I love this! It is so cute and I like the cuteness of both Mari and Hikari. Mari i9s conventionally cute but Hikari is sweet, kind and you can see shes evolving. It was a great read.

I love reading YA book and this took me back to my school days of love, friendship and all. The illustrations were beautiful and charming. The plot was heartwarming and i absolutely love all the characters.

This digital ARC was obtainable via NetGalley for an honest review.

This was so good! I love to read shojo manga because of the way they portray romance and friendships. "I See Your Face, Turned Away" had all the components that I usually enjoy in this genre. We do have a love square going on, but I am so invested! I wonder what is going to happen in the next volume.

Wanting what you can’t have is hard. I hope that in the future of this series that each person learns to see more then just that one person they like that doesn’t like them back. I read this because it is something I experienced in middle school and high school and I feel like at that age we can’t help ourselves. We fall in love with the idea of love and don’t realize that the person that doesn’t feel the same way as you do about them, is never going to be that right person for you.

The tone throughout this entire story is that hopeful sadness. It felt like reading the parts of high school you wish to forget. The cliques and the jealousy and wanting to fit in more than you stand out. I wish that it’s something that didn’t continue on and we started to celebrate individual talents more than fostering jealousy between students. Also, making student ability more then just about being the best at one thing or another, but encouraging each individuals growth.

Reading this I realized I don’t really miss high school at all. As much as I loved to learn, the emotions and the social rules and hierarchy’s that form were a source of frustration for me. It’s something that I hope everyone matures out of.

The story itself is a very realistic story of what high school is like. The way it made me vividly relive my own high school experience shows that the author very much remembers her high school experience. It’s not the fondest of memories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha for the e-book copy!

This title is one of my anticipated manga reads of the year. This series is getting critical acclaim in Japan and I wanted to see if it was worth the praise. I See Your Face, Turned Away is about four teens experiencing unrequited love. Unrequited love is a trope that I would say is sometimes overrated. However, in this one, it didn't feel that way. I felt it helped to move the story along in a steady progression. The problem that I had with this came with the characters. In this first vol, we are introduced to the teens and see their relationship dynamics. Their relationships lacked the depth needed for me to understand why we should care. I hope as the story goes on it focuses on those relationships more and less on the unrequited love. I will give this another volume to see if it improves for me.

I liked I See Your Face - it's a beautifully drawn, funny story about highschool crushes that embraces the fact that they are not always successful, but worthwhile experiences nontheless. The thing is, though, I think the design for the series doesn't come through on the basis of one volume alone -- having read it previously online, I can tell that it feels more satisfying as a whole picture. It has a lot of staples of shoujo manga, but because it chooses to tell the story across four POVs in covering events that overlap a little between each other, it reads different to a one-shot collection and to a straight up narrative with separate perspectives. I welcome the change in format, I liked getting an insight into the heads of the four main characters. It's just that volume one presents only one of the POVs and only begins to show the other one, so it's hard to appreciate the overall design. I recommend you stick out with the continuation of this story: the best one comes last, because your intuition isn't wrong: Asa-chan's story is the one that reads in the most fulfilling way.

Thanks to Netgalley and Kodansha for an ARC of this manga.

3 stars

This really hurt my heart especially with the unrequited love trope and the story line is a bit confusing as well. However, the art style is cute!

It was tough for me to really connect with the characters—they felt kinda shallow and unpredictable. The story didn't flow smoothly, and there were moments when it felt like it didn't quite come together. On the bright side, though, I did appreciate the art style. I believe there was great potential for a cute story about teenagers and their high school dramas, but it ended up feeling a bit too surface-level and hard to follow.

Designs: so cute!
The protagonist is also approved: an ordinary girl, but extroverted. I believe that over time she will become more self-aware and she will give us surprises.
The character that intrigued me the most is Asa-chan, I hope we can get to know him better.

P.S. I can't wait to read the new chapters and find out how the events will evolve!

“I see your Face, turned away 1” is a manga about navigating high school friendships, unrequited crushes and the emotions involved in those situations. There were some issues with the text/translation, but the art style was beautiful. It was a fun read, however sometimes the story line dragged on a bit with unnecessary scenes that didn't add that much to the overall story.

This is super cute and frustrating. She's happy helping her friend get together with a guy who likes her friend but she has a crush on that guy. The two of them are super cute together. Can't wait to see where this story goes.

Intrigue has been built. Unrequited love in a friend group. How can this go without someone being hurt…
However i think there are some issues with the translation and it should be edited over. I feel like the characters are a little dull, but there is four to focus on which can be difficult in such short pages so maybe with the upcoming volumes it will be better. Although i doubt I’ll read them

This was a very cute manga to read! I enjoyed it from start to finish. Can't wait to read the rest of the novels in this series!

Thank you NetGalley and Kodansha Comics, for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review! All thoughts are my own and left voluntarily.

One might call Hikari extraordinarily ordinary. One day, she takes up a new hobby--imagining what a romance would be like between her pretty friend Mari and the cute guy in their class, Ohtani. It's all in harmless fun, until the roles start to get tangled in Hikari's mind. Does she really have to be just the best friend in this love story? And just who is on Ohtani's mind when his eyes drift away...?

Now, blurb sounded interesting enough and I saw couple reviews that gave me an idea that I would probably enjoy it. But, alas, I was not one of those readers. For the life of me, I could not be interested in this story. Aside from the cute art and switching pov, this manga felt bit all over the place. Jokes didn't land with me, some scenes were unnecessary and some text was repeated? Either misprint or I really just didn't get the idea behind it. Vibe was there, potential was there but well.. I guess this was not for me.

If you like short story about seemingly ordinary life around high schoolers - this is for you!

1.5 because I did like art.

Thank you to Kodansha Comics for the earc.
This was such a cute first volume, i love the author's artstyle and I really liked Mori as a main character, she's a really fun MC, I really curious about the other characters too and how it will all continue, i can't wait to read more volumes of this manga.
I will definitely continue this series.

This is volume one of a high school based Manga where the main character sees herself as completely average, and is trying to help her friend be more outgoing and fall in love.

It's cute thus far, a little predictable but fun nonetheless.

What a wonderful manga! The story of high school friendships and crushes, often unrequited, and the ways to navigate this emotions. A very relatable and cute story. The characters are so enjoyable and the art is lovely. I can't wait for volume 2!

I See Your Face Turned Away is the first volume in this manga series. It focuses on Hikari who is an ordinary girl. She starts imagining her friend Mari and the cute boy in class, Ohtani, in a relationship together. When Ohtani starts wants to get closer to Mari, he becomes friends with Hikari. As they spend more time together, Hikari begins to develop feelings for him.

This manga was a sweet high school romance. It is leaning towards an unrequited love, but you never know what way it will go. Hikari is an interesting character. She seems so concerned about what others want that she doesn't tend to focus on herself. As she begins to think about what she wants, she realizes that she likes Ohtani and wishes that he woukd like her instead of Mari. Mari is very shy and hasn't had much development so far. Ohtani is a sweet character who I hope to learn more about as the manga progresses.

So this was fine! A little story of high schoolers and their unrequited crushes trying to overcome some social issues (talking to strangers, talking to your crush, etc). The art was pretty, but unfortunately Ohtani and Asa looked really similar so I kept getting them confused.

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

3 out of 5 Stars

It was okay, just not what I usually reach for in manga.

Thanks you Netgalley for this E-Arc