Clumsy Kiss Review

I’m one of those people that wants a chance at first love: Haruto Kumai

Third-year high-schooler Haruto Kumai has not been lucky in love; his longest relationship with a girl ended with her telling him that he’s not assertive enough before dumping him. He’s eager to find a new girlfriend before they all graduate and when it looks as if one his classmates, Midori Hayashi, is interested, he summons all his courage and texts her, asking, ‘Wanna eat lunch with me tomorrow?’. To his utter confusion and embarrassment, who should show up for the lunch date on the roof but Sasahara, the (male) school heartthrob? “I was really shocked when you texted me out of the blue last night,” Sasahara tells him. All the while he’s talking, Kumai is trying to work out the reason for the mix-up and realizes that Aoi Sasahara and Midori Hayashi have the same kanji in their first names. But what is he to do? Sasahara is such a relaxing lunch companion and somehow Kumai just can’t bear to tell him that he invited him by mistake. And Sasahara, it seems, has noticed him for some time but had no idea that Kumai liked boys. (Kumai didn’t either, but is now asking himself some serious questions.)

They agree not to mention their meeting up to anyone (all those Sasahara-adoring girls would make their lives miserable…) But then a visit to Sasahara’s part-time job (at his uncle’s café) only serves to reinforce their feelings toward each other. Even though Kumai is still trying to come to terms with what’s happening, when Sasahara kisses him and he apologizes for his lack of experience, Sasahara only smiles and tells him, “It’s fine you’re not used to this. Just be yourself.”

It’s not long before they’re hanging out together in and out of school and Kumai can’t believe how lucky he is. Sasahara even confides in him about his earlier relationship that failed, causing him to stay resolutely single – until now. But Kumai still feels horribly guilty about the initial misunderstanding and is troubled by it to the extent that he needs to unburden himself and tell Sasahara the truth. But if he confesses – will it bring their relationship to an end?

Almost all the BL manga that arrive in our review pile are about two people meeting, falling in love (sometimes one pursues while the other is oblivious or not interested) and eventually starting a relationship. When the protagonists are still at high school, there’s the added emotional ‘first love, first kiss’ etc. element. What’s often not so convincingly portrayed is why the two are attracted to each other in the first place. We’re frequently told that one character feels this and that for the other but the showing bit is somehow not quite up to the task in hand, and no amount of sex scenes will make up for the absence of genuine chemistry. It takes a skilled mangaka to convince us that the two main characters have discovered why they need each other after some inevitable misunderstandings and then engage us to the extent that we really want to see where this relationship goes. Which is all a preamble to saying that Machi Suehiro (Kind of a Wolf, Fox-Colored Jealousy and Fake Fact Lips) has all the skills as well as a gift for attractive, expressive characters, so Clumsy Kiss is a fun, entertaining read that also convinces as a portrayal of two young people falling in love. It also comes in a very attractive edition from Yen Press: trade paperback with a cute, sparkly hologram cover and five, yes, five colour pages, so what’s not to like?

Because this is a story about two third years ending their time at school, the thorny question of final exams and what to do next also looms large in their lives. Will their relationship be strong enough to stand the test of time apart if they follow different career paths? Dare they tell their schoolfriends that they’re going out together? Are they ready to take their relationship to the next level, sexually speaking? In the hands of a less experienced mangaka, these important moments could well have been fumbled or passed over too swiftly but Machi Suehiro has the skills to show us in a believable way how Kumai and Sasahara try to work things out between them, misunderstandings and all.

Translation for this generous sized volume (nearly 300 pages) is by Leighann Harvey with lettering by Dietrich Premier and both deliver (as always) an enjoyable reading experience. There’s an extra in the special booklet at the end of the book which has a relatively explicit but earned sex scene. There are also translation notes at the end – and I only have one small query which doesn’t appear there. When Kumai goes to Sasahara’s uncle’s café for the first time, he’s served something which the uncle calls ‘custard’ – but looks to me just like the popular dessert ‘pudding/purin/プリン’ (also much loved by Richard de Vulpian in The Case Files of Jeweler Richard and many other manga/anime characters and based on the French crème caramel). It’s mentioned as ‘custard’ several times in the text (it’s even on the back cover) and it looks like ‘pudding’ to me, served with a little swirl of cream and a cherry on the top…

It looks as if there’s a sequel on the way in Japan. Only one chapter is available digitally at the time of writing but it will follow Kumai and Sasahara as they start their new lives at university and culinary school. Recommended if you’re looking for a cute and well written Boys’ Love romcom!

Our review copy was supplied by the publisher Yen Press.