Time loops are fickle things. As any reader of the isekai subgenre can tell you, most of them only grant memories to the person doing the looping – as far as everyone else knows, they're living their lives for the first time. For Oriana, the heroine of Re-Living My Life with a Boyfriend Who Doesn't Remember Me, that's not a logic she's familiar with. That's because Oriana is living the story rather than reading about it, and it's not a truth she's eager to face. In Oriana's mind, since both she and Vincent died mysteriously at school when they were seventeen, both of them should have been sent back in time to prevent the problem. That's not what happened, and now Oriana is desperately trying to save a boy who doesn't recall ever having been in love with her in the first place.

It's not hard to feel for Oriana. She's in an undeniably terrible position: she went from blissful happiness to finding her boyfriend dead to dying herself. When she wakes up as a child again with the potential to redo and undo her future, she's giddy with the idea that this time, she can make it so that she and Vincent get their happily ever after. Everything she does in her second chance is built upon that idea, and integral to her plans is her assumption that Vincent must also retain his memories of their ill-starred future. When he doesn't, it's like her world has shattered to pieces all over again.

This is clearly in service of making some of Oriana's actions when she and Vincent reunite at school make more sense, and it only sort of works. Oriana's identity is caught up in her (previous) seventeenth year when her main source of joy was being Vincent's girlfriend. She died before she could mature into being someone independent alongside that adolescent identity, and she's stuck in that mindset, perpetually a teen in love despite being on her second journey through life. In some ways, it's a nice change from reincarnation or loop stories where the protagonist has an artificial maturity due to “really being xx years old on the inside;” Oriana's still the girl she always was and her actions reflect that. On the downside, she also comes across as unbearably stupid at times, relentlessly sabotaging her relationship with Vincent to recreate their love. Rather than letting events play out more or less as they did before, with Vincent naturally falling for her once again, she aggressively assumes that he will fall for her no matter what, even if she's no longer acting like the girl he initially knew.

This issue, which fortunately does abate in the second volume, risks turning readers away from what is, at its core, actually a very sweet story. By the time Oriana realizes that “saving Vincent” may not be synonymous with “having Vincent,” it's the back half of volume two, and that's a lot of pages to get through. This is due to the transition from a light novel to a manga, and readers can pick up the source material to experience the story with a slightly different feel since Cross Infinite World released the series under the title Return from Death. While we can understand why Oriana is acting the way she is, she still comes across as a bit of a Too Stupid to Live heroine, alienating the very boy she's trying to get close to with her actions. Even understanding her reasons doesn't make it particularly fun to read about.

Luckily, even questionable execution can't rob the plot of its key point: Oriana's desperation to save Vincent's life. She may not always be going about things in the best way, but she's determined and willing to take risks, and even if Vincent can't bring himself to say as much to her face, we can see that he's still attracted to her personality. It's also plain that whatever happened to him wasn't natural, and the mystery element of the story is strong. Side characters set up the parallel of class standing in the way of romance (Vincent is noble and Oriana is not) and the fact that their school eschews caste doesn't mean that the rest of the world follows suit, something that's lurking in the background of Oriana's investigations. The central theme of Oriana ensuring that Vincent lives is beautifully bittersweet, something that Gin Shirakawa's art ably enhances with its round, soft character designs and dreamlike feel.

Re-Living My Life with a Boyfriend Who Doesn't Remember Me has made two notable lists: Kono Manga ga Sugoi and a nominee for the 18th Manga Taisho Award. While the first volume doesn't make it entirely clear why, the second turns the corner and helps to highlight the story's strengths. It's a bit of a barrier to enjoyment, but if you're a romantic who loves a pair of star-crossed lovers and a mystery to go with it, this is a good choice, whether in the original light novel or adapted manga form.