A Side Character's Love Story, Vol. 1-11 by Akane Tamura
Nobuko Tanaka has always felt like a side character in her own life. She’s always been quiet and in the background while everything always happens to everyone else. As someone who struggles with general and social anxiety, Nobuko has mostly been content to an extent. Now that she’s in college and working, Nobuko has developed a major crush on a coworker and struggles to become the main character in her own life.
I’m reviewing the first eleven volumes of this series because it’s a slow burn that’s very easy to read. We follow Nobuko, a woman who struggles with severe general and social anxiety. The story keeps labeling her struggles as cute little quirks, but I’m not sure if it was always labeled that way or if that’s something that occurred when it was translated into English. It is a bit weird that all of her struggles are described as little quirks in the little blurbs in the panels from time to time, especially because the story carefully illustrates how much Nobuko’s anxiety affects every part of her life. That said, seeing her struggles with anxiety reads as extremely realistic to me, though my anxiety is not at the same level as hers.
Throughout the series, we see Nobuko make friends, meet goals, and fall in love with her long-time crush. While the terms of how you know you’re in love are hilarious, it’s actually a really cute story mainly following Nobuko. We do occasionally follow her crush turned boyfriend, Hiroki, as well as various other characters. I really like that there’s occasionally a chapter following one of Nobuko’s friends or coworkers, a customer at her job, and so on. It’s fun to get a glimpse into these other characters' lives between the main story.
Speaking of Hiroki, we do follow him here and there more often than the others. Like Nobuko, he does have anxiety, but not to the same extent as her. It’s fun to see him with his friends and family as well as see how much he cares about Nobuko because they’re both self-conscious and new to dating, so they don’t always show what they’re thinking around each other. As I read more volumes, it was nice to see how much these two care for one another and I can see they really are a sweet couple that are perfect for one another.
If you’re someone that doesn’t like slow paced stories, this is not the series for you. However, if you like a slow paced slice of life type of story, this series will be excellent for you. It’s very easy to read with beautiful artwork and likable characters that are relatable.
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