It’s rare that you get a manga where the main character is both a doormat and likable. In Jikkyou!! Izumi-kun no Koi Moyou, our titular protagonist somehow manages to be a complete pushover, awkward as hell, and—dare I say it—genuine.

Admittedly, I had zero expectations coming into this manga. I thought it was going to be another love triangle filled school romance between the socially awkward guy and the outgoing normie girl. Well, it still is, but the characters make it much more enjoyable to read. Izumi-kun in particular is our shining star. I find myself rooting for the poor dude with no communication skills because the commentary he provides in his head is exciting. He finds himself getting into it and really roots for whoever he’s cheering on. Whenever he talked about the “normie cavalry,” I half-expected him to give the readers the standard, “riajuus go die!” But he subverts my expectations and does the opposite by being a nice dude overall—he does things like praising a guy for impressing the ladies and rooting for his fellow nerd who got forcibly put into a basketball tournament. What really won me over was when he was wholeheartedly cheering for a girl confessing to a guy with his usual mental commentary. Something about Izumi cheering so passionately from the sidelines makes me want to do the same.

And it’s not just Izumi that I root for either. I thought that Shinohara would be the same superficial gyaru stereotype that we’ve all seen before, but she’s a little more than that. She’s just this excitable ball of energy that’s willing to give Izumi the push he needs in this story. She takes him out of his comfort zone to let him grow a bit. She gets upset when people are laughing at Izumi and not with him. And as I travel further into the manga, the rest of our “normie cavalry” is more or less the same. Simply put, they’re all good people.

Now, praise aside, I’m not going to say that this manga is incredible. At the time of this post, only fifteen translated chapters are out. The plot is rather simple and leaves a lot to be desired. We have the standard love triangles running amok and Izumi’s slow but steady growth is exactly that—slow. Other than that, there isn’t much else to say about this manga. I’d say give it a try but don’t expect anything that’ll knock your socks off.