Anashin. Volume 12 Cover Art Cropped, Waiting for Spring, Kodansha.
Waiting for Spring – Information
Author of Story: Anashin
Chapter Count: 13 Volumes, around 56 chapters + extras
Status: Completed
Content Warnings
These content warnings do not reflect the contents of the review below; only the literary work itself.
- Loss of loved ones
- Mature content / mature humor
- Injury, blood
Spoiler Disclaimer
This recommendation post may contain small plot spoilers for review purposes. Any major spoilers are hidden by default and are able to be revealed via click or tap.
Waiting For Spring – Plot Summary
Waiting For Spring is another lovely story by Anashin (if you’re into How I Met My Soulmate, you should check out this earlier work, too)! This manga has a classic shoujo high-school setting, and follows the heroine Mitsuki Haruno.
She decided to go to a high school a bit farther from home to start anew, and meet new friends. Unfortunately, she’s been having trouble speaking up and creating friendships with others so far.
One day while working her job at a cafe, some boys from her school’s basketball team show up, and ask her to come outside—it seems one of them wants to confess! However, shortly after being taken outside, she learns they were mistaken and brought the wrong girl outside.
Because of one member’s crush on Mitsuki’s coworker, the team continues visiting the cafe, making Mitsuki’s high school life just a little more interesting!
Anashin. Volume 6 Cover Art, Waiting for Spring, Kodansha.
Why I Enjoyed Waiting for Spring
Anashin has a talent for writing likable characters. The heroine is realistic and relatable, wanting to make friends like a typical high schooler—without the character leaning too much into the unfortunate heroine trope. The boys of the basketball team are playful and tease the heroine, but still make really nice friends, too.
Mitsuki is a bit scared to change herself, but pushes through in order to make friends. She slowly broadens her horizons throughout the story, trying new things and becoming more brave. She cries often, but doesn’t really seem like a weak heroine. I liked her personality overall!
I also like the first male lead, Towa Asakura. He doesn’t seem to truly understand his own feelings, and it was nice to see that aspect for the male lead too this time, rather than just the female lead—as shoujos often do.
Towa also holds a lot of importance in playing his sport well, especially alongside his friends. He practices so much that he ends up sleeping all during school, which is a pretty funny character trait I didn’t expect from him. But his character seemed like the type who would only prioritize his sport, so it was fun seeing him fall in love slowly, too.
The romance in this story is sweet and a little suspenseful. Their feelings build slowly and naturally, and it was exciting to see these characters overcome their love-related challenges.
Like I said, the heroine needed to build her confidence, and the male lead seemed a little unsure of what he was feeling—plus, he really cared about basketball and didn’t want to get distracted. But just like one character says earlier in the manga, you can’t do anything about feelings of love once they start!
Another perk of this manga for me was the slow burn. I always appreciate mangas that allow friendships to form before romantic feelings, and Waiting For Spring achieves this well without holding off too long on romance. I think it allows the progression of feelings to seem more natural that way. It also becomes more exciting as the characters start to act different towards each other.
Seeing Towa begin to make moves was so fun and exciting! This manga gave me a little second hand embarrassment because it’s a bit cheesy, but I love that sort of thing, anyway.
Anashin. Volume 11 Cover Art, Waiting for Spring, Kodansha.
Although a lot of people may not like second leads, I actually really enjoy the second lead trope and I think the way the author created it in this story was fun and interesting! It wasn’t too different from the usual childhood friend trope, but has a little twist to it.
That character is also not what I was expecting: hilariously sassy and very blunt. They are a bit pushy though, so some readers may not like that aspect.
I did mark this series as a romcom, but the comedy is very tame. It isn’t equally balanced between humor and romance—the romance and plot are much more prominent. The comedy is more in the background, through witty remarks or silly things the characters do or say. If you would prefer a romcom with much more comedy, check out My Love Mix-Up or Tiger and Dragon.
Although I do enjoy comedic romances, I personally really liked the type of subtle humor found in Waiting For Spring. It didn’t show up so often that the story felt unserious, but was goofy enough to give the manga some personality.
I also really liked the side characters in this manga. They added some fun humor to the story, but they were also pretty important for pushing the plot. I also liked when some focus shifted to the side characters—the author did a good job at making me want to know more about them, without shifting the focus away from the main romance too much.
Overall Waiting for Spring was a fun read. It had nice characters who experience growth, and a fun, competitive love triangle. This story also featured a bit more focus on sports than I expected, allowing us to enjoy basketball games in suspense alongside the characters. I liked this sporty aspect, and feel like it added a lot of interest to the plot.
Any Cons?
One obvious con in this series for some readers will be the love triangle aspect. I enjoy love triangle romances because it keeps things interesting and a little more dramatic, but I can understand why some readers dislike that trope.
The heroine struggles to figure out her feelings between the two love interests, and kind of comes off wishy-washy. If these sort of things will really bother you, maybe skip this series!
Secondly, there is a side story that involves an age gap; although the exact age difference isn’t explicitly mentioned.
Another smaller con I have for this manga is the side-character, Reina. Minor spoilers here: She isn’t problematic or anything, just a stereotypical “fujoshi” character meant for laughs. There’s nothing wrong with liking BL obviously, but I don’t really like when authors create characters who are borderline stalkers or just downright creepy.
The story easily could’ve done without that character trait, even if it was meant for humor. The exaggeration and intensity of her character is funny, but the reasoning behind it is just off for me. Maybe she could’ve been an intense sports fan or something instead, haha. Other than that aspect, her character is perfectly fine.
One last con I want to mention is the ending was just a bit too short. I think I would have liked to see the relationship a bit more, and not have the story end so soon after the ship sailed.
More In-Depth Review (Warning: Spoilers!)
Waiting for Spring takes an interesting path for the love triangle. Often, love triangles in shoujo mangas go one of two ways:
- The second love interest is so well-written that you get a heavy case of second-lead syndrome, or…
- The second lead is just so random and irrelevant that they’re annoying.
In this manga, however, I feel like it didn’t take either of those common paths. Aya was a childhood friend with a twist, where he and the heroine were originally so close and comfortable with each other—but only because Mituski thought they were both girls.
When he returns and wants to resume their usual closeness, she is incredibly confused. He’s obviously a very important friend to her, but then also drops his romantic feelings on her; only furthering her confusion.
I think Mitsuki is a bit wishy-washy for a while because in her heart she has feelings for Towa, but also doesn’t want to hurt Aya. Realistically, I don’t think Mitsuki truly considered Aya as an actual potential love interest. She cares for him, but not in that way. I think this helped prevent the second-lead syndrome from getting to me this time.
Additionally, Aya was a very good friend to Mitsuki, so I didn’t think he was annoying, either. He just wasn’t the right fit for her. She wanted to grow and build her confidence and meet new friends. Aya wanted to coddle her, protect her, and shield her from the world.
In the end, that’s why Towa made a better boyfriend for Mitsuki. He cared for her, but wasn’t obsessed with her to the point of being controlling. He let her grow and supported her from the sidelines. He valued friendships and building skill, and that made him a better fit in a relationship with Mitsuki!
Regardless, I liked the love-triangle approach in Waiting for Spring. It lasted throughout pretty much the entire plot, but the second lead didn’t feel overbearing and didn’t cause unnecessarily dramatic conflicts. I also like that he and Towa end up developing some form of understanding in the end. It was a very interesting development!
Final Thoughts
Waiting for Spring features an intense love triangle romance, lots of character growth, and a modern art style. The romance is a sweet slow burn, and there is a decent amount of drama throughout it all.
The characters are all so earnest and fun, you begin to like even the side characters! Overall it was a fun read with lots of emotion and even some suspense. Give it a read and check out Anashin’s other works, too!
Disclaimer: Any images used for this blog are for illustrative purposes only, are not owned by me, and are under ownership of the artist or publisher.
Images Credit: Anashin. Waiting for Spring, Kodansha, 2017.
