next — what will Mizuho do. And Kazuki to totally hawt 😍😍😍 (I mean they all are 😅).

Still unsure if I want to purchase this series as it comes out, but I look forward to the next volume.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to receive this e-arc for my honest review!