by Eleanor Walker, Staff Writer

Content warning: Underage sex work is a prominent theme of this book, although nothing is explicitly described. There is also violence.

My First Love’s Kiss is the newest English release from Hitoma Iruma, who authored the Saeki Sayaka novel spinoff of Bloom into You, and Adachi and Shimamura. Illustrations are by fly, whose work has also appeared in Chasing After Aoi Koshiba, and various yuri anthologies.

My first introduction to Iruma-sensei’s work was reading the Saeki Sayaka spinoff novels of Bloom Into You, and having subsequently read most of Adachi and Shimamura, and now the first volume of this series, I have come to the conclusion that his works are much more enjoyable when he’s writing about someone else’s characters instead of his own.

The author’s own afterword says that this is planned to be a 3 volume series, and this volume almost reads like a prequel, setting up the characters and story but without much actually happening. Some research while writing this review indicates that this series is set in the same universe as Adachi and Shimamura and stars Shimamura’s former senpai. Hino and Nagafuji also appear as supporting characters. However, I had no idea about this going into the book, and the cover just says “From the author of Adachi and Shimamura” with no indication that the two series are linked. Perhaps it’s because the Adachi and Shimamura novel series is released in English by Seven Seas, whereas this is a Yen On release, but I feel that’s some important context which is missing.

As for the story itself, I’m not really sure what’s going on here. The first chapter is told from Takasora’s point of view. She and her mother live in a small apartment, and the novel opens up with “surprise, here’s my friend and her daughter, they’re going to be living with us for a while” Understandably, Takasora is not too impressed with having to share her already small bedroom with this new interloper and losing her only private space. At first they agree to ignore each other, but Takasora wonders where her new roommate is going late at night.

The second chapter is told from Takasora’s new roommate, Umi’s, point of view. Umi and her mother have clearly not had an easy life, couchsurfing is all she knows, and she finds herself involved with an older woman, Chiki, who is willing to pay her for companionship. Much of this chapter is a flashback telling the story of Chiki and Umi so far.

The third and final chapter alternates points of view, and Takasora confronts Umi about what she’s doing at night. Encouraged by Umi’s mother, for some unknown reason, Takasora follows Umi to see what she’s getting up to and overhears her confessing her love to Chiki and her wish to start dating without money involved, which they do. Maybe I’m just missing something, but I don’t understand how Takasora has gone from barely tolerating Umi at the beginning to now having an unrequited crush on her by the end of the book.

Ratings:

Art – 6. I enjoy Fly’s art style but the illustrations in this book are very samey. Even the cover illustration is repeated twice in the colour page section at the beginning of the book.
Story – 5. All setup, no substance. Hopefully it’ll improve in the next volume.
Characters – 5. Especially without knowing the link to Adachi and Shimamura, I found the characters rather flat.
Service – I don’t feel comfortable rating underage sex work as service.
Yuri – 4 . There are women/girls in relationships.

Overall – 5 . I’ll probably finish the series if it’s only 3 volumes, but I’m glad it was on offer when I bought it on a whim in the shop.