Boku Kara Kimi ga Kienai (You Can’t Disappear from Me) is the story of a girl, Kanzaki Hotaro, who finally gets into the same highschool of the man of her dreams who happens to teach there. On her first day of school, however, she meets a boy who is mean to her and just so happens to look like Sensei. This boy is Haruna Kousuke and, surprise, he’s Sensei’s brother. The story unfolds as Hotaro tries her best to get close to Sensei while Kosuke tries his best to steal her attention and love away for himself.
The manga covers a lot of typical highschool romance themes: the forbidden attraction of loving a teacher, the trouble that comes from loving the same person as your best friend, and coming to love someone you never expected to. All of these themes come together in the first volume to make a pretty great start to the series. I would have liked to see the relationship between Hotaro and Haruna-Sensei play out a little bit more before transitioning into her falling in love with Kousuke, but I think that is something that is easy to dismiss. Kousuke as a love interest is pretty good as well, though there was that moment where he pretty much forced a kiss on her after she said no. Putting this aside, he does seem like he genuinely cares for her and doesn’t seem to force their relationship any more than that, preferring to wait for her to make up her mind and come to love him naturally.
One aspect of this manga I will say makes me figuratively take off a point or two is it’s reliance on awkward moments and accidents to force the plot forward. There were many instances in this volume where Hotaro say trips down the stairs into Kousuke’s lips or hurdles randomly falling on her and her friend, requiring Kousuke to carry her friend to the nurses office and inciting that love triangle. I’m hoping these will slow down as the story progresses and more important plot points get introduced, but we’ll see.
Otherwise the art is well done, with great expressions that are able to display the emotions of the moment with great effect. The addition of chibi’s that stand in for expressions of strong emotions sometimes adds a layer of light-heartedness that breaks up the drama fairly well. The panel layout adds a sense of movement to the plot, keeping your eyes moving from one age to the next without becoming over-crowded or too busy. All together, it seems to be turning out to be a pretty good highschool romance if that’s your type of thing.
Verdict: Looks promising, I’ll keep you posted!
Stay tuned for the review for Volume 2!
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