Title: My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lvl999 Vol. 4
Author: Mashiro
Publisher: Inklore
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance
Publication Date: December 3, 2024
The Story
We open up with the introduction of our newest guild member (although we pretty much know who it is) as she teams up with Akane and Eita to go exploring. Since Eita is at a much higher level, he just sits back and watches as the two of them try to take out a boss but can’t do any damage to it!
With the lightheartedness out of the way, things begin to take a more serious turn. Akane asks Momo out so she can talk to her about love. She wants to know why she thinks she got dumped because she wants to try to fix any flaws that she has. In the process, she fully admits that she’s in love with Yamada but when they try to talk it out, two boys from a group date Momo when they take it upon themselves to sit at their table and invade their privacy. Luckily, they are at the café that Eita works at and he sees everything and comes to the rescue.
After Eita’s shift ends, this prompts Akane and Momo to approach him for advice as well. Eita simply says to just go for it and Momo encourages Akane to do the same. This leads Akane to make her up mind and go confess to Yamada; however, when she gets to his apartment, there are a lot of people around making noise and she can’t concentrate to find the words. Eventually, it gets a bit too late and Yamada has to head to cram school but promises to call her later so she can speak her mind.
There’s only one problem… he runs into Tsubaki and she has a confession of her own to make! How will Yamada respond and how does this lead to delicious Korean BBQ?
Characters
Wow, this was a rollercoaster of a ride!
First off, Akane finally admits that she’s in love with Yamada. The fact that she tried to get Momo and Eita’s advice on her flaws shows that she wanted to make sure that there was no chance that she could get turned down; however, it was pretty obvious that she was overthinking things heavily. Eita gave her some good advice which made her decision pretty easy. Getting the words out was another story but Akane wasn’t about to give up, even if her chance came and went.
In Tsubaki’s case, we knew she had a crush on Yamada and she, too, had to do some soul-searching. The fact that she mustered up the courage to confess to him was huge but she also knew the reality of things. That self-awareness didn’t stop her, though, as there was still a sliver of hope that she could succeed. Whether or not she did is irrelevant, though, because the true development here is that she remained true to herself. She steeled her will and went for it which showed a lot of maturity and courage. Even though she came off a bit harshly at first, you get to see Tsubaki in her true form here and it’s really endearing!
As for Yamada, getting hit with a love confession out of nowhere made him think about things as well. While there was some development here, it would spoil the outcome of the confession so I’ll leave you all to read it for yourselves but it is a big step for him versus how his personality was when we first met him back in the first volume!
Also, Momo is a treasure. We must protect her at all costs!
Final Thoughts
Wow, what a volume of Yamada-kun! It started off with some nice comedy and then hit you right in the feels for the majority of the book. In the end, we get back to the laughs as the guild got together for a Korean BBQ event that saw Akane get a bit too tipsy. Drunk Akane is a fun Akane but the morning after should be pretty interesting and that’s when the fifth volume will start.
This section is going to be a bit shorter than usual because giving my thoughts on what happened is going to spoil a LOT of big things in this book but I will wrap it up and say that it will make you smile, it might make you cry, but in some form or another, it will tug at your heartstrings. This is, by far, the best volume in the series so far and I loved the storytelling and character development that was given to us here.
This book made me wish Volume 5 was out already. It was that good!
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