Title: Love Me, Love Me Not Vol. 9
Author: Io Sakisaka
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Physical
Pages: 192
Genre: Slice of Life, Romance
Publication Date: July 6, 2021
The Story
This volume of Love Me, Love Me Not deals with more internal struggles involving Akari as well as some doubts that Yuna was feeling with Rio. For the most part, the volume centers around Valentine’s Day, and Japan celebrates it a little differently. On February 14, it is customary for the girl to give chocolates to the guy she likes and/or friends. One month later on March 14, White Day, the guy will reciprocate. Inui openly states that he’s hoping on receiving chocolates from just one girl. Akari overhears it and can’t put two and two together. What makes matters worse is that a random girl at school ends up giving Inui chocolates so that makes Akari mistakenly think that she was the one girl he was waiting for.
Yuna, on the other hand, still has these doubts that Rio is dating her out of love. She thinks that she is being used as a replacement for his feelings for Akari. They end up in a bit of an argument but rather than this ending up in some deep drama-related story, it just gets resolved rather quickly. I think Yuna just needed that reaffirmation in order to accept their relationship fully.
The rest of the volume centers around Inui and his constant indecisions about Akari. What makes matters worse is that Inui is facing pressure on two fronts. The first is from Akari’s parents… a least indirectly. As you know by now, Rio and Akari’s parents have been fighting a lot recently. They’re scared that they’re going to end up getting a divorce and depending on which parent the child chooses, it may be the difference between Akari staying or leaving…. Which doesn’t give Inui a lot of time because something like that could happen at any moment. The other side is that Ryosuke has realized that Inui is wavering in his decision and he believes that he’s waited long enough. Now he’s making his move on Akari to try and steal her heart.
With Akari being dumber than a box of dead wet rats when it comes to Inui, she has no idea that he even likes her which makes Ryosuke’s job all that much easier! The volume ends with Inui coming to face the reality of the pressures coming at him from all sides, forcing him to possibly make a decision.
Characters
Aside from the brief drama between Yuna and Rio, there hasn’t been much development between the two of them. Yuna just needed to affirm that Rio’s feelings were true and that he wasn’t harboring any lingering feelings for Akari. Once she received that confirmation, things seemed to be back to normal for the two of them.
At this point, I just feel like slapping both Inui and Akari. Akari knows she has feelings for Inui but Inui has been so distant because he can’t up his mind that Akari can never pick up on his feelings. Can’t really blame the guy as his parents are also at each other’s throats and they also disapprove of his dream. They even went so far as to throw out all of his movies which really angered him. Inui is dealing with so much emotional baggage right now that he can’t really commit his feelings to Akari and that’s just making the entire problem worse. With Ryosuke coming back into the picture, it’s kind of forcing him to put his priorities in order but the big question remains if Inui can actually go through with it.
Final Thoughts
I kind of ranted a bit in the characters section…
This Inui and Akari situation has been dragging on. I can understand a little bit of miscommunication here or there but this is starting to make both characters look like idiots. When Akari gave Inui the DVD and his face lit up, you could just tell how much he appreciated it. The fact that Akari was so happy to see him smile should have been the clue the two of them needed to realize that something between them would work. Instead, they just ignore that feel-good moment and go back to doubting each other.
I mean, Inui literally looked back right at Akari when he said that he was hoping for chocolates from one girl. How in the heck did she not realize she was the one? Then, some random girl comes up and gives him chocolates, yet, Inui wasn’t happy about it but she still thought this random girl was the one!? I don’t even know what to say or think about That. At this point, there could be flashing neon arrows pointing at Inui with the words “Inui loves Akari” above it and Akari would still have no clue what’s going on. That’s how dumb I think she’s been written.
Of course, you can make the argument about being turned down once, or having Ryosuke in the mix, or Inui being distant… but there have been enough moments that were blatantly obvious that anyone could have picked up on it and, yet, Akari doesn’t. It was like that with Rio and Yuna, too. Even after rejection, they still ended up together. Why is it so hard to pull the trigger on Inui and Akari?
Well, there are three volumes left so hopefully something will happen. Right now, I feel as if it’s being artificially dragged out and it’s getting to the point where I don’t even care about them anymore. I’m more satisfied with watching Yuna and Rio’s relationship because at least they’re going somewhere.
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media
