Love at First Memory Volume 1 Review

Narumi Hasegaki is a popular mangaka who readers may recognise for A Springtime with Ninjas or Boss Bride Days, which was lucky enough to run for 15 volumes! Now she returns to the West with a new series from Kodansha: Love at First Memory.

Mia Takanashi was just about to declare which of her prospective suitors she had chosen to marry when she met with an unfortunate accident involving a truck (but no being sent to a fantasy world!). Then she awakens two months later with amnesia and is faced with four men all proclaiming to be her partner. Now she has no idea who these people are, let alone which of them she was about to spend the rest of her life with!

Now you may be wondering exactly why Mia has so many suitors, and that’s because she’s heiress to the famed Takanashi Group. And her position seems to have attracted a troublemaker to her bedside. Here, we’re introduced to Kei Mitsui, a model that Mia has supposedly been dating for a year. Ririto Suzumura, who is a childhood friend, boldly declares that the relationship he has with Mia goes ‘way beyond friendship or dating’. Then there’s Tsurugi Jinguuji, who was apparently set up with Mia through their families. And then there’s Issei Asami, who declares himself her fiancé but is exposed by her butler as an intruder and potential con artist who is trying to take advantage of her amnesia to gain her fortune.

Despite Issei being outed as (and proclaiming) he’s a conman, there’s something about him that Mia finds charming, and she doesn’t believe he’s the evil person he’s making himself out to be. Could it be that he and Mia had some kind of secret relationship that no one knew about? Or is he really just after her money? And while she’s grappling with all that, Mia must figure out how to live the flashy lifestyle befitting of her position while also getting to know the other three suitors.

There are only three chapters in this first volume, but that’s enough for us to gain a surface-level understanding of all of the men fighting for Mia’s affections. This is a mystery series due to the amnesia, so Hasegaki is keeping her cards close to her chest when it comes to the identity of the man Mia was about to commit to. Still, she does a good job of making you believe it could be any of them, particularly Issei, where there’s clearly a lot more to him than meets the eye.

What’s interesting here isn’t just the mystery element, but also watching how Mia interacts with those four and the world around her. For whatever reason, her personality with the amnesia seems quite different from the person she used to be. While not stated outright, it seems she acted quite cold and standoffish toward those around her before.

For instance, with Kei, she goes along to one of his shoots, which she supposedly never did in the past. And he took that as her not being particularly interested in him, but it seems even then, that Mia had her own way of caring for him. It’s interesting to see how her relationship with them is changing now that she’s been granted some kind of freedom, or perhaps relief, due to the amnesia.

On the whole, you can tell that Hasegaki is experienced both as a mangaka and with this particular genre. Boss Bride Days was also a reverse harem situation of sorts, from my understanding, and that gives Hasegaki the tools to juggle so many characters off the bat here as well. The artwork is clean, and the characters all have quite distinct designs, so it’s easy to keep track of who’s who at a glance. This ran in Kodansha’s Nakayoshi magazine, and the art reminds me a lot of Anyway, I’m Falling in Love With You by Haruka Mitsui (another reverse harem setup available from Kodansha), so I think if you liked that, you’d enjoy this as well.

As mentioned, Love at First Memory Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Kodansha and has been translated by Nicole Frasik with lettering by Belynda Ungurath. The release reads well and includes several colour pages at the beginning, which show off all our main cast in a colourful arrangement. There’s also a bonus chapter focused on the cast of Boss Bride Days. 

The series has already concluded in Japan, with five volumes available there. Here in English, Volume 2 is scheduled for a release in May, with #3 following in August. So there’s plenty more in the pipeline for those eager to continue.

Overall, Love at First Memory is a fun mystery series that does well to establish itself in its first outing. The premise won’t be for everyone, but Hasegaki has managed to come up with a story that’s so far quite interesting and a cast that still has a lot of secrets to shed light on. Although I also won’t be surprised if we get to the end and Issei is the man she was going to wed.

A free preview can be read on the Kodansha website

Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.

© Kodansha / Narumi Hasegaki