Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me Volume 1 Review
To the surprise of many, earlier this year Panini Publishing (yes, the same one that sells the popular football stickers) snuck into manga publishing with a new imprint: Panini Manga. They started with a selection of Disney titles, but this month has expanded the range to include two Square Enix titles. Today I’m here to talk about one of those two series: Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me. Will the first volume impress? Let’s take a look!
Our story follows high school student Ryuto Kashima who has a crush on the most popular girl at school, Runa Shirakawa. Unfortunately, Ryuto is seen as a nerd and keeps to himself in class so rarely has the opportunity to speak to Runa, never mind consider dating her. That is, until he loses a challenge with his friends and is forced to confess to his crush as a penalty, largely because his friends think he will be shot down miserably.
However, while Ryuto expects to be shot down, he’s shocked to find Runa is accepting of his feelings and asks if he wants to date her. He’s not going to turn down the offer of the century but as time goes on, Ryuto grows increasingly concerned about why Runa is willing to spend time with him. Is it a prank? Is she simply bored and going to dump him on a whim? And why have they ended up going back to her house when no one else is home on their very first day together?!
As it turns out, Runa had a string of really bad boyfriends before our protagonist came along. Due to her pretty appearance, she’s often asked out by classmates and she’s always worked hard to please them, which unfortunately included sleeping with them when they asked. This led to a reputation for being ‘easy’ to bed and her boyfriends often dumped her after getting bored. Runa just wanted to make them happy, but this meant sacrificing what she wanted in the process.
Naturally, this infuriates Ryuto who feels blessed to be in a relationship with her and wants to cherish her. While he also wants to sleep with her, he musters up the willpower to turn her down by boldly claiming he wants to wait until she genuinely wishes to engage in such activities. Despite this cumbersome start to their relationship, Runa finds herself intrigued by Ryuto and the two continue dating.
They may seem like a mismatched pair to their classmates, but there’s a strong bond forming between the unlikely duo and that’s what makes Our Dating Story quite charming. Based on a light novel series by Nagaoka Makiko (and released by J-Novel Club as You Were Experienced, I Was Not: Our Dating Story), this is a story built on the opposites attract trope but with an author who is willing to explore what coming from such different places means in a more grounded manner.
As the inexperienced one, Ryuto worries about whether he’s making the right decisions when it comes to Runa and how their relationship is going. He wants to make up for all the terrible experiences she’s had before but since she’s his first girlfriend, he’s constantly beset by the fear he’s going to ruin it. Runa meanwhile has never really thought about her own desires so, when faced with Ryuto’s desire to go along with whatever she wants, she’s often worried she’s going to bore him or involve him in something he doesn’t care about (like clothes shopping). The only way to get past these fears is to communicate with one another, which they do and is a strength of Makiko’s writing.
As you may have gathered from the premise and the front cover, this is an adaptation that does sometimes lean into more fan-service-heavy scenes at times. However, to its credit, it’s certainly not ecchi and although Runa is into Gyaru fashion, her outfits aren’t that skimpy. Artist Carpaccio Noyama (The Lady Likes a Nerd Over Princes on Manga UP!) has delivered an adaptation that captures the positive elements of the original light novels while adding plenty of cuteness to it thanks to the expressive characters and their stylish designs.
Since Runa in particular changes outfits a lot you can tell Noyama has put a lot into capturing the small details. Backgrounds can be a bit sparse, but Noyama tends to draw within small panels that are largely filled just with the characters so I can certainly overlook that. I think even if you currently follow the light novels or watched the anime (available on Crunchyroll), the manga is well worth your time as an addition to the world. Or if you’re a newcomer, this seems like a solid introduction to the story.
As mentioned earlier Our Dating Story has been brought to the UK thanks to Panini. The translation is credited to an agency, CCC International LLC. The release does read well and the terms are consistent with the light novel releases from J-Novel Club, but I would prefer the people actively working on it were credited. I also wished the name matched the light novels, but seeing as the anime title was this one, I can see the logic in using it. Also, the age rating printed on the book is 12+, but given how often sex is brought up I feel the 14+ rating on Panini’s website is more suitable.
The release is your standard VIZ Media manga sizing, but it does include colour pages and a short story by Nagaoka Makiko as well as cover flaps which makes it feel premium. However I did find the flaps didn’t want to stay flat after a single reading, so I attempted to sandwich the volume between some other books to flatten it back down which has sort of worked. Notably there also isn’t any form of eBook release, so if you prefer that format, you’re out of luck here.
Since this is a UK-specific release, the price is printed on the back in pounds and comes in at £10 which is very reasonable given the quality and certainly considerably cheaper than other publishers like Kodansha or Yen Press which are creeping up to £13-15 depending on the book.
The manga is ongoing with six volumes currently out in Japanese. Here in the UK, Panini has Volume 2 set for a release in February which is quite a quick turnaround although #3 isn’t yet dated so perhaps we’ll be in for a gap after the initial releases. As far as I can tell these aren’t available internationally, but if you are in the US or elsewhere there is a digital release through MANGA UP! Although that’s using the title You Were Experienced, I Was Not: Our Dating Story as opposed to Panini’s.
Overall, Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me Volume 1 is an enjoyable romance title that is both grounded and fun. It’s sure to attract existing fans of the franchise as well as newcomers. And with all the uncertainty in the UK market at the moment, it’s reassuring to see a new UK-specific publisher put out such a high-quality release for a reasonable price.
Our review copy from Panini was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Servies).
