My Love Mix-Up! Vol 1 Review

Written by Wataru Hinekure and with art by Aruko, My Love Mix-Up! is a cute boys love manga about a series of mistakes that might just lead two classmates into an unlikely love story.

Synopsis:

Aoki has fallen for his shy and sweet classmate, Hashimoto. When she kindly lends him her eraser during class, he’s crest-fallen to discover that she’s written the name of another boy on the eraser. It seems that Hashimoto likes Ida, a manly and good-looking boy who also happens to be in their class. Then things get even more complicated when Aoki accidently drops the eraser and Ida sees what’s written on it when he goes to pick it up for him. Now Ida is under the impression that Aoki is the one who likes him, and there’s no way for Aoki to clear up the misunderstanding without embarrassing Hashimoto! The only thing Aoki can think to do is to allow Ida to believe that he has a thing for him, let the other boy reject him and then hope that’s the end of it. But what’s he going to do when Ida decides to give his feeling serious consideration before giving him an answer?!

Review:

Ah, a classic love triangle. Or is it!

At the start of the story, it seems like none of the three main players in the titular love mix-up likes the person who has feelings for them, creating a perfect triangle of unrequited love. It doesn’t stay that way for long, however, as Aoki’s feelings soon start to shift.

Ida is serious and considerate, always stepping in to offer assistance when he can and showing compassion for Aoki (though he doesn’t realize the truth behind why he’s so distressed). He’s the kind of sincere guy that’s easy to fall for, and it isn’t long before Aoki finds himself getting swept off his feet for real. Poor Aoki goes from stressing over the misunderstanding that he’s forced by chivalrous feelings to perpetuate, to freaking out when he realizes that he’s now swooning for real over how cool Ida is. Ida seems like he might be a little interested in Aoki, as well. He gets to see a lot of different sides of Aoki over the course of this volume, including how he has a sensitive side and often puts others first. Seems like we won’t have to wait too long for these two to get together!

Aoki’s reactions throughout all of this are hilarious! He’s extremely expressive and his emotions are always on full display, making it a lot of fun to watch him struggle to figure out what to do. Being a genuinely caring guy, Aoki puts his own feelings aside and tries to help Hashimoto get closer to Ida, which ends up being another source of comedy, as his somewhat buffoonish friend Aida keeps accidently messing up his plans. This gave the book a good mix of humor and romantic angst, and I got quite a few good laughs out of Aoki’s extreme faces.

But what about Hashimoto, you may be asking? No need to worry, Hashimoto proves herself to be as kind as the other characters and she continues to be friendly to Aoki, even when she starts to believe that he could be her rival-in-love. Despite how well things are going between Aoki and Ida, the story gives us reason to believe that everything will probably work out okay for Hashimoto, meaning we shouldn’t have to worry about any petty drama or nastiness between the characters. It’s nice to read a story where all the characters are so thoughtful and considerate of each other and I hope all of them will wind up happy at the end of the series.

My Love Mix-Up is one of those manga that will give you a warm-fuzzy feeling, while also making you chuckle at all of the youthful antics and silly misunderstandings. There was even a final twist at the end of this volume that both caught me by surprise and made me laugh out loud. This boys love comedy-of-errors is off to a strong start and I’m looking forward to reading more.

Final Score: 8.5 out of 10

For more information on this manga, visit Viz Media’s website.

What did you think of this manga? Let me know in the comments.

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Be sure to check out some of my other recent Boys Love manga reviews:

• Manga Mini Reviews: BL Edition
• Life of Melody Review
• Bad Boys, Happy Home Vol 1 Review
• Like Two Peas in a Pod Review
• Dick Fight Island Vol 1 Review

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