I had the pleasure of reading Lovesick Ellie, Vol. 1 last week and enjoyed it so much I created a word cloud featuring my first impressions. I’m excited to provide my in-depth review of volume 1. Note: I use the spelling Omi-kun for the male lead’s name because some panels use that spelling while others use the spelling Ohmi.
Chapter 1
Eriko “Ellie” Ichimura is a fantasy-prone fan-girl who posts her fictional love life/love fantasies on Twitter. These fantasies typically star her and her high school crush, Omi-kun. Omi-kun. Ellie thinks of herself as a wallflower that no one notices. When classmates get her name wrong, Ellie doesn’t bother to correct them.
One day, Ellie witnesses Omi-kun’s foul-mouthed, cranky reaction to receiving a cookie from a girl who has a crush on him. Omi-kun thought he was safe because he was in Shota-sensei’s office (who happens to be his uncle.), but the door broke, and Ellie overheard everything.
After running away from Omi-kun and Shota-sensei during the door-break eavesdropping debacle, she realized too late that she dropped her phone.
For convenient plot purposes, Ellie’s phone was unlocked, and Omi-kun discovered her secret double life. Omi-kun offers to make Ellie’s fantasy a reality if she doesn’t tell anyone about his real personality.
Ellie allegedly takes too long to respond, and Omi-kun rescinds his offer. Omi-kun and Ellie run into each other again when Shota-sensei (Omi-kun’s uncle) asks her to write a book review for the school library. Omi-kun is not worried when Ellie is concerned that female students have stolen his jersey. He says it always happens and that someone will bring it back eventually. Omi-kun says that caring about it too much is a “pain.” Which Ellie determines really just means Omi-kun is lonely despite constantly being surrounded by admirers.
When Ellie says he is lonely out loud, Omi-kun says he doesn’t want to hear that from someone caught up in their own fantasies. Soon after, Ellie sees the jersey thief and tries to talk to her, but the girl runs away from Ellie. As she catches up to Ms. Jersey thief, Ellie makes a confession. Ellie says she’s jealous of the thief’s willingness to proactively try to get Omi-kun’s attention.
When Ellie starts to fan-girl/ramble about understanding the urge to have the jersey near her, smell it, etc, the thief is overwhelmed and throws the jersey at Ellie. After the thief calls Ellie a perv and declares that they are not the same, Omi-kun appears. He admonishes the thief gently, but when he notices she repaired the jersey, he is kind enough to thank her.
The thief apologizes and says that she just wanted to help Omi-kun. Omi-kun turns on the charm for the thief before she wanders away in a happy daze. Omi-kun also admonishes Ellie for going after the thief and putting herself in danger. Before Ellie can ask how he found them, he says he felt compelled to follow Ellie after all the “pervy” things she said about his scent and such. Ellie is embarrassed about Omi-kun overhearing the conversation, but Omi-kun thinks it is hilarious and says, “It was the best.”
Omi-kun decides to give Ellie a “reward” for getting his jersey back. Omi-kun kisses Ellie lightly through the jersey while the jersey is over her face.
Chapter 2
Ellie is fantasizing as usual when she hears girls congratulating Omi-kun for being featured in a local magazine. Ellie is pleasantly surprised when her classmate, Sara Misaki, esays she wants to be friends. Misaki-san reached out to Ellie because of the book review she wrote at Shta-sensei’s request. Ellie hilariously focused on the intimacy scene for her review and nothing else.
When Ellie goes to tell Shota-sensei all about her budding friendship thanks to the book review, she runs into Omi-kun. Omi-kun teases Ellie about making her first friend and seems to be in a bad mood.
Despite his teasing, the foul-mouthed pretty boy seems happy for Ellie. He even shows concern when Ellie tries to clean up some glass with her bare hands.
Ellie’s heart goes into overdrive when she realizes that Omi-kun touched her hand. This elicits a genuine laugh from Omi-kun that warms Ellie’s fan-girl heart. Ellie is overjoyed when Misaki-san gives her a small pouch, which she made herself. Misaki-san tells Ellie that sewing is her favorite hobby. Misaki-san asks Ellie about her hobbies, but she is too embarrassed to admit that she writes self-insert fan-fiction on social media.
Ellie is surprised when seniors hit on Misaki-san, and Misaki-san seems uninterested. Misaki-san admits that she’s not good around boys. She then asks Ellie if she and Omi-kun are dating, which Ellie quickly denies. Misaki-san asks Ellie if she can get Omi-kun’s clothing measurements since Ellie and Omi-kun seem well acquainted. Ellie agrees to get the measurements for Misaki-san, but she is left feeling uneasy about whether or not Misaki-san’s offer of friendship is genuine.
Due to Misaki-san referring to Omi-kun as “special,” Ellie worries that Misaki-san is using her to get closer to Omi-kun. (After the rollercoaster known as Peach Girl, we can understand Ellie’s worries.) As usual, Omi-kun overhears the conversation between the two girls. Omi-kun tells Ellie that this sort of quid-pro-quo happens in relationships between real people. Basically saying that most people tend to use others to their advantage.
Later that day, Ellie runs into Misaki-san, who tries to give Ellie a nickname (Misaki-san is unaware of her Lovesick Ellie alias.) Ellie is overwhelmed by her own lack of social skills when she can’t think of a nice nickname for Misaki-san. Misaki-san takes this to mean that Ellie is acting cold when, in reality, our girl is just awkward. Ellie’s thoughts get the better of her as she thinks about Misaki-san and Omi-kun becoming the perfect couple.
Omi-kun witnesses part of the nickname incident between the two girls and offers to have Ellie take his measurements. (Tsundere level kindness. Trying to help Ellie keep her first friend.)
Ellie recognizes Omi-kun’s kindness and refuses to use him just to gain friends. Ellie says she’d rather continue learning about the real Omi-kun than worry about fake friends. This leads to Ellie tying up Omi-kun with the measuring device to get him to listen to her.
This outburst of honesty with Omi-kun helps Ellie decide that she won’t give up on being friends with Misaki-san. (Yay!) Ellie realizes that Misaki-san was trying to get to know her, but she didn’t open up to Misaki-san in return. Since he is still tied up, Omi-kun makes a joke about bondage and persistence. When he jokes that he doesn’t dislike being tied up, Misaki-san comes to the rescue and turns the hose on Omi-kun, thinking he’s being pervy with Ellie. He also asked Ellie if she was “prepared.”
Misaki-san is the ultimate girl’s girl. As it turns out, Misaki-san didn’t want Omi-kun’s measurements because she was in love with him. She wanted his measurements to use as a model because his proportions are ideal for making clothes. Misaki-san makes a point of saying she refuses to be with a “real man.” She later explains to Ellie that her ideal guy is actually a French historical figure who is deceased (These two girls are the definition of delulu is the solulu.
Ellie decides to be honest with Misaki-san and tells her all about her Twitter life as Lovesick Ellie. Misaki-san isn’t judgemental in the slightest and says it sounds like fun. Misaki-san admits to Ellie that she has also had difficulty making friends due to her enthusiasm for sewing. She explains to Ellie that reading Ellie’s intimacy scene-focused book review gave her the courage to be herself and try to become friends with Ellie.
Ellie offers an extremely frilly shirt that Misaki-san made to Omi-kun since he got all wet. He promptly refuses, saying he’ll borrow one of his uncle’s shirts. Ellie tries to ask what Omi-kun meant by asking are you prepared? Omi-kun tries to deny that he ever said that to Ellie, but as she turns to leave, Omi-kun makes a surprise confession! Omi-kun asks if Ellie is prepared for him to love her. (Love confession by chapter two? I’m not accustomed to this modern shoujo timeline.)
Chapter 3
Omi-kun insists he is teasing Ellie about his confession and heads home. (Not before jokingly inviting Ellie to walk with him.) Ellie and Sara-chan (she and Misaki-san are now on a first-name basis) decide to walk home together. Sara-chan decides to go to a lingerie shop of all places, which Ellie has never been to. She ultimately waits for Sara-chan outside.
The next day is Omi-kun’s birthday, and as female classmates flock to him, Ellie feels self-conscious because she didn’t buy a gift. Omi-kun finds all the attention to be a pain.
Omi-kun asks Ellie to walk home with him today, but she refuses since she doesn’t have a gift for Omi-kun. Naturally, Ellie doesn’t tell him this because what’s a high school shoujo without miscommunication, right? Ellie intends to buy Omi-kun a gift after school, but a classmate ropes her into taking their place at a gardening club meeting.
It turns out Ellie’s classmate just wanted free time to get Omi-kun a present. (Girl, get in line.) Ellie gets caught in the rain while gardening and is surprised to find Omi-kun was waiting for her.
Instead of being happy, Ellie feels self-conscious again and argues with Omi-kun, telling him to go home. Understandably annoyed, Omi-kun leaves, and Ellie is in tears. Luckily, our favorite bestie, Sara-chan, arrives to console Ellie and make her come to her senses.
Sara-chan reassures Ellie that there’s nothing strange about being afraid to fall in love. Sara-chan enters fairy godmother mode, presenting Ellie with an unknown gift, saying, “Women should have courage.” Ellie rushes off to find Omi-kun. In her haste, Ellie nearly gets herself run-over by a car while calling out to Omi-kun. Omi-kun is surprised and flustered because Sara-chan’s gift was actually a sexy bra from the shop she went to. (These girls are hilarious.)
After Ellie spouts some hilarious romance novel-inspired lines about lonely nights, Omi makes it clear that’s not what he meant when he said, “Are you prepared? Omi-kun admits that the miscommunication is his fault, and he wants to be with Ellie romantically. After that heartfelt confession, Omi-kun is focused on not letting anyone else see Ellie’s bra.
Chapter 3
The kids are going on their first date to the local festival. For Ellie it’s fantasy come to life. She even took the initiative and asked Omi-kun to the festival.
Ellie is nervous about the date, but Omi-kun seems calm. Omi-kun promises that he and Ellie will make good memories at the festival after Ellie shares she was often forgotten about as a child while playing hide-and-seek at shrines.
The budding couple were having a great time until Omi-kun ran into a middle school classmate named Aoba-kun. Aoba-kun seems friendly enough, but Omi-kun seems uneasy around him. Omi-kun seems in a rush to get away from Aoba-kun. Two girls who were with Aoba-kun keep referring to Omi-kun as “hot’ and comment that Ellie is too plain to be his girlfriend.
Ellie is a little confused and thinks Omi-kun and Aoba-kun must have been close. When Omi-kun asks why she thinks so, Ellie explains that Aoba acts the way Omi-kun does at school.
Omi-kun says he wasn’t like that in middle school and seems to be in a bad mood. Moments later, students from their school’s tennis club spot Omi-kun, and Ellie makes herself scarce.
Ellie gets so lost in her own thoughts, speculating about the mask Omi-kun puts on with others and his relationship with Aoba-kun, that she gets lost for real.
At a loss for what to do, Ellie decides to report Omi-kun as lost. She makes sure to add that he is extremely attractive to his physical description. Since he is not a young child, the festival authorities are not helpful in finding Omi-kun. Aoba-kun overhears Ellie’s humorous description of Omi-kun while walking by. An hour has gone by and Ellie still hasn’t found Omi-kun. She worries he may have gone home.
Omi-kun has been running around looking for Ellie, too. Aoba-kun finds Omi-kun and refers to him by the humorous physical description Ellie gave the festival authorities.
Aoba-kun tells Omi-kun that Ellie is looking for him. When Omi-kun asks where she is, Aoba-kun spouts some strange lies. First, Aoba-kun says she seems to be heading home; he then says she went off with another guy. Omi-kun ignores Aoba-kun and runs off to find Ellie. (Berating himself for not having her phone number.)
Ellie and Omi-kun are both relieved when they finally find each other.
Ellie tries to apologize for prying into Omi-kun’s past with Aoba Kun, but Omi-kun reassures her it’s fine. All Omi-kun wants is for Ellie to stay by his side persistently as she promised she would. The feelings between the two lovebirds are growing strong. Omi-kun mentions that Ellie’s tweets about their festival misadventures were hilarious and made him happy/ In all the commotion Omi-kun and Ellie have missed the last bus. This might lead to the tried and true hotel one-bed trope. We’ll see how things turn out in volume two.
Overall impression? 9/10. I enjoyed volume one far more than I anticipated. Ellie and Sara-chan are hilarious, and I’m glad they’ve become friends. I’m also pleasantly surprised that Ellie and Omi-kun’s relationship has hit the ground running. It may not be a series for everyone, but I believe if the reader doesn’t take Ellie’s fantasies too seriously, it is very enjoyable and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny. I think Omi-kun and Ellie are well on their way to experiencing a real first love.
