The Fall 2024 Manga Guide

Hatsukoi Note

What's It About? 

Shouya, a high school boy whose heart has never known romance, comes across an internet diary filled with wistful whispers of love toward the writer's same-sex crush. A photo posted to the page provides a hint as to the blog's owner: Tsubame, a fellow classmate known for being a lone wolf. Shouya realizes that his friend Ryuu is the object of the diary writer's affections, so he attempts to play matchmaker...but where will his own feelings take him in the process?

Hatsukoi Note has a story and art by Amekiri, with English translation by airco. This volume is lettered and retouched by Ray Steeves. Published by Seven Seas (September 17, 2024).

Is It Worth Reading?

Welcome to Enthusiastic Consent: The Manga. That's a bigger deal than it sounds. If you've been reading romance, BL or otherwise, for a long time; so-called old-school titles often played into the trope that no consent was sexier. But Hatsukoi Note knows that the opposite is true. Shouya and Sanjou embody the idea of feeling your way through a relationship together, asking your partner for their opinions and feelings along the way. Or at least, they get to that point – the first chapter of the manga follows our two leads figuring out their feelings are mutual and attempting to beat the odds and get together. It naturally all hinges on a misunderstanding, with Shouya thinking when he discovers Sanjou's semi-secret blog that the other boy is writing about their mutual friend Ryuu. Mostly this is predicated on Shouya simply not thinking that anyone could have a crush on him, much less the boy he's quickly falling for. But when misunderstandings resolve, the rest of the book can focus on the relationship itself and how they navigate it.

Part of this involves Shouya being aware of how Sanjou feels about touching. When the boys first met at the start of high school, Sanjou smacked Shouya's hand away when he casually touched him. Shouya realizes that Sanjou doesn't like to be touched, but later on, the other boy admits that he was sexually assaulted by a teacher in middle school, which has made him very leery of physical relationships. The teacher was someone he trusted and felt close to, and it makes sense that he'd have issues around touching and being touched as a result. Shouya is smart enough to realize that he needs to work with Sanjou rather than around him, and he makes it very clear that Sanjou is running the show whenever they have sexual contact. He wants to make his boyfriend happy, and not afraid, and even when he realizes that Sanjou is a bit in the dark about m/m penetrative sex, he makes it clear to him that they don't have to do anything. Just kissing is enough for him if that's enough for his boyfriend.

It is a little odd to me that Shouya only counts penetration as “sex,” since that negates plenty of other forms of sexual contact that many people enjoy. It may be a measure of how young he is, or one of those odd little moments in BL that the passage of time hasn't completely done away with. I'd be alarmed (although perhaps not surprised, given the state of sex ed) if anyone was getting all of their sex knowledge from BL manga, but it still isn't a great lesson to teach, even if the boys themselves are very happy with how things progress. And why shouldn't they be? This is a very warm-hearted story about two people finding each other and working to become closer, navigating the pitfalls and roadblocks along the way. It's cute, sweet, and racy. That's a winning combination for a piece of romance fiction.

Stories about first loves are always emotional, but I've never read one with quite so much crying. From the love interest's teary eyes on the cover, to the sex scenes fit for a dacryphiliac, somebody should hand the characters of Hatsukoi Note a Kleenex. It's fitting that this is the story about one character covertly reading the other's diary, because this story's big feelings made me feel not a little voyeuristic.

Shouya has never been interested in love until he discovers the online diary (or “note” in Japanese, as Death Note fans might recall) of a classmate, the standoffish Tsubame. With his tough-looking piercings and resting stink-eye, Tsubame is the last person Shouya would have expected to keep a lovey-dovey diary about a same-sex crush. To Shouya, it seems pretty clear that the guy Tsubame is crushing on is their mutual friend Ryuu (narrator voice: it is not Ryuu), so he takes it on himself to play matchmaker. But as Shouya and Tsubame grow closer during the process, Shouya must examine his own feelings. We get full access only to Shouya's mind, but the cute if prickly Tsubame's every emotion shows on his face, so this miscommunication isn't exactly a mystery. There's less suspense than there is dramatic irony: the characters are so youthful and inexperienced that we realize they're in love before they do. This inexperience is also played for laughs: at one point, Tsubame insists that a particular act counts as sex and Shouya disagrees. (I'm with Tsubame on this one: there doesn't need to be penetration for it to be sex.) This is a good place to add the content warning that these high school-aged characters do have some adult scenes.

From the very first page of this school love story, every character appears to be on the verge of a breakdown. But despite all the tears in this book, I'm glad to report it has a happy ending. It's a self-contained volume of one very emotional first love. The central budding romance is cute, but all the crying gives this manga leaves a bittersweet aftertaste.

Hatsukoi Note yanks at the heart and does not let go. Protagonist Shouya is a sweet bean, someone who always tries to empathize with his peers (even if it ends badly). I appreciate his efforts to understand what feelings feel like, even if it's not most delicately or sensitively. His blossoming attraction towards Tsubame ends up bringing the best in him, as well as Tsubame. Shouya's endless empathy and care put Tsubame at ease after his sexual assault, and Tsubame's direct nature makes sure Shouya doesn't devolve into a fit of anxiety.

What you have here is a powerful, effective teen romance. No frills, no shenanigans (outside of Tsubame's trauma and his overcoming of it); just two teenagers falling in love and exploring their emotions and bodies with each other. It's refreshing to have a series that's frank about its protagonists exploring physical intimacy with each other and being confident in that mutual attraction. It's also nice that the series underlines why Tsubame loves Shouya; love isn't always about shared hobbies or how long you've known a person, sometimes love is a sudden thing. It makes you want to know more about someone and even enjoy the moments when you don't say anything to each other. There's a powerful moment when Tsubame writes in his diary that he wants to “use every word in the dictionary to describe [his] love” for Shouya; seeing the two together, it's easy to see why.

Hatsukoi Note comes from a very powerful place and celebrates the flighty feelings of falling in love. It gives us two silly goofballs to root for and lets us indulge in their joy at having their feelings reciprocated with each other. I can't think of a reason not to give this a whole-hearted recommendation—though I do have to underline that content warning about sexual assault (and some sexual explicitness).