As kids, Kazuho and Tokio were close enough to give each other piggyback rides. But now, in high school, a gulf has opened between them—one that's carrying them further and further apart. It's a distance Kazuho is keeping on purpose, to keep from revealing the new feelings for Tokio that have been growing in his heart. But one day, Kazuho falls asleep in class, those feelings come spilling out—and it's all Tokio's fault…

What If I Said, "I Love You"? has a story by and art by Kumosoku. The English translation is by Diana Taylor, and the lettering is by Jamil Stewart. Published by Kodansha USA (June 30, 2026). Rated T.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Series creator Kumosoku says that they're not good at writing tales of yearning and that this one almost didn't have a happy ending because of it. I can see that, to a degree, in this volume. There isn't much actual angst as Kazuho pines over Toshio, and that's a bit of a problem, because this volume is meant to revolve around his fears that telling his best friend that he's in love with him will destroy everything. To be clear, I absolutely want this to work out, but I feel I perhaps should have had a bit more uncertainty about it.

That's really my only major complaint, though. What If I Said, “I Love You”?'s first volume is astoundingly sweet. Even though we don't get any detailed background on the boys' relationship, what we do get is more than enough to see how close they are. It's in every casual interaction – their words, the way they're physically comfortable in each other's presence, and even the way the rest of their friends treat them as a set. One flashback to middle school shows that some of the girls around them questioned their tendency to touch each other, but most people just accept it as who these guys are, even if the fact that this is a BL series tells us, readers, that yes, this is probably not just friends being comfortable.

The plot hinges on differences in how the boys understand their desire to be close. Kazuho, the more astute of the two, knows that he's in love with Tokio. There's no clear sense of when he figured it out, but by high school, it's gotten to the point where it's not easy for him to hide it anymore. His burgeoning feelings and need to share them are what jumpstart the romance, because it's gotten to the point where he feels almost dishonest with Tokio by hiding it, no matter how afraid he is to say something. Tokio, on the other hand, initiates most of the physical contact but seems unaware of any emotional component that accompanies it. Based on some of his words to other guys in their friend group, it looks like he's just not particularly attuned to his emotions, because it's almost blindingly obvious that he adores Kazuho. In fact, when Kazuho, after making the title fit the story, distances himself from Tokio, the other boy clearly wears himself out with worry, practically collapsing with relief once Kazuho is present in his day-to-day life again.

While this could have been a single-volume story and been just fine, I'm glad it has at least two more. Despite what many romances prefer, the mutual declaration of love isn't the end of the story, and the boys still have a lot to work out as they transition from best friends to boyfriends, or rather, add the latter to the former. Kumosoku may not be sure they did this “yearning” thing right, but I'd say they did it well enough to make this a very nice story that I'm looking forward to seeing continue.

Bolts
Rating:

Sometimes you read a story that does everything it sets out to do very well, and you want to commend it for how well it achieves its goal. However, you can't shake the feeling that you have read this same story dozens of times before, and you're probably going to read a dozen stories just like it within the next week. Sometimes that is the problem with a job where you consume so much media that you run the risk of relatively solid stories feeling a bit underwhelming, which is how I felt when I finished this first volume of What If I Said, "I Love You"? On paper, it's a relatively straightforward romance story about two childhood friends who seem to start a relationship by the end of the volume. In fact, the first volume felt so self-contained that I was actually surprised that there were teasers of a continuation in a second volume afterward.

The drama from this story stems from the fact that two boys were close from a young age, but then one ended up growing overly aware of the other as they got older. A circumstance forced one to confess, and now it's up to the other one to catch up. Although this feels like a dual-protagonist story, the book only really shows things from one character's perspective, so the introspection isn't as strong as I would like. That isn't to say that everyone's character isn't believable or grounded in some way, because they are. But there isn't really a lot here to grip you in an impactful way.

The chemistry between these two boys is very solid, and I did want them to get together, but there's no real threat or uncertainty here; everything more or less plays out exactly as I expected, and maybe that's the problem. I can read a story where I know exactly how it's going to end, but if the journey isn't interesting or if it feels like the romance was a given, then I'll feel like I walked away with nothing. I can definitely recommend this story as a fan of slice-of-life romances in general, especially if you're still new to them. However, this is definitely going to come off as a little bland to the more experienced, like myself.