Katakoi Lamp Manga Review

-Written by: Krystal

I’m not going to lie, when I first looked up this book I was more drawn to the dessert on the cover than the actual story. I actually didn’t read the synopsis at all when I signed up to do the review and just had a vague idea of what it would be about. I love sweets, the dessert on the cover looked super sweet and wouldn’t you know it, the story turned out sweet too! This story is a really cute read about a blossoming relationship and how gender really doesn’t matter when it comes to love.

Katakoi Lamp follows Kazuto, a coffee shop manager, and his crush Jun, who comes into the shop on the daily. Kazuto has never been attracted to men before, but when it comes to Jun he just can’t help himself. He’s convinced Jun comes into the shop all the time because he has a crush on Kazuto too, so Kazuto’s main mission is to get to know Jun and ask him out. Unfortunately Jun reveals to Kazuto that he is actually crushing on the waitress at the shop, Hisahara, but he’s too inexperienced in dating to tell her how he feels. Heartbroken, Kazuto decides that if Jun can’t be his boyfriend then he’ll instead try to get close to him by becoming his friend and helping him get a date with Hisahara.

Slight spoiler: Kazuto and Jun do get together (it’s a BL manga after all), but not before there are some minor road bumps but the lead up of them getting together is so cute. During the entire manga Kazuto kept gushing about how cute Jun is, but I found Kazuto to be way cuter. His innocent crush on Jun and his desire to just be around him, even if it’s just to go on a pretend date with Jun so that he can get some practice in before the real thing, was just so precious. One of my favorite scenes was when Kazuto explains to his friend, Kyosuke, why he has a crush on Jun. Kyosuke makes the comment about how he didn’t know Kazuto “swung that way” when he tells him that his crush is on a guy and Kazuto explains that his gender has nothing to do with it. As someone who doesn’t believe a person’s sex or gender has anything to do with love, I found it so refreshing.

While I found myself grinning and basking in the adorableness of the story, there was one thing I was not a fan of and that was the character designs. Unfortunately, all of the male characters ended up looking the same, especially the two main characters. Thankfully Kyosuke has dark hair so I could tell the difference between him and the others, but Kazuto and Jun had very similar designs. When they would have scenes together I would often get confused as to who was who when cutting back and forth. Other than that, I really enjoyed the manga.

I know I’ve probably overused “sweet” and “cute”, but this manga was so sweet and cute! The character’s innocence and their shared experience of entering into a new and unfamiliar type of relationship was entertaining to watch. I don’t believe that there is going to be a second volume, but I really hope that there will be. I would love to see this story continued. I’m just happy that my foodie loving brain decided to choose this book, because it’s one of my favorite manga reads to date!