Some Light-Hearted Yuri Fun in The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All Volume One

5 min readNov 18, 2024

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

He was a boy, she was a girl…oh, nope sorry, looks like that one doesn’t work here.

Reviewing I Saw the TV Glow last month left me thinking a lot about the balance between happiness and sadness when it comes to queer representation in media. Though said representation has come a long way, there are still way too many stories where gay people are there just to be a tragic subplot if they get that at all. Though I do still think the current political climate does call for a more stern and honest look about the state of the queer community, nobody wants to see misery all the time. Thus, when a friend of mine recommended The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All, it felt like a good a time as any to look for some chill vibes.

The story centers on Aya, a girl with a more stereotypically girly-girl look who also just happens to love American rock music. Though her friends call her weird for it, she doesn’t let that get to her. One day, on her way home, she finds a run-down CD shop she never knew existed, inside of which she found her knight in shining armor. Except…that “guy” just so happens to be the girl named Mitsuki who sits next to her in class. Thus, the tale of their incredibly Sapphic relationship begins.

Will They, Won’t They? Eh, They Probably Will.

Though I know next to nothing about this series beyond this first volume, part of me is not expecting to be surprised much by it going forward. This is not a comment on the quality of the story so much as it is one on the tone. Sure, there is definitely a lot of drama in this first volume as the two become friends, and I do expect there to be more so moving forward. However, this gives me the vibes of a happier series that is using the drama to create a bit of tension to keep it from being solely a slice-of-life romp.

Not to say the dramatic elements are entirely unconvincing. Mitsuki’s double persona acts as a great way to comment on her situation while also creating a sense of unsureness. Obviously she never intended to deceive Aya but the longer their situation dragged on the harder it was to drop the mask. Her school persona is so much different that, to her, it almost feels like lying. Meanwhile, Aya is oblivious until said mask starts to slip and at that point it kinda was lying.

Where Do they Go From Here?

Spoiler alert: Aya does eventually find out the CD shop boy is Mitsuki. Its literally in the title so if you’re surprised you might wanna do a little more reading. She does feel betrayed, and starts to avoid her classmate for a while. As much as the societal pressure of homophobia still looms over any queer relationship, said feeling of betrayal is understandable. Maturity of the situation aside, Aya now has some feelings she doesn’t know what to do with, and so does Mitsuki. Except, Mitsuki is thinking platonically and she is very much thinking romantically, thus the disproportionate responses between the two.

The emotional turmoil of these to continues even after making up, however, as Aya is Mitsuki’s only friend who shares her interests. We get a noteworthy flashback towards the end where Mitsuki is seen getting chastised by her elementary school friend because other girls tried to bully them into wearing skirts. Ultimately, her alt aesthetic leaves her more ostracized than anything else.

A Few Somewhat Minor Nitpicks

Mangaka Sumiko Arai started this series all the way back in 2021 one as a series of web comics posted to her Twitter account. As the occasional web-comic connoisseur, I commend her for this. However, as someone who likes to read manga, it does hamper the enjoyability a bit.

The formatting of the series doesn’t seem to have changed all that much, as it is still divided into many small chapters rather than a few bigger ones. This makes it to that the scene changes often and at seemingly random times, leaving a lot to be desired with the pacing.

There is also the issue of the text, which is too small to read sometimes, even on a laptop. On top of being too small, there is also way too much of it. Every scene feels loud and busy even when there is very little going on. A lot of this could be attributed to the English release, but having seen a few of the same panels in Japanese, it isn’t that much better.

Conclusion

Overall I am excited to continue the series, as both Aya and Mitsuki are truly the stars of the show. Their dynamic is both messy and engaging, and it will be nice to read something where gay people get to be happy, for the most part anyway.

Have you all read The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All? Let me know in the comments.

Thank you all so much for stopping by. For those who want to read a bit more, feel free to click back up top. Anyone who’s feeling generous or who would like to read some original poetry/short fiction from yours truly, look no further than directly below.