The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

I Can't Say No to the Lonely Girl

What's It About? 

Quintessential good girl Sakurai finds herself trapped in the middle of a bribery scheme. Her teacher offers to write a recommendation letter in exchange for luring a truant student into attendance. Sakurai pins down the reclusive transfer student Honda, but there are strings attached. Honda demands that Sakurai grant one wish every day. The first wish is a kiss―and Sakurai finds herself feeling very eager to please…

I Can't Say No to the Lonely Girl is a manga by Kashikaze. This volume is translated by Diana Taylor and lettered and retouched by Belynda Ungurath. Published by Kodansha Comics (March 19, 2024).

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Who is the lonely girl of the title? At first glance, it looks like Honda – she's living alone in her family home following her parents' acrimonious divorce and subsequent de facto abandonment of her, not coming to school, and functioning like a ghost in her own life. But there's a case to be made for Ayaka being lonely, too. A high achiever burdened by equally high adult expectations, Ayaka is driven to be the absolute best student ever, which has resulted in some very severe test anxiety. When the book opens, she's failed to be accepted at her top-choice high school and is feeling pretty rotten about it. She may have friends, but she's also very much alone in her head.

The first volume is about the two girls finding each other and forging a connection, and despite the goofy catalyst of FPS-obsessed homeroom teacher Egawa, it is all about them interacting in increasingly meaningful ways. Egawa's entire role is that of comic relief as she tempts (okay, bribes) Ayaka to figure out why Honda hasn't been coming to school, saying that if Ayaka can change that, Egawa will write her a recommendation for the university of her choice, no questions asked. That's an excellent motivation for Ayaka, but upon arriving at Honda's house, things change. It turns out that they were nodding acquaintances back in middle school, with the subtext that Honda had a crush on Ayaka. She leverages Ayaka's ambition to get that recommendation to finagle one request per day out of the other girl, and yes, many of those are kisses.

That's the most uncomfortable part of this story – that Honda is bribing Ayaka into a relationship. Ayaka doesn't seem to truly object, and she wants to know Honda better after a brief interaction with her. While I don't love that Honda is using underhanded methods (or that Egawa is doing the same), it's also clear that Ayaka hasn't ever had a close relationship with anyone, friendship or romantic. Yes, she has friends, but their interactions feel very surface-level, while Honda is invested in getting to know Ayaka much more closely. That's mutual, because Ayaka is also interested in Honda, even if she doesn't fully understand her own emotions. The thrust of the story as the book unfolds is based around Ayaka learning that she doesn't just have to be the emotionless honor student, discovering through her relationship with Honda that there's more to her than she thought. The execution is a little rough, with the story feeling like it jumps around a lot, especially in the middle of the volume, but the underlying themes with very clean and attractive art help a lot. This is a series with potential, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes and how it gets there.

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Kevin Cormack
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For a debut manga, I Can't Say No to the Lonely Girl is impressive. It immediately introduces a collection of oddball characters, embroiling them in a sticky situation that's compelling and spicily problematic. Similar in premise to the recent yuri title I Can't Believe I Slept With You!, it's not as overtly sexual, but there's still initially, at least, a skewed power dynamic between the lead characters.

While we're left completely in the dark about problem teenager Honda's motives, we're privy to Ayaka's entire confused, self-doubting internal monologue. She's completely blindsided by her peculiar teacher's manipulative promise of a letter. What kind of teacher hides in shrubbery and ambushes unsuspecting students with clandestine missions anyway? She's completely untrustworthy, but Ayaka's desperate to prove herself.

Honda's fully aware of Ayaka's selfish motives in approaching her, so presumably to mess with her insists that she capitulate to some outrageous demands. Ayaka… just sort of goes with it, though she's flustered that a girl she barely knows just straddled her on a park bench, planting a wet slobbery one on her unsuspecting lips. This is yuri manga land, where such behavior doesn't result in a slap to the face.

Understandably, Ayaka begins to obsess over what this kiss means, can't get the gremlin-like Honda out of her head, and takes to staring at her in class, musing things like “such long lashes… she is pretty.” Seems like something's been awakened in Ayaka, especially as only on their second day as co-conspirators, Ayaka takes Honda to the amusement arcade on what's a date, even if she doesn't realize it. Honda even wins her a crane-game plushie.

Their further interactions can be pretty tropey at times, with two separate incidents in darkened areas where Ayaka gets frightened and grabs onto Honda, leading to… uh-oh… some pretty lewd hand-holding. Things escalate quickly when Honda insists Ayaka stays the night at her empty house, but all she's after is a chaste hug on her bed as she falls asleep. As the title suggests, she's a lonely girl who perhaps needs a close friend the most. Although there's no explanation for Honda's school absence, she's been essentially abandoned by her parents. I wonder if her messing with Ayaka is a way to gain the emotional intimacy she craves. Although their relationship starts with skewed power dynamics, it begins to even out as Ayaka introduces Honda to her friends, they go on more dates, and they each do little things to make each other happy. Honda does an efficient job at seducing Ayaka, and it seems obvious that what started with a game has resulted in Honda also catching feelings.

This volume leaves a question mark posed over the girls' relationship with one another. It's compelling enough, with interesting characters that I want to know what happens next. It's a really cute manga, with simple and effective character designs and frequent squashing and stretching of facial features for comedic effect. Kashikaze's art isn't the most detailed, but it works well to tell a simple story. Recommended for yuri fans looking for something fairly lightweight but with a hint of spice.

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Lauren Orsini
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Can a blackmail story be sweet? I Can't Say No to the Lonely Girl argues yes. After a teacher promises her a recommendation to the school of her choice if she can convince truant student Sora to return to school, class representative Ayaka is ready to do anything to get Sora to comply. When Sora says she'll return to school if she can request one favor a day from Ayaka, starting with a kiss on the lips, Ayaka literally can't say no! Though Ayaka and Sora's relationship starts on dubious terms, it quickly becomes obvious that they're both into it.

Transactional beginning aside, Ayaka finds herself wanting to get closer to Sora for her reasons. The girls discover a mutual interest in arcade gaming, and Sora even starts to fit in with Ayaka's friend group. It'd be a simple story of friendship, except for the fact that Ayaka finds herself disappointed whenever Sora doesn't request something lovey-dovey. As the girls grow closer, Ayaka starts to fall out of the Miss Perfect role she's been struggling to uphold and lets Sora see more of her true self in a lovely progression of character development.

There are a few differing details but overall this is a cookie-cutter high school romance that fans of the genre have read a million times before. There's a scary school-at-night scene with the requisite hand-holding, a theme park date with a Ferris wheel ride to finish it off, and a sudden rainstorm prompting a surprise sleepover and the new intimacy that comes with it. It runs through all of these scenarios like it's checking the boxes, but at the same time, it has cute, fluffy moments that remind me why these scenes became cliché in the first place. The ending note implies a sequel is imminent, and while I have no expectations for it to become any less color by numbers, it gets points for treating a yuri story with charm, sincerity, and the complete absence of a fetishizing gaze.