I get the Feeling That Nobukuni-san Likes Me Vol.1

Ah, teen angst. I do love a romance story, so when I was browsing Travelling Man before a Gundam card tournament, I was drawn to the cover featuring a slightly nervous looking heroine. 

The book follows Nobukuni Nodoka, a girl who has spent most of her life buried in a book. Romance has never really crossed her mind, but all this changes when a transfer student named Sasaki joins her class and her heart starts to flutter. Now she's relying on a dating column by a supposed guru named Meeko to give her a shot at true love. What can go wrong?

Well, quite a lot as it happens. When you follow advice blindly with no context, it's easy to get mixed up, which is precisely what happens to Nobukuni as she flounders in each chapter trying to pull off whatever move is the flavour of the week. Of course, most of them are quite ridiculous, such as encouraging girls to waft their armpits in their love interests faces in order to get her pheromones out there, or falling asleep in front of them (difficult in class). While there may be some merit to some of these ideas, they're not very practical in general terms, so our girl has her work cut out for her.

Not advisable.

It's not as Sasaki is clueless either - he can see she's throwing herself at him, but she's so all-over the place that he can't get a bead on her. Flustered, she accidentally declines a date because she's so focused on working her ruse to show him her origami skills that she completely misses the opening.

The manga gets by on a lot of charm - Kosuke Yasuda does a fine job of conveying how shy and nervous Nobukuni is, keeping her short and a little more rounded than other girls but never making her look unattractive. I grew up deep in the countryside myself, and met a lot of Nobukuni's in my youth - I even dated a few of them! So from my point of view, the essence of the clueless country-girl just flowering and considering a relationship for the first time feels genuine and sincere.

As with any high-school drama, you have the friend groups for the two main characters. They are, wisely, used quite sparingly in this first volume, keeping the focus on the central pairing, with only Nobukuni's more experienced friend Airi getting any real backstory. 

The book has some great little moments scattered throughout, possibly my favourite is when the entire class collectively thinks "just date already" which amusingly conveys how everyone can clearly see what's happening when the leads can't. 

The book isn't going to set the manga world on fire, but it isn't trying to be more than it is; a charming, awkward high-school romance with likeable characters and real barriers to the relationship starting. I hope future volumes don't keep us waiting too long, there's plenty of mileage in equally awkward first dates, kisses and other drama that besets the young and foolish as they feel their way through their first romance. All signs are positive so far and old romantics like me are well served here.