Say I Love You.

After seeing the animae TV series by the same name I decided to check out the manga…an 18 book series by Kanae Hazuki. I’ve read the first 10 books and I’ve ordered books 11,12, and 13 on BarnesandNoble.com, they’re terrific.  I guess you could say I found the series addicting.

Say I Love You is the story of Mei Tachibana, a teenage loner. She is 16, doesn’t date, has no friends and lives with her mom and her cat Marshmallow. One day a boy in her class walking behind her upstairs pulls her skirt. Mei turns  and responds with a roundhouse kick to the face of…Yamato, the boy next to the one who had pulled her skirt. Yamato is impressed with her spunk & seeks her out  after class. Mei apologizes for kicking the wrong boy and gives Yamato a bandaid. Yamato asks for her phone number and says he would like to be her friend. When she won’t swap numbers with him he writes down his number and tells her to call him…anytime. Initally Mei is bewildered that Yamato, one of the handsomest and most popular guys at her high school is interested in her. She ignores him and doesn’t call for several days, then one night she is walking home from her bakery job when she realizes a creepy guy is following her. She goes into a convenience store hoping he’ll go away, but after a while he is still waiting across the street. Mei calls her mom but gets voice mail. Terrified, she calls the only other number she has…Yamato. Yamato immediately comes to the rescue. He walks outside with Mei and when the stalker approaches, Yamato says to Mei “I love you” and kisses her. The stalker takes off, and the awkward beginning of a beautiful romance commences. If you want to know more, check out the books.

In her afterword for book 1, Hazuki reveals that she was bullied as a schoolgirl and that some aspects of the character Mei were drawn from her experiences.  Coping with bullying, body shaming, and the awkwardness of teenage relationships is a big part of the series, and Hazuki handles these issues masterfully. I was a social mutant in high school, so  I can relate.se books are great. My only fear is I’ll make it to book 18 before she comes out with a book 19…