This was a very cute start to a series. The premise is cute, Sakurai, a star student is offered a deal she can't refuse. Convince the truant new student to attend school and help her succeed, and Sakurai gets a letter of recommendation that will get her into any college she pleases! The truant student, Honda, agrees to go along with Sakurai, only if Sakurai agrees to grant one request per day. As Sakurai and Honda go to school together, they slowly become friends. This volume just has them starting to know each other, so they're basically friends by circumstance. However, I am confused as to why the plot blurb describes this as a "juicy" Yuri manga. This is very much a HIGH SCHOOL romance story. A single kiss is the most explicit thing that happens and I really hope it stays that way. Unless this series will continue or do a time skip to them in college, I have an extreme disinterest in reading about high schoolers in a [spicy] way. I'm trepidatious as to how the manga will handle this. The art was very cute! It's a very clear art style and makes it so easy to read and fully comprehend the scene's content.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

This was really addicting and I actually can't wait to continue it with the next volume when it comes out. The premise is an easy one albeit a bit problematic but sometimes you just want to read a book for fun and don't care about things not being super realistic and for me, that was this manga. I feel like there is so much the author could do with this series and show us with these characters so I'm definitely going to be continuing with this series to see where she takes things.

This was short and cute. I truly enjoyed reading it and would definitely read more books in this series.
*I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I Can't Say No to the Lonely Girl is series of six books and it's yuri (girls' love). The story moves quite fast actually. Our main character is Ayaka Sakurai and she's good at school, but panics too much when it's test time. She ends up in a not-so-good school compared to where she wanted. Her teacher makes her bring a girl to school and offers to write a recommendation letter for a better school, if she manages to bring her. Sakurai does, quite easily actually, and ends up being kissed by the said girl. And the girls wants to keep kissing. The manga seemed too easy for me and lacked drama. The only darker part is that Honda lives alone, but I do hope there's more to come. Also, Sakurai ends up having a crush already after basically the first day. I wish more time was used for everything.

The art is nice and lively. The rhythm is smooth and it takes no time to read this. The series is cute and fluffy, but I hope it can offer something else too. Six books is time enough to do that to a certain degree. At least this isn't ecchi, so points for that.

This was a fun manga, I would be intrigued to know how the story continues.
The "one request a day" that can also be kisses or possibly other intimicies in the future without Sakurai's consent is a bit dubious as a concept, but everyone reading the manga will know that from the summary from the start anyways. I do think the summary made the blackmail sound even more sinister than it actually is tho.
All in all, it is fun and cute, if you don't overthink the premise too much.

I’m kind of surprised, yet not that this is a trending Yuri. While I really enjoyed the humor - especially with Egawa-sensei, she could legit have her own series, and it would be hilarious - the “romance” didn’t work for me, because of the complete lack of consent. In order to get a recommendation to a better school from one of her professors, Sakurai agrees to do whatever she can to get a truant student - Honda - to come to school. But what Honda wants is to demand a favour that Sakurai doesn’t understand that she can say no to -every single day. Sometimes they are kisses, sometimes it’s walking home together. We do see Sakurai having budding feelings for Honda, but I don’t really jive with a relationship built on such poor consent. I should have been able to tell from the title, but when it comes to Yuri, I’ll give anything a chance so that’s on me.

The art is gorgeous, but I don’t think I’ll continue this series. I’ll probably wait to see what story the author has next before deciding whether or not this author and their stories just aren’t for me.

*I received an eARC from Kodansha Comics & NetGalley. All opinions are my own*

The cover caught my eye right away, so kawaii and adorable. And, fortunately, it reflected on the inside as well.

If we sort of turn a blind eye on the blackmail-ish vibes we get in the beginning, I Can’t Say No To The Lonely Girl was an extremely cutesy Yuri manga.
The art style was extra pretty and sparkly, complementing perfectly the actually sugary sweet brand-new relationship between smart and friendly Sakurai and the lonely girl Honda, despite its questionable start.

This was a fun part one, and can’t wait to see more of this series and these characters.

This manga had me feeling different ways. It started out with some CNC or just NC…which made me feel kind of icky. As the story progressed there was less opposition and it turned to want. I wanted to route for them and maybe have an enemies to lovers, and I do believe in the end they both wanted each other I just did not love how they got there.

This comic was so adorable and sweet, I loved how different they were, how Ayaka is popular, smart and the class rep. While Honda is a girl who doesn’t even want to go to school and has little friends.

They worked well together, and it turned out actually had a lot in common.

It does kind of bother me that this started out a little blackmail-ish, and not-really-consensual in the way Honda told her she’d only get the referral if Ayaka let Honda kiss her, but I think it worked out in the end.

Definitely in a way a lot of other comics like this definitely wouldn’t have written it.

I’m excited for part 2!

Adorable simple little story! While there are questions of consent, the story focuses most on the fluff and figuring out how your budding feelings.
Oddly enough, feels close to home to my own gay awakening. (Without the academic blackmail, of course.)

Thank you NetGalley for for this copy in exchange for a honest review.

I thought about it more and here's an edited review:

It's a cute shoujou-ai. So if you're in search of a romance with (more or less) low-conflict and a potentially sweet developing relationship, than this ones for you.
(Also a quick read)

I was a little sceptical at first, because 'blackmail' plot lines are often really angsty and dubious at best (interpersonal wise) but i thought this wasn't too bad. The initial catalyst (the deal with the teacher) for the plot was fine in my opinion and the aftermath (the requests), despite maybe not being for everyone, wasn't really that much of a problem for me. It is a little questionable but well 😂 i take it.
I think you need to go into this one without too much of a critial standpoint on stuff like that.

I really liked the MC, she was sweet and wasn't reserved with her emotions (despite being a bit shy).

The art style also fit the genre really well.

The negatives, aside from the 'blackmail' aspect (that may be a hit or miss for some): i think the romance needs more development, i need a reason to believe that they could be good together, which i know, for a Volume 1, doesn't have to be there right away but given that they have a physical one right at the beginning...the discrepancy is strong. The MC just accepts her faith (which makes the blackmail plot more agreeable) but doesn't explain why she's instantly interested. And because of the way Honda, the love interest, is portrayed (quiet, guarded...) we also don't know what her thoughts could possibly be.

I'll probably go more like 3.25 just because i do wish to see a bit more and flesh out the plot and romantic elements, as far as volume 1 goes, it's okay.

*I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.*



Likes:

Cover. It might be one of the most standards covers I saw, as almost every Yuri cover has this kind of cover, but it doesn't change the fact that it lured me into interest of reading this.

Drawings. The art is really nice. Especially as I noticed that the hair has a white outline, than the rest of the body parts, giving its certain highlight (only in the colour drawings). The eyes just seemed a bit uncanny on some pages at the start, but later on I didn't find this anymore, while reading. As an example for the uncanny part is page 27, last panel, her mouth isn't connected to her head, making it look a bit creepy. I understand that it doesn't need to always have a line for every single space, but this one is a bit too big and noticeable and it just doesn't seem right.

Dislikes:

I didn't like the comedy part in it, but that's 'cause I usually avoid anything with comedy as I don't quite enjoy most of it, so it's on me, I bet other's will find it funny.

It's a bit like a p*rn, as the romance starts off so fast and doesn't seem like any actual romance is involved.

The main character is acting a bit too fast when she accepts the 'kiss request', just for her future school. Also the way she said 'I will do anything', makes her look like an object. She just agreed way too fast and it is unrealistic.

The teacher's request was in the beginning fine as she also had a good reasoning; Being under peers puts one more at ease and has more strength to put one back to school than a teacher, but asking her to higher the grades of Honda is a job that only a teacher should do, NOT a student. They can help, yes, but it's the teacher's job to tell the student to learn and the teacher's job to assist them. Students might learn together, but it's not their job to go after them and their grades.

The ending didn't make me excited to read more. There certainly was a question, which one can think about a while after they finished it, but as the pacing was so different for each chapter and usually nothing happened and the only 'exciting' part was the romance it made me not interested whatsoever for another part.


What to do for a higher rating:

The thing that bothered me the most was that we weren't even in the middle of the FIRST volume and they already kissed and had some kind of 'love' relationship, if you can even call it by this, as it all happened so fast and unreasonable, it felt more like an ecchi than anything else.

End note/Final thoughts:

Thank you for the advanced reader copy of I Can't Say No to the Lonely Girl 1 by Kashikaze.

I wouldn't recommend it, unless you like fast romance and a bit of a ecchi part to it.



Started the book: 23. March 2024
Finished the book: 23. March 2024
Wrote the review: 23. March 2024

I saw the cover of this and I clicked the request button before I even had the time to process what I was doing. Thank you NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the ARC!

This is a super quick and fun read! The story is about Sakurai who is asked (bribed) by her teacher into getting Honda to come to school in exchange for a recommendation letter. Honda finds out about this and agrees to come to school as long as she gets to make one request to Sakurai each day. The first request is a kiss!

I really liked the characters and I think the plot is really fun. I do think that this first volume was just a little bit too fast as we didn't really get to know any of the characters. And some of their motives are still quite a mystery. But I am really excited about the second volume.

I would give this 3.5 🌟! The drawing style was a little off at some points and it moves at a very quick pace with little actual plot or character development, but it is cute. These types of manga didn't really exist or weren't very accessible when I was a teenager and I think I would have loved this when I was a comparable age. Now that I'm almost 30 it feels weird reading about 15 year old kids kissing, but 15 year old me would have felt hopeful for myself and represented.

The artstyle is so good really good. We are only at the start of the story but I'm curious to know more. Like their relationship, their friends and all of that.
The plot is nothing straordinary or new but it's definetly cute and put the base of the relationsip between the two girls. There are some funny scenes and we go to know little snippets of their personslity of the main characters and I really liked. We can see how different are they and how more time being togheter doing all the favours bring them more closer. From student from the same school to actually friends, and maybe later a little more.
I really liked the main character which we can see her feeling and opinions changing over the volume. She is such a nice girl and really determinated to her goal even though she does things that are out of the ordinary

I had a good time reading this, it was fast paced, cute some parts were gringy like the teacher being a weirdo. The relationship between the two MCs were cute, I will be reading the 2nd one when available. Thank you Kashikaze & netgalley for allowing me to read And review this manga.

This was just so cute! I grew up reading cute mangas and this brings me that to those days of reading and being happy to see two characters get together and fall in love. This story has the scenario of requests being made in order to ensure that Honda would keep coming to school.

I love how close they get and the cute little dates they go on. For me this is everything that I wanted it to be which was something cute and wholesome that will make me smile. Sometimes I need stories like this. Nothing complicated, only good times and joy and love. This story made me warm inside.

It’s short and sweet and I look forward to the next installments.

Cute art GL/yuri manga where the default class rep Sakurai has to go bring a truant student Honda into school.... but said student is a cute girl who tells her she'll keep coming if Sakurai lets her kiss her, and that she'll make various requests every day. From here you expect (well maybe not looking at other reviews but some of us have been manga/anime people for a longggg time and have seen so many things) that these requests will be outlandish or gross but they're not even always kisses.

Volume 1 gives us a glimpse into Honda's backstory even if it's a glimpse without too much depth or motivation (we know something about her living situation, but not why she wasn't going to school?), and clearly sets up that Sakurai is very caught in the trope of "but we're both girls!" which I think is a lot easier to overlook when you've seen it a billion times and you know it's not really a work of "dubious consent" but just a really common manga trope, especially with Sakurai very clearly thinking about these kisses in a way that extremely is not showing she doesn't want them.

Anyway! I'll continue reading this, it's cute and I want to know more about the girls.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha for the eARC in exchange for review!

I enjoyed this first volume and am curious on what's to come. I can see this relationship working; I just need a bit more from Honda's side. Like what's her motive? I'll pick up the next volume to see if we get more.

TW: Some non-con content

When good girl Sakurai gets saddled with getting the truant new girl Honda to attend school in return for a recommendation from her teacher the pair end up embarking on a business friendship where Honda agrees to come to school if Sakurai does her a favour every day. As a consequence, sapphic tension arises!!

I adored this, I don't read much manga but this was such a sweet story and a really good volume one, I'll definitely keep an eye out for future volumes to see how the story progresses.

Thank you to Netgally and Kodansha Comics for a free arc in exchange for an honest review.