College student Ichika's done with boys who won't commit. She's looking for a proper, long-term relationship…yet because of her flashy appearance, she is often misunderstood. Her determination takes her to a mixer, where, after another night of frustration, she bumps into Kosei. He's totally up front: He just wants to keep things casual. Yet to Ichika's chagrin, they immediately click, finding more and more common ground. In another universe, they could be great friends, but despite herself, Ichika goes tumbling head over heels. She knows pursuing Kohei is just getting her further and further from her LTR goals… What could one woman compromise for love?

You Might As Well Be the One has a story by and art by Megumu Seto. The English translation is by minami, and the lettering is by Michael Martin. Published by Kodansha USA (August 11, 2026). Rated T.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

You don't need romance manga to tell you that finding love isn't easy. For college student Ichika, love has been a game she can't win since high school – her first boyfriend dumped her for not “being like he thought,” and her second cheated on her. She's determined to find a good guy this time, and to that end, asks her friends to set her up with “serious” men. Their answer is to invite her to the Engineering Department's mixer, where she meets Sanari. The two hit it off as friends, and to readers, it looks like he could be the one.

Except he's not the kind of guy Ichika's looking for. He's into casual relationships and has zero interest in forming a long-term anything with anyone, Ichika included.

What makes this volume good isn't the will-they-won't-they nature of the story. Whether or not Ichika and Sanari end up together is a draw, yes, but what's more engaging is the fact that Sanari clearly has issues he's not talking about yet. He never says he's not attracted to Ichika, and in fact initiates something late in the volume. But he repeatedly says that he's not good enough for her, goes out of his way to tell her that he's sleeping around, and tries his damnedest to scare her off when they do anything that isn't strictly friendly. Despite all of that, he clearly respects her (when she says “stop,” he stops immediately) and, even more obviously, likes her, as both a person and a woman. Whatever's holding him back and making him act the way he does is internal, and he's not sharing yet – even though it looks a lot like he doesn't actually want her to date anyone else.

It's entirely possible that he's just a jerk who wants to have his cake and eat it, too. But the yearning way he looks at her in the final pages and the gentle way he interacts with her on a physical level say something else. Ichika has been burned before, but I suspect he has, too, and that he's afraid that a meaningful relationship with him would break something in her. Between his façade and her honesty, this is setting up to be an interesting series, and the clean, clear lines of the art help to emphasize the characters' interiority. I'm curious to see where it's going – and how hard it will be for Sanari specifically to get there.

Erica Friedman
Rating:

On the one hand, You Might As Well Be the One is a story in search of a conflict. On the other hand, it's a pretty wholesome college life romance. A straight romance, because if this had been written by a gay person, there'd be a gay best friend who totally would have told Ichika and Kosei that they are already dating.

But no, in this very straight romance, everyone is warning Ichika away from this player, including Kosei himself. Do straight people not understand the difference between love and sex? Apparently not. So Ichika likes Kosei, and Kosei likes Ichika, and they are already hanging out. Excuse me for not seeing the problem. Straight mating rituals confuse me. Do they have to announce they are dating before they are considered to be dating? As far as I'm concerned, this series could be over. They have a friend! Nice. Maybe it will become more. Yay!

But…no. It's not that easy in their world, so we'll get another volume. As long as they don't add a dreary trauma subplot for no reason, it'll probably be very cute and sweet, as this volume is. In case I didn't make that clear —this is a very nice volume. Everyone in the manga seems pretty normal, with the average amount of self-criticism. There's no high drama here, no screaming, no assault or abuse, and for that alone, You Might As Well Be the One's first volume is a refreshing, relaxing read about two people who are already in a relationship but just don't see it.