📖 ARC REVIEW 📖

Thank you @kodanshamanga for an early copy of How I Met My Soulmate by Anashin. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Release date: First released in January 13th, 2022; English version release date on December 12th, 2023

Blurb: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/131144326-how-i-met-my-soulmate-1?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=tCQPRR3UxJ&rank=1

🛑Read on with caution; review may contain spoilers🛑

How I Met My Soulmate starts with 20-year-old Yuuki wanting to find her soulmate, and in a desperate attempt to find him, she goes out with her friend to a club for the first time and meets Iori, who makes a bad first impression on Yuuki but they eventually become friends as he helps her find her soulmate.

First of all, I feel like Yuuki is still too young to be desperately finding her soulmate. But anyway, I enjoyed this first volume and her growing friendship and chemistry with Iori. What I didn’t expect was a possibility of a love triangle with Seno as well, who seems too sketchy in my opinion. Seno is Yuuki’s first crush; she makes bento for Seno every day, only to find out from Iori’s friend years later that Seno gives away her bentos to his other friends because it apparently makes him sick. When Seno reunites with Yuuki years later, he tells her two versions of why he gave away the bento, really I’m not sure if he’s even telling the truth on both occasions, which is why right now, I am team Iori! Lol 😅 Yuuki and Iori are too cute and have good chemistry!

Can’t wait to read Volume 2!

The way this manga had me kicking my feet like an excited school girl!!! So much story was told in a single manga and I’m absolutely craving more! I can’t wait for the next volume!

”How I Met My Soulmate” by Anashin hits the spot!

I have for some time now been in a reading funk, desperately wanting something sweet, but with adults life where work takes up a lot of your time, and meeting people is suddenly very hard!
This story is a perfect combination of the two, and I am so fulfilled of all the lovely shojo feelings, and desperate to read more about Yuuki and her two suitors!

This is a lighthearted, fun, and soothing story.

Yuuki is 20 years old and has for the last year lived alone in the big city while attending college. She has already experienced a lot of new changes and feeling the pressure, but been hopeful that someday it will be less stressful and easier, but truth is that mentally she has hit a wall and is depressed because she feels lonely.

Yuuki and her friend Sanae decide to find places to meet people, in particular men. Sanae is the typical ditzy friend who likes a good-looking face, while Yuuki is unsure of what she wants in a man (other than he has to be nice) All she knows is that she hopes to find her soulmate.

While going clubbing, Sanae finds a hot guy, and with him tags Iori-kun, his friend who comes across as being rude and a very unapproachable person. It doesn't help that he's also very drunk.
Yuuki has strong aversions to him. He hears this later via the grapevines and decides to make it up to her, thinking he overstepped her boundaries. She was after all very sweetly trying to help him when he was sick drunk.

Iori-kun is a dentist. I don't like dentists, but I admit Iori-kun is pretty lovely. His personality amuses me. He's this combination of being a grumpy old/young man but also a caring friend towards Yuuki. He listens to her hope for romance and tries introducing her to guys to help her, and then almost by fate, she runs into her first crush, Seno-kun.

I love how romance-wise nothing is set in stone. What Yuuki and Iori-kun have is such kind of life-lasting friendship you hope to find because it's a gift, but as a reader, you hope it will develop into something more.

The background story with Seno-kun really captivated me and can't wait to read more about how it shapes Yuuki's journey to find her soulmate.

BTW did you know that a soulmate doesn't have to be romantic?
Just that thought makes me crazy to get to the next chapter. I have no idea how this will end!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this adorable manga to review. If you’ll notice, I finished it in one day, one sitting really. It was a sweet and absorbing story. Easy to relate to. We follow our FMC as she searches for her soulmate...in all the wrong places...or maybe the right ones? Her friend has the idea they will find their soulmates at the club and while her friend is outgoing and easily attracts men, our FMC is not the same and ends up in uncomfortable situations. She meets our MMC and immediately dislikes him. Will this be an enemies to lovers situation? It boils down to two main options but is one lying to her? And is one going to get friend-zoned? I want to know!

How I Met My Soulmate is a short, super shojo, light, fun, romantic manga.

I don't know how many volumes this manga will have but I would love to have them all published because the truth is that I devoured it and I wanted to continue knowing what was going to happen with all these stories that intermingle.

I quite liked the illustration, how the misunderstandings develop, I think I know who is going to be our protagonist's soulmate, but anything can happen!!

Anxiously waiting for the next one.

Thank you Kodansha Comics for the ARC I read on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

★ ★ ★ ★ • 4

Pretty wholesome and lighthearted shoujo manga. Doesn’t actually have a soulmate/fated mates trope, but it is about a girl looking for love.

There is a love triangle, and a lot of misunderstandings and miscommunication but it wasn’t too annoying. So far all of the characters are pretty likable, looking forward too the second volume.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of the book for review!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC.

This was so cute! I’m loving the chemistry between Yuuki and Iori. The two of them are adorable and they have some really cute scenes together. Yuuki is reunited with a guy she used to have crush on named Seno. I wasn’t expecting this to turn into a love triangle, but I’m super interested to see how this plays out.

actual rating: 4.5 stars

I've wanted to read this for so long now as I love Waiting for Spring and this did not disappoint! Anashin's art-style is beautiful as always, the characters lovable, and the plot fun, lighthearted, and sweet!

The main love interest is likeable, and I really enjoy that he's a respectable character who treats the main character well.

The conflicting emotions I had when learning about the characters' pasts in this book had me really enjoying the story and wondering what was true or not—which I found made the story a lot more enjoyable.
I'm not super into love triangles but as long as it's Anashin it's okay ;).

Also, that cover???!!! I love it.

Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read an ARC of this!

I really liked the art style and the story was cute overall. Most of the characters were enjoyable, but they felt kind of flat. They didn’t seem to have any depth.

The plot was a little too simple for my taste, and the relationships between characters seemed to move really fast, the love/like was instantaneous.

It was easy to read and at least, you didn’t get bored but I don’t think I enjoyed it enough to read Volume 2.

This is such a cute, wholesome, and somewhat timely romance manga. Although the characters aren't that developed first or like there's not much of a depth into them so far, I still did enjoy it.

I also wasn't expecting a love triangle, but it was a lovely one. This is the first time I did enjoy a love triangle in a story and is really hyped for the 2nd volume.

~Thank you, Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for the copy ✨️~

This was the straight to it romance that I needed in my life, super cute and I was a huge fan of waiting for spring. I preordered immediately and can’t wait to find out who she goes for because right now it could go either way. I’m giving a solid 4 stars because I already have who I hope that she picks in my head but let’s wait and see

Yuuki is a 20-year-old college sophomore who has wished for one thing since moving to to find her soulmate. Being a bit desperate she goes with a friend to a club, but she finds it chaotic and too loud. Just when Yuuki begins to despair that she'll ever find a real, adult relationship, she meets Iori, a man with bleached hair and a slightly scary demeanor.
I really liked and enjoyed this manga. The plot was interesting and the romance was very cute and full of chemistry. The art was very good and beautiful.

Thank you Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for providing an eARC in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

tl;dr
All the tasty drama of a high school shoujo manga, but with college-aged protagonists instead.

Thoughts
Cotton candy-style shoujo manga is my guilty pleasure. It's sweet, it's pretty, and it's not too heavy. It is also almost always about high schoolers. And while I do enjoy a good high school drama, I wouldn't mind this kind of sugary romance for an older audience either. "How I Met My Soulmate" hits that spot extremely well, with our MC Yuuki already in her second year in college. It's really fun to see all the familiar old tropes among characters juggling part-time jobs and hangovers. And the mixer even felt like a fun college get together, instead of an extremely sketchy bad idea! Iori is (by design, I think) my preferred guy, but Seno's storyline is fascinating, and I genuinely don't know which way the story's going to go with him. What I do know is that I will definitely be reading it.

I loved this. Such a feel good, romantic, cute read that has that old school shojo manga vibes.
JUST SO CUTE. I want volume 2 now.

This was a very nicely developed romantic story. An inexperienced young girl (20) ends up with three different boys interested in her. It will clearly take the full series to know who is being completely honest with their feelings and who just wants to take advantage. The main characters are complex and give backstory slowly. I want to know how the story will flow for the main characters as well as the side characters. There is potential for several turns and I will be looking forward to them.

An overall nice reading experience I would recommend.

How I Met My Soulmate is about Yuuki, a 20-year-old college student who recently moved to Tokyo and is living on her own for the first time. Her new life is not as exciting as one my guess. She feels lonely, scared of her apartment, and without anything interesting happening outside her student and work life.
Desperate to finally find love, and luckily her soulmate, Yuuki and her friend decided to start going out seeking their next love experience and get out of their boring routine.
This is easier for Sanae, a more outgoing and extrovert individual; but Yuuki feels like a fish out of water...Luckily, destiny may have something in store for her even if she doesn't realize it...
On her first night out at a club she meets the cold (and very drunk) Iori, who after being taken care of all night long, wants to apologize. He will help him find that soulmate she so desperately yearns for, and arrange some dates for her!

Look, I thought Iori was an ass at first, but he managed to steal my heart on just one volume. I support this man to the END, OKEY? He is lovely with a bitch resting face problem. Also, he almost makes being a future dentist cool (no shame of being a dentist, it's just not that usual of a profession in fiction, okay??)
Yuuki as the main character... is okay, not too annoying, and quite down to earth. She is a hopeless romantic, in a very relaxed way; unlike other characters we may find in the shojo genre.
Here is the thing...I would like to see more aspects of their personality out of the "cute-shy girl" and "cold but with a heart of gold guy". This first volume has the potential, now let's see if in future volumes this will develop more with this subtle and mature (yet fresh) narrative; or if it will get stuck.

But let's go back to the subject.
Anashin managed to make me have intense feelings toward these characters in so little time, that I think it's worth mentioning it. I HATE Seno so MUCH in just one volume is crazy.
Yes, I'm happy Yuuki has her explanations and everything with this old crush...but in this house, we support Iori until the end. I would die for this ship. That's it. I'm having very intense emotions about it.
I only met these characters for a day and I already want them to be together. THAT'S A STRONG NARRATION from Anashin.

All love and support aside, I did have some "negative" points to make about How I met my soulmate:
The beginning didn't catch me as much as I wish it did; I thought this reading would be a total flop.
So yeah, it has kind of a weak opening.
Another negative thing I would say was that some parts have me laughing hard when I shouldn't. So when we learn about (SPOILER AHEAD) why Seno feels sick about homemade cooking because a young girl made a "spell" with her hair to him to fall in love...I found the story so ridiculous I couldn't help but laugh. Like..., I get it, it's disgusting..., but it could be worse, and the way he was saying it felt like that little girl was Hannibal Lecter and that she cooked some human meat for him. I may not support this man, but even if I did: that backstory is weak and ridiculous.
And that's not a cool thing to tell about any story.

My conclusion would be: It's a cute story that can go well, but some issues may work against it. Overall, a charming and quick read.

Just because of the cover, I needed to read this manga, and the inside did what it promised.
I loved this manga.
The characters are at university, and although they are both different and have different goals, they both do everything for it. And that shows their strong personalities and leaves the reader super invested in the story.
The complicity between them grows throughout the pages and is becoming super adorable.

We have a lot to discover about the love interest, but I really enjoyed the secondary characters, and that things are clarified and don't generate drama.
The designs are so beautiful and the panels are so well thought out. He really looks cool.

I really want to read the second volume.

Thank you, Kodansha Comics, for the advance reading copy.

I love this couple cos the entire story revolves around them and it’s quite wholesome!

I do not know about the upcoming volumes that would be most likely about their new relationship. But this one can be read as a standalone as it has quite a good closure.

Yuuki, our female lead, has been quite lonely. She’s been alone and doesn’t need many friends in her life but she does need someone close to her heart.

Somehow she gets to meet an unlikely person and this is their story.

Not our usual cutesy bubbly romance but a genuine story with genuine characters which will win your heart.

I do love the art style and dialogue presentation in this manga. It’s well done.

This was a super cute introduction to the series! All of the characters had distinctive personalities and I can't wait to learn more about them in later volumes! Would definitely recommend to fans of romantic manga or romance readers in general. The art was also very cute and perfectly matches the story.

I'm not really into love web stories overall but this was cute so far! Yuuki Honda, a good girl, is finally taking a chance to try to find a boyfriend... not any boyfriend, her soulmate! Circumstantially she meets a hot guy at a club who's softer than he seems which leads into meeting/reconnecting with two more guys that have interest in her. Volume 1 ends in a cliffhanger (sort of as expected) but the art is good, and the Potential Boyfriend/Soulmate #1 is the sort of character I like (a gap moe kind - someone who looks one way but is actually a different way, in this case sort of soft and enjoying being taken care of instead of being Just Hot). Even when something sad comes up from the past, it's actually dealt with in a good way rather than cruel actions just for cruel actions' sake or character development or whatnot.

Anyway, I'll probably keep up with this series! Thank you to Kodansha and Netgalley for the eARC!