My Oh My, Atami-kun Volume 1
Writer and Artist: Asa Tanuma
Publisher: Yen Press (print & digital)
Translation: Amanda Hayley
Lettering: Elena Pizarro Lanzas
Publication Date: Jul 23, 2024
Rating: Older Teen
Genre: Manga (JPN), LGBTQ+, Slice of Life, Romance
My Oh My, Atami-kun is Asa Tanuma‘s English market debut and was released in October this year by Yen Press. The series is currently ongoing in Japan, with three volumes out. Let’s see if I could get along with this young, confused high school boy!
Atami-kun thinks he’s too handsome for his own good. Since he’s interested in guys, he doesn’t know how to politely turn down the girls who keep asking him out. They must have fallen for his face, he reckons. What other reason could there be when they haven’t even greeted each other before?
Plus, his own feelings are already a handful. Whenever he changes seats, classes, or schools, he quickly falls for a different boy near him, totaling up to enough number of people to map out a timeline. Every crush he has is sincere, he knows that. So why did the one boy he confessed to say he was mistaken?
I’ll spare you the suspense: I absolutely loved this first volume. The art style is simple without coming off as barren or unexpressive. The plot is heavily carried by the casual exchanges between the characters with the narrator chiming in here and there. Since the volume is dialogue-heavy, you can expect the story to be more reflective and focused on interpersonal relationships rather than following a series of arcs with a definite beginning and ending.
Even though the intrigue in this series isn’t about uncovering mysteries, I still found myself flipping the pages, wanting to explore more about how Atami engages with his classmates, the family members of an upperclassman he often talks to, and our protagonist’s musings on what love and friendship entails.
It’s effortless to care for Atami as the reader. He’s an honest and earnest kid trying to navigate life to the best of his abilities. Very early into the first chapter, it’s revealed that he lives in a single-dad household where Atami defines their interactions as “business correspondence”. While this topic hasn’t been delved deeply yet, glimpses of its effect on Atami’s perception of love exist. Still, Atami doesn’t shy away from trying to build lasting friendships with people he’s interested in, honestly communicating his feelings and opinions.
The first crush of Atami’s we meet is Adachi, an upperclassman. They occasionally eat their lunches together and casually chat or sit silently at the same place, on a secluded flight of stairs in the yard. That is also how Adachi comes to invite Atami for dinner one day and Atami becomes a regular at their dinner table, cozying it up with Adachi’s sisters and mom.
This layer caught me by surprise, as a character’s continued relationship with another’s family members doesn’t get this much spotlight often. It was refreshing, and we will see in the upcoming volumes if it’ll become a more significant parallel between Atami’s own familial circumstance.
My Oh My, Atami-kun is Atami’s clumsy and sincere attempt at human connection. As a Boys Love fan, my immediate impression was that this series would take a somewhat similar route to the works in the genre. What I got instead is Atami’s coming-of-age story, laced with his worries, questions, awkwardness, and excitement as a gay young man who falls in love a tad too easily.
I highly recommend this series to anyone who’s interested in a coming-of-age story. However, fans of Go For It, Nakamura-kun! would feel most at home, as both series are less about whether the protagonist ends up with the love interest or not, and more about that sweet, adolescent yearning. There are months till the second volume to hit the shelves, but I’m eagerly looking forward to it already!
Header image is taken from Asa Tanuma’s X (previously Twitter) account.
My Oh My, Atami-kun Volume 1 is available digitally and in print on Yen Press’ website and other retailers.
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