Yoakemae is a romance story about love and heartache that young teenage girls often can relate to. The manga has three chapters, each telling their own separate tale with different characters.
In the first chapter, the main character An has a boyfriend named Akki who’s helping their close friend Kouta hook up with a girl in Kouta’s class. Everything seems to be going great for all three of them until one day when An’s friends spot Akki with three other girls. When An catches a glimpse, she is immediately convinced that her boyfriend had been cheating on her.
Like An, a lot of girls know what it’s like to discover their boyfriends are cheating on them. I’ve had female friends who continually allow themselves to be used and abused time and time again. Once the girl furiously ends the relationship, the guy usually comes back to fix things only because he misses having it easy. Without a responsible woman who’s guaranteed to always be there to cook for him and do his laundry, the guy gets lazy. I believe the girl often gets back together with the guy because she feels sorry for him and with no back up at all, she finds the audacity to conclude that he’s changed.
For some girls this can be very real. Fortunately for An, it was just a misunderstanding. I still have to ask myself, though, was it really?
The second chapter of Yoakemae is about Mitsu, a girl who’s still holding onto feelings of the past for her ex-boyfriend Saho and who decides one day to go see him again. Saho had always loved Mitsu but when they moved away from each other, one of Mitsu’s friends sent him a picture of her with a guy. Ever since, Saho was angry because he thought she was seeing someone else.
Like Mitsu, there are many girls out there that just can’t seem to let go of their past relationships and move on. Guys like Saho don’t have any faith in their girls and find it hard to trust them. A picture without any explanation was enough to convince Saho that Mitsu was a backstabber without first hearing an explanation from Mitsu. Likewise, guys who hear the rumors from anyone other than their girl often times blindly believe the tales without first consulting their girlfriend for the truth. Unfortunately, disasters like this happen all the time.
At last, the third and final chapter discusses the relationship between Machida and her crush Isayama. The two start off as good friends who eventually fall in love with each other. My own experience has led me to believe in this possibility wholeheartedly.
If you’re a teenage girl who hates to read, the tales of Yoakemae is sure to change that about you.