Jikkyou!! Izumi-kun no Koi Moyou

(Before reading this series do note that the series has an abrupt ending because the magazine it was being published in was terminated.)

Jikkyou!! Izumi-kun no Koi Moyou is the story of an introverted high-school student with a communication problem. This wouldn't be the first time a story with this premise has been written. But an idea is only as good as its execution, and this a manga that I can say has been executed very well.

While the main character description doesn't sound all that unique, it can be an interesting premise for a story to develop around, especially when dealing with a story about character growth. And that is kind of imminent with what we have so far.

The protagonist, Izumi-kun, doesn't talk to people himself but has a great love for commentary. And because he doesn't speak, he silently commentates about the world around him live as it moves, something he finds fascinating as an observer. This worldview of his, however, changes when the girl sitting in front of him, Shinohara, decides to talk to him one day. A simple session of small talk quickly leads to him getting roped into her world which is full of lively, cheerful and loud people.

As an outsider to this world, we see Izumi-kun experience things he has never tried before and grow from it. This growth is portrayed in the form of him accidentally revealing his commentary side to the world. Shinohara, finding his voice charming, pushes him to talking more, which then becomes a personification of his growth as a person. The driving force of this manga is certainly the charm of Shinohara as she breaks away a Izumi-kun's shell bit by bit.

It might be because the portrayal of Izumi-kun's character hits very close to home for me that I find him such a fascinating subject to deal with. His feelings of anxiety and loneliness when he is talking to strangers, his feelings of excitement when he is talking to Shinohara, all of these have been very well executed, in as believable a manner as possible for a comedy manga.

The art isn't very spectacular, although it does have a charm and does grow on you.

All in all, Jikkyou!! Izumi-kun no Koi Moyou is a well portrayed manga about an introverted high-school boy as he experiences the world outside of his shell. It is a series that can either propel forward in a more meaningful manner, giving us an enjoyable journey of growth and maturity, or it can plummet into the depths of cliched mediocrity. Either way, it is a matter of time.

(This part has been added after the series' ending.) With the series meeting an early end due to the magazine getting terminated, it is really disappointing to have things end the way they did. With solid characters and decent premise, the series had immense potential to be a great character driven romance. That said, the open ending does leave you with a pleasant feeling, knowing that there's a bright future ahead for Izumi-kun and all the others. Other than that, I am certainly looking forward to what the author brings next.

It’s rare that you get a manga where the main character is both a doormat and likable. In Jikkyou!! Izumi-kun no Koi Moyou, our titular protagonist somehow manages to be a complete pushover, awkward as hell, and—dare I say it—genuine.

Admittedly, I had zero expectations coming into this manga. I thought it was going to be another love triangle filled school romance between the socially awkward guy and the outgoing normie girl. Well, it still is, but the characters make it much more enjoyable to read. Izumi-kun in particular is our shining star. I find myself rooting for the poor dude with no communication skills because the commentary he provides in his head is exciting. He finds himself getting into it and really roots for whoever he’s cheering on. Whenever he talked about the “normie cavalry,” I half-expected him to give the readers the standard, “riajuus go die!” But he subverts my expectations and does the opposite by being a nice dude overall—he does things like praising a guy for impressing the ladies and rooting for his fellow nerd who got forcibly put into a basketball tournament. What really won me over was when he was wholeheartedly cheering for a girl confessing to a guy with his usual mental commentary. Something about Izumi cheering so passionately from the sidelines makes me want to do the same.

And it’s not just Izumi that I root for either. I thought that Shinohara would be the same superficial gyaru stereotype that we’ve all seen before, but she’s a little more than that. She’s just this excitable ball of energy that’s willing to give Izumi the push he needs in this story. She takes him out of his comfort zone to let him grow a bit. She gets upset when people are laughing at Izumi and not with him. And as I travel further into the manga, the rest of our “normie cavalry” is more or less the same. Simply put, they’re all good people.

Now, praise aside, I’m not going to say that this manga is incredible. At the time of this post, only fifteen translated chapters are out. The plot is rather simple and leaves a lot to be desired. We have the standard love triangles running amok and Izumi’s slow but steady growth is exactly that—slow. Other than that, there isn’t much else to say about this manga. I’d say give it a try but don’t expect anything that’ll knock your socks off.

Browsing through the different manga left under rocks, you can find hidden gems or reasons why something doesn't kick off like it should.
Jikkyou!! Izumi-kun no Koi Moyou, straight to the point, feels like an incomplete and unsatisfying slice-of-life romance manga. There are scenes that feel unreasonable to be had, overly extended in areas and lacking any length in others, and a poorly executed great premise. I really liked this at the start and it failed to deliver. Why?
((The above is completely spoiler free. From here, this review might contain light spoilers. If you would rather have an easily digestible reason why I would not recommend this to someone, a tl;dr will be at the very bottom.))

Story - 3: Izumi is our main character and has felt like a completely isolated person who lacks any ability of social skills or confidence when it comes to interaction. Atleast, he thinks so. His self-defeatist mentality keeps him from gaining any kind of friends in his school or participating overall in life entirely. It makes him feel like a background character. Background character. Please, keep in mind how important that aspect is because the rest of the story is about Izumi dealing with that criticism of himself and how he wants to handle it. The story of how someone grows to not feel like a background character.
So, most of the talking and perspective comes the very interesting mindset of Izumi as he comments and rants in his head of what life is like around him keeping the theme of being harsh on himself but an optimistic outlook on everything else. There is a group of friends near him and, because of the meddling of one girl, he is forced into a daily routine of talking to her and the rest of these people way more than he used to do. (Which was not at all.)
This, in itself, is a really cool concept. A self-narrating main character with a heavily flawed but detailed mindset makes for good writing. Early on, it was wonderful and there are handfuls of scenes that are completely unique and can't be achieved by other manga from this concept alone. So why a 4?
The story was wasted. The main issue of our main character always speaking to himself and seeming like a background character seems like the main obstacle of the manga. From how the chapters go till even how it ends, it doesn't really seem to change. Sure, he gets one special moment in the spotlight that boosts his self-confidence. However, it's like the entire story is working against trying to remedy this obstacle and not in a well-written way.

Izumi makes other friends but only has a single panel dedicated to even socializing with them which is little less of "hi" and "bye" almost making it seem like he has acquired acquaintances only. Even his regular friends are rarely shown to be interacted with. (Although the story would like to say this is not the case, even the main character questions this often.) For almost all sixteen chapters, it still seems like he is a background character with only a shred of hope to obtain his one goal: to capture the heart and confess to the girl he loves who brought him to be more sociable. In the end, the manga only leaves a feeling of empty hopefulness. Minor plot obstacles are ended by forgetting about them and not really dealing with the issue, personal character growth barely seems self-rewarding, and the ending has our MC REJECT his personal desires and feed his sense of being a background character.
--((Spoiler/Please skip this line if you don't want this ruined for you: In the last chapter, Izumi wants to confess to his love but would rather support her own crush instead. This is a nice sentiment, but one that is seen for more than half the manga. It ends this way, with a "Maybe some positive things happen in the future?" cut to the Summer vacation between all their friends. It's disappointing, because it honestly feels like this was suppose to be a much longer series. This is where the purpose of our character who is suppose to GROW seem to recluse back into his style of life before. The unhealthy personality traits he had. It doesn't seem like support or doing what is right for him to become more. It seems like cowardice and giving up. It seems like a lack of finding new aspiration to keep getting better.
It seems depressing.))--


Even if it was cut short, there were plenty of ways they could've cut down on unnecessary details and focused way more on the ones left out. Even more, they could've stuck with a path which is a happy story of a man growing into a person who is less of a crippled introvert or a sad story where someone reverts back into his ways from his lack of determination. It seems they wanted to play it safe and take a middle ground while keeping the overall atmosphere of the manga 'happy' and leave a poor aftertaste of an interesting climax that you'd have to imagine. Wasted Potential. Very disappointing. Our boy, Izumi, starts as a background character, ends as one. Least we have hope. <Insert lobotomizing eyeroll emoji>

Art - 7: Art is clean cut for a slice-of-life. It doesn't often have the feeling of acid-washed pencil sketching and makes sure to make the characters (especially their eyes) show a lot of personality. It isn't amazing and the backgrounds don't especially stand out, but what it does right is done well.

Character - 5: This is a tricky one. You have an amazing main character with so much versatility and character. Someone with SO many flawed personality traits to be made likable. Maybe out of pity, but the pity is spared is mostly for his short, pessimistic moments. The main heroine is quickly shown to also have a variety of personality and design. Her crush has some, but not enough to care about his backstory or why he acts the way he does. The authors thought so as well as their answer to explaining his actions and reasons is with almost a single line.
Even if the explanation were true, he's mostly a plot point. Most feeling and thoughts are, in the biggest moments, conveyed through expressions and actions which is a really nice touch for such a wordy manga. It just is ruined with a completely unused cast of background characters that can't even get both well-written lines or EVEN ART detail. Even the main group of friends is barely focused on to the point I can't even recall their names or even when the manga literally mentions them. Which is sad when you are trying to write a story about the great feeling and importance of strong personal relationships with others.

Enjoyment - 8: You know, it was a unique idea and I was really excited at the start of it. Almost completely invested and hooked at the first diatribe of our main character's notes. Through the chapters, although aggravating to see them cut short or lack some closure/conclusion time and time again, I still REALLY liked seeing this concept (along with the concepts they were doing right) play out. If it actually had more work, this could've been really solid.

Overall - 4: I don't think anyone could read this start to finish and feel satisfied from the execution and conclusion story wise. I feel like people will really enjoy the concept and regret reading when they see it go nowhere and be so underused. I think a lot of people that love romance will not like how the romantic progression is nonexistent and possibly, canonically, does not happen. I don't think people will appreciate a character who is set up for a story to grow as a person barely scratch the surface and, technically, regress in certain aspects and only strengthen his self-deprecation.

tl;dr - It is really easy to read this and, at the end, think "Half done and poorly done". If others disliked it even more than my leniency, I wouldn't blame them. It is hardly rewarding in many aspects and is more a flowery roughdraft that seems exceptionally rushed. Yet, it seems like someone had a really good idea and wanted to do something. I don't know who, but I hope they learn from this and get to make what they actually wanted to. I understand the magazine was cut short and what they WANTED to do was not done, but that fact doesn't change what this "finished" product is.

I liked this manga at first coz I thought I can relate to the MC. But I came here mainly for the romance. If you're like me, then you're gonna get disappointed so don't even try reading it. I mean c'mon, why would I read a manga, where the MC supports his crush in order for her to get with the one she likes. Yeah it became obvious she won't end up with him, but I continued reading hoping for something, but the whole love commentary pissed me off honestly.

I always hate manga with annoying love triangles. But after reading this, I realized, at least in mangas with love triangles, the MC has a chance to get together with his crush, but this is something else. This MC is a wuss, and I want to kill myself for relating to him at first.

So now you know, don't waste your time reading this please. I'm doing y'all a favor. Anyone who read it will know.

This manga is actually pretty interesting. A main character who deals with his issues in a unique way is quite fun to read about, it was intriguing to see how the MC tries to cope with his shortcomings and try to hang with the 'normal' people in his class.
The dynamic between the MC and his love interest is also done pretty well, and the pacing for the two's relationship is believable too. The story has an aspect which i'm not really a fan of in general, love triangles. But this one managed to keep me intrigued because all members of the triangle are genuinely likable.

Unfortunately, the magazine which the manga was serialized in was terminated and the series ended in one of the most abrupt and (imo) disappointing ways (plot-wise) ever.

It's a real shame, this series genuinely had potential but unless the author decides to revive this series with another magazine (which seems unlikely since the author has vehemently stated that this particular series is over) this is the end of this manga.