"The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy at All" on Sincerity and Annoyingly Long Titles

 

This week, I finally had the chance to read a book I've heard so much about for years— named The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy at All— that I have been begged to read. I've read enough manga and comic books to know that their general style is not usually something that catches my eye, as often they're quite fast-paced and tend to have many cliches, but I found this book to be very different from those I have already read.

In The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy at All, the name is quite self explanatory. It follows Mitsuki Koga and Aya Osawa— two high school students with very different lives. Mitsuki Koga is a quiet, anxious introvert who isn't particularly good at social interaction at school, but helps her uncle run a music shop that acts like her safe haven. Aya Osawa is outspoken and loud in her interests, even when her friends find her weird for it. Despite the two not seeming to have anything in common at first, that changes when Aya, by chance, visits the very same music shop that Mitsuki works in.

Mitsuki, being quite masculine-presenting, is mistaken as a guy by Aya. Sure enough, the very next day, Mitsuki overhears Aya talking to her friends about a "cute mysterious boy" she met at a music shop and how much she's obsessing over him. With no idea what else to do, Mitsuki says nothing both at school and when Aya came to visit the music shop a second time later that day. As much as Mitsuki wishes to tell Aya the truth, she fears losing one of the few people that's ever been interested in her. The story goes on as Mitsuki attempts to keep up with the lie, even as others catch on.

Strangely enough, through my enjoyment of the plot and the impressive three-dimensionality of the characters, the book made me realize one more thing I disliked about much of the other manga I had read: insincerity.

I have noticed that, especially in writing, it is very easy to tell when someone has actually experienced the events they are writing about in real life. When someone is simply drawing from other sources they've absorbed for the subject and not firsthand experience, it can feel not only unoriginal, but even performative to an extent. Such inspirations that the person uses can often be from other, further second-hand sources that frequently take either glamorized or demonized outlooks on the matter, and can unknowingly incorporate the writer's own bias on the topic despite themselves as a person not being affected by it at all.

In the case of this book, however, it does not feel that way. It feels realistic, original— and most importantly, purposeful.

Although the story may be fiction, the issues in which it discusses are very real. Not only does that allow for the characters themselves to feel much more human, but it also strikes those who are affected by the issues on an emotional level. It is very clear that, if not both, the author either very carefully and thoroughly researched the themes used in the book not just with other fictional stories but experiences of genuine people; or experienced them herself and is using the book as an outlet to express it. The resulting high quality of this story through her efforts has made me able to confidently say that it is the first manga I have enjoyed all the way through, and cannot wait to read the following books in the series.

-Livy

P.S: A note for Mr. Mitchell: I posted this at 3:00 AM (Saturday night, technically Sunday morning) and no later in the day as a result of my extreme procrastination.