Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru

A manga about upperclassman Urushi Yaotome and freshman Ayumu Tanaka, who are the only members of the high school shogi club. Urushi tries to get Ayumu to confess his love but he refuses until he can beat her in a shogi match.

This is a very cute series. The dynamic is a bit similar to Kaguya-sama: Love is War but this book is going for a more sweet high school romance than ridiculous comedy. I like the title being a play on shogi as Ayumu’s name is the same kanji for the pawn piece in shogi. The pawn(Ayumu) keeps advancing past Urushi’s schemes and it’s really cute to see her get flustered. The character designs by Souichirou Yamamoto really work well. Reading makes me cheer them both on!

~dakazu