When my copy of The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All, Volume 4, arrived my wife whisked it out of my hands and read it before I did. In all our years together as I have read Yuri manga, this is the only series she’s really fired up about. 

This volume brings us to the moment at which Aya and Mitsuki have to navigate their feelings, the Prom,  Joe’s relationship with Kanna and a well-meaning younger student who put a lot on the line to make space for Mitsuki’s career…all colliding at once.

Resolutions come, thick and fast. Some are wonderful, some are fraught. Like real life, opportunities come and go. There is a phrase you may have heard of – “when one door closes, a window opens.” The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All reminds us that life isn’t always that neat. Sometimes windows and doors open and close in chaotic rhythm. 

Eventually graduation forces change…for everyone in the story. There is a time skip that bring us from tentative high school romance, to college life. Mitsuki and Aya have a whole new set of hurdles small and large, to deal with. For Aya, balancing life and school and keeping herself focused on the goal. For Mitsuki, finding a place to be herself and the shock when she realizes that she’s compromised on something essential. 

Paneling has become a little less intentionally disordered. I don’t know if that is meant to be symbolic or not, but it’s impossible to read otherwise. As we age, life becomes – out of necessity – more constrained. When a panel breaks free of its border, it feels like an act of rebellion. And we are reminded that a place where you belong may actually be a physical space…and it may simply be a community you share. 

Ratings: 

Art – 9
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – Not really (unless you count punked out college Mitsuki…)
Yuri – 9

Overall – 9

Volume 4 is hitting shelves this coming week.  My very sincere thanks to Yen Press for an advanced review copy with the Kinokuniya exclusive cover of Mitsuki and Aya at prom!  

Another fabulous volume of this emotionally involving contemporary F/F romance. Volume 5 is is hitting JP shelves the same week as the premier of the anime this January and will be streamed on Crunchyroll. OMG, we’re getting an anime and it is going to…rock. (Yes, I said it. I’m officially a old dork.)