Never Hollowed By The Stare

Inoue-kun Hajimemasen ka? – Fujitobi

When Inoue’s asthma acts up on the first day of school, a boy named Karasuma helps him out. Inoue falls in love with him almost instantly, but Karasuma insists that he’s not interested in love. Inoue doesn’t give up and continues to ask him out at least three times a day. When Karasuma’s emotions get the best of him, Inoue mysteriously gets hurt by a mysterious breeze smashing a nearby window. But how could the sudden wind be Karasuma’s fault?

Adorbs!!!

Wanna Try Dating Inoue? is a collection of two interconnected stories set in a world where all sorts of furries and other mythical creatures exist.

The title story is about an asthmatic high schooler, Inoue, who was assisted by a poker-faced senpai, Karasuma after a particularly bad asthma attack. The super cheerful, super positive, super persistent Inoue promptly fell in love and was asking Karasuma to go out with him every chance he got. He was turned down every time. Strangely enough, Karasuma is always there to help him whenever he’s in a pinch. Why then is senpai so adamant about not wanting to date him?

This is how you do persistent, possessive characters. Typically I would be annoyed with Inoue’s type of character, the kind who throws themselves at the other person and wouldn’t take no for an answer. To me, that is harassment. However, Inoue did it so charmingly and so cutely. There were no dub-con moments. Everything was just so fluffy and gentle.

Karasuma is a tengu who possessed a rare ability. It is this rare ability that caused a disaster. This is why he doesn’t want to fall in love. But Inoue was pure sunshine and positivity, Karasuma found himself falling.

I particularly enjoyed the switch to Karasuma’s POV. Karasuma is expressionless most of the time it’s hard to tell what he thinks. But he’s just as endearing as Inoue in his own broody way. I loved their light/dark combination!

I Tried Dating Ookami is about Asaka who was confessed to by a big-scary-looking werewolf. Too scared to refuse, he agreed to go out with Ookami. He continued to be scared during their mostly awkward, mostly wordless interactions. The wolf was too intimidating. He couldn’t take it anymore, something had to give…Then he discovered, Ookami is not what he seems.

This is a story about not judging a person why his appearance. It was fun watching Asaka find out about the many wonderful things about the big guy. As you could have guessed, Ookami is a big softie. This wolf is really a shiba inu. Like I said, adorbs!

I really loved this volume! The art is very kawaii with furries and random creatures everywhere. The bonus panels at the end of each chapter were super fun!

If you like my content, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi. Your donations will help keep this website going. Thank you so much!