Sakura Miyazen and Sota Matsubayashi apparently are the two people I want to see in a romcom. What’s that mean? Well, they couldn’t seem any more different in public: Miyazen not only comes across as a princess to her classmates, but with her formerly attending a posh all-girls school before attending her new school, she’s definitely regal and proper. Meanwhile Sota (yes, not gonna go with the last name for him, sorry!) formerly went to a school full of delinquents and looks like one too. In other words, there’s no way they’d want to get to know each other…
…Unless their public perception doesn’t match up with their actual personality! As it turns out, Sota is actually a pretty strong but nice guy underneath that exterior, yet he just has a tough time talking to people, specifically Miyazen. Meanwhile Miyazen, for her all her smarts and looks, is clumsy, unathletic, and a worrier. Both of these two actually like each other, so they want to get closer. And thus, begins the manga where two kids klutz their way into a relationship, one (small) interaction at a time!
Miss Miyazen Would Love to Get Closer to You again follows into the general romantic comedy set up you’ve seen before, it’s just instead of a blank or bland boy connecting with a sweet girl, you have the opposites seemingly attract set up. But what this series does is it presents equal opportunity mushiness between the two and actual reasons why they like each other. You can complain about Sota simply not processing that Miyazen’s really into yakuza movies just like he is because he simply can’t believe she would be, but it’s really funny to see how she then becomes embarrassed that her one-liners that seem so perfectly timed to then become a conversation starter between the two doesn’t come close to working out due to Sota’s perception of her and lack of confidence in himself.
Whether it’s when they accidentally meet up at a movie rental place, when they do school cleaning, etc., the two have a desire to want to know each other better, but they just become awkward about it. And it’s very sweet! Yes, you can only take them misconstruing obvious situations for so long, but relationships do take time to build up. This is where the two are at now: they’re still learning about each other’s personality and likes, and the build-up to when they do connect will be very heartwarming.
The timing of the chapters work pretty well — you get mostly 8-10 pages of the two saying one thing out loud but a different thing in their brain, and it’s quite cute. Be amused at Miyazen not understanding the entire time that interacting with a boy consistently can mean different things to other kids, not just dating! See Sota reacting to Miyazen meowing when they both run into a cat meowing! Watch as Miyazen’s efforts to know Sota take a turn for the worse when they both carry a table down the stairs and she comes to the conclusion that with her lack of strength she’s only put them in danger — unaware that it’s less that and more Sota’s too shy to look at her! Just lots of great setups between the two that are either funny, sweet, or both.
One thing in reading both volumes is we also get the backstory as to “why” they happen to like each other. I think Miss Miyazen did enough set-up to get away without revealing it, but the manga does explain how these two got to know each other some time ago, and it’s as heartening as you would expect. The problem is each again have their own thoughts on events, so only the reader knows the whole story. Will these two finally break down and reveal this to each other? Hopefully they will?
So great characters, fun and funny chapters, and consistently lovely panels and emotions make Miss Miyazen a really great romcom work. Neither of them are perfect, and they both make their share of mistakes. All of that ups the hilarity and sweetness at the same time, and it’ll make them eventually discovering the truth really good. Looking forward to reading more.