The Spring 2023 Manga Guide

I Didn't Mean to Fall in Love

What's It About? 

Yoshino knows, at the age of 30, that he wants to be with men, but he doesn't know how to find one. When he overhears some women at work talking about a gay bar, he realizes that for some people, it's just that easy. He thinks the flashy college student Rou is one of those people when Rou readily offers to have sex with him. But Yoshino finds himself falling for the charming young man, despite his best efforts. After all, it's not possible to find Mr. Right by sleeping with the first man who offers, is it?

I Didn't Mean to Fall in Love has story and art by Minta Suzumaru, with English translation by Phillip Reuben and lettering by Rina Mapa. Seven Seas Entertainment has released its first volume on March 14 both digitally and physically for $14.99.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

March was a good month for Minta Suzumaru: two different titles released by two different English-language publishers. For my money, I Didn't Mean to Fall in Love is the better of the two, because while SuBLime's release of Golden Sparkle is good, the Seven Seas offering is a little more believable, or at least easier to swallow. This story stars two adult men, one of whom is ready at age 30 to try to come out of the closet, and the other is a 21-year-old bisexual college student who thinks that love is an emotion for other people. They both think they're looking for something completely different, only to realize that what they truly want is exactly the same thing: a real, loving relationship.

As far as adorable romance plots go, it's a pretty good one, and Suzumaru does a nice job with it. The book is almost equally divided between their perspectives, but upon switching over to Rou, the college student, we realize that his version has been hiding in plain sight in the art of Yoshino's story. The trick is executed well, because it's really in hindsight that we can see what Rou was looking for all along, unbeknownst even to himself. Yoshino is much more open, at least with himself, about how lonely he is and how much he's looking for a boyfriend, even as he admits that he has exactly zero clue how to find one. The implication is that he's kept his sexuality so much to himself, and that he's introverted enough not to enjoy being social, that he just sort of figured that things would happen to him, like in the movie he saw in college that helped him to realize his homosexuality. It takes a lot for him to come out of his shell, and Rou is both willing to help and scared to admit to himself why that might be.

Although the book has a few explicit, uncensored sex scenes, it's really much more about the emotional part of the relationship. The sex is important, but it's only part of the picture, and that works well. This is a more grown-up story than Golden Sparkle, so pick your Suzumaru title by your adult vs high school preferences, but the emotional payoff in this one makes it the better of the two in my mind.