The Otaku Love Connection Volume 1 Review
I am a big fan of romance series rooted in otaku fandom like Wotakoi and Having an Idol-Loving Boyfriend is the Best!, so of course I was delighted when Square Enix announced they had licensed The Otaku Love Connection. Now with Volume 1 in hand, let’s find out if it proves an entertaining read!
The story follows Wataru Otonari, a shojo fan who spends his days admiring his classmate Yuzuru Kakoi and her handsome boyfriend Chihiro Kawai. To Otonari they are his OTP (One True Pairing), and nothing makes him happier than watching over the loving relationship that the two share. Since the age of five, Otonari has been a keen shipper but it wasn’t until an incident in high school that he began shipping actual people instead of fictional characters.
Devastated that a ship in his favourite manga didn’t work out in the end, Otonari is walking home in a daze when he steps out in front of an oncoming truck! Thankfully he’s saved by Yuzuru, who just happened to be in the area and witnessed what was about to happen. Then of course devoted boyfriend Chihiro catches wind of the near-accident and rushes to her side. Seeing the pure love between the two, Otonari instantly forgets about his prior woes and his desire to ship these two for life is born.
And Otonari isn’t the only one who enjoys fangirling over Yuzuru and Chihiro either, as there’s also Mashiro Tomaki whom he quickly becomes friends with (despite her shipping dynamic differing from his own). Together they cheerfully watch over their OTP while sharing all the things they love about the pair, vowing to protect them forever.
It was after a few chapters of this (there are ten in the volume), that I began to feel The Otaku Love Connection was beginning to get a bit repetitive as each instalment revolved around Otonari and his partner in crime stalk– sorry, watching over Yuzuru and Chihiro’s interactions. Thankfully, it’s at this point that mangaka Chu Amairo chooses to shake things up as Otonari and Mashiro are caught watching their ship and brought into the conversation by Yuzuru who then starts including the two more and more when she spots them.
Now there’s friendship brewing between the four (although Chihiro is a little less than thrilled knowing Otonari has witnessed his private time with Yuzuru), and maybe there’s even some romance sparking between Otonari and Mashiro…? Although frankly, Otonari is not capable of perceiving anything around him that’s not related to his ship, so Mashiro is going to have to work hard for that one.
How much you enjoy this one will come down to how much you’re comfortable with watching someone nerd out over shipping actual people as opposed to fictional characters. Many of us into anime, manga and so on will be very familiar with the idea of having an OTP, but that’s a very different dynamic when it comes to real life. To its credit, because Yuzuru and Chihiro are already together and extremely in love does soften what could otherwise be tricky circumstances. Although Otonari and Mashiro are very enthusiastic when it comes to their ship, they would never do anything to hurt them or make them uncomfortable.
This is Chu Amairo’s debut work in English (although they have quite a few more before this in Japan!) and it’s certainly very likeable. The art is attractive with plenty of expressive scenes, which is important since the comedy often hinges on the visual reactions of the cast. Some pages tended to be overwhelmed by the text, but I felt that got better as the volume went on, so I’m hoping it was just early chapter issues as opposed to something that will be an ongoing issue.
Something else that could be off-putting to newcomers is how rooted in otaku culture this is. There are a lot of terms thrown around that can be confusing if you aren’t familiar with them already and they’re often not explained in the manga itself (although there are helpful translation notes at the back of the book!). That said, it feels like this is aimed entirely at people who are already in the know so it’s unfortunately just not positioned itself for those new to otaku fandom. That’s one of the reasons the jokes work so well because so much care has been put into depicting those tropes, but it certainly would be confusing for some, I feel. A series like Wotakoi was more balanced in that you didn’t have to understand all the little references to enjoy it.
As mentioned earlier, The Otaku Love Connection Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Square Enix Manga and has been translated by Minami with lettering by Brandon Bovia. The translation reads well, with Minami skilfully capturing all the references, otaku language and so on. There’s a lot of variety in the lettering as well, which adds to the delivery of the dialogue. A good release all around! This volume also includes a colour page at the beginning, which is a nice treat.
The series is ongoing in Japan with three volumes currently available. Here in English Volume 2 is scheduled for a release in June with #3 following in October, so we’ll be effectively caught up by the end of the year. This is also available on MANGA UP!, if that’s of more interest to digital readers.
Overall, The Otaku Love Connection Volume 1 is an entertaining first entry for this new series. While it’s not that welcoming to those not as embedded in otaku culture and may make some people uncomfortable, I for one thought this was a lot of fun and certainly well worth picking up if you are someone who can relate to the main characters and their antics. With a fujoshi and a himedanshi joining the group in Volume 2 it seems like this has plenty of fun developments in store.
A free preview can be read on the Square Enix website here.
Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services)
©Chu Amairo / Square Enix CO. LTD
