Love Me, Love Me Not Manga: All 12 Volumes Guide

Love Me, Love Me Not Manga Volumes: The Complete Series at a Glance

Love Me, Love Me Not (思い、思われ、ふり、ふられ) is a completed shojo manga — a romance manga aimed at a young female audience — with 12 volumes total. If you’ve been looking for a finished romance manga you can pick up and read straight through without waiting for new releases, this series fits the bill perfectly.

It’s written and illustrated by Io Sakisaka (咲坂伊緒), the creator behind well-known romance titles like Strobe Edge and Ao Haru Ride. Love Me, Love Me Not is a completely standalone story — you don’t need to have read any of Sakisaka’s other works to follow it.

The series was serialized — meaning it was originally published chapter by chapter in a magazine — in Bessatsu Margaret, a Japanese shojo manga magazine published by Shueisha, one of Japan’s largest manga publishers. The English edition is published by VIZ Media, a major North American manga publisher, under their Shojo Beat label. It’s available in both paperback and digital formats and carries a Teen rating, making it accessible for younger readers as well as adults.

Genre-wise, it’s a blend of drama, romance, and school life — character-driven storytelling with no supernatural gimmicks or action sequences. The heart of the story revolves around four high-school students: Yuna, Akari, Rio, and Kazuomi. These four are tangled in overlapping one-sided feelings — the kind of messy, realistic emotional web where one person likes someone who likes someone else entirely. Think of a love triangle, but with four people instead of three, creating an even more complicated tangle of quiet longing, misread signals, and the gap between what people feel and what they actually say.

The final Japanese volume came out in June 2019, and the English edition wrapped up with Volume 12 in January 2022. That means every single volume is out and available right now. No cliffhangers left unresolved, no release schedule to track. You can start Volume 1 today and read all the way to the ending whenever you’re ready.

Story Arcs Across All 12 Manga Volumes

Love Me, Love Me Not is structured around shifting romantic dynamics rather than distinct labeled story arcs. (An “arc” in manga simply means a stretch of chapters that focuses on a particular storyline or theme.) The series naturally breaks into three phases based on how the characters’ feelings evolve, collide, and eventually settle.

Volumes 1–4: Introductions and the Love Polygon Takes Shape

The opening stretch establishes who these four characters are and what they want. Yuna is introverted and cautious, the type who watches from a distance. Akari is outgoing and direct about her feelings. Rio carries a quiet intensity, and Kazuomi seems easygoing on the surface but is harder to read than he appears.

Across these first four volumes, the manga carefully sets up each character’s romantic inclination — who they’re drawn to, and crucially, who doesn’t feel the same way back. First impressions form, friendships develop alongside crushes, and by the end of Volume 4, the core emotional geometry of the series is firmly in place. You understand the stakes: these four people care about each other as friends, but their romantic feelings don’t line up neatly, and that tension drives everything forward.

Volumes 5–8: Complications and Uncomfortable Honesty

This is where things get heavy. The middle stretch of the series pushes past the initial setup into confessions, rejections, and the messy aftermath of both. Characters who spent the first four volumes circling around their feelings are now forced to confront them directly — and to deal with the consequences when feelings aren’t returned.

What makes this section compelling is the way Sakisaka handles rejection not as a dramatic climax but as a starting point. A confession doesn’t resolve things; it complicates them. Feelings evolve even after someone has been turned down. Friendships strain under the weight of unspoken resentment or guilt. Volumes 5 through 8 are the emotional core of the series, and they reward close, attentive reading.

Volumes 9–12: Resolution

The final quarter of the series is where relationships crystallize. Misunderstandings that have lingered for volumes are finally confronted. Characters who’ve been wavering make commitments — or accept that what they wanted isn’t going to happen. The pacing picks up here, and most readers find it hard to put the books down once the resolution phase begins.

Without spoiling specifics, the ending is satisfying in the way that good shojo romance endings tend to be: it feels earned. The characters arrive at their conclusions through growth, not convenience. Volume 12 wraps everything up cleanly.

Keep in mind these groupings are based on the series’ narrative pacing, not any official division. The manga flows as one continuous story — these are just useful markers for how the emotional tone shifts as you read.

Marathon Reading Plan — Where to Pause

Twelve volumes is a very manageable length for a marathon read. The series is focused character drama from start to finish, with no extended detours or side stories that slow things down. Whether you read quickly or prefer to take your time, you can comfortably get through all 12 volumes in a day or spread them across a few sessions. Here’s a natural way to break things up.

Session 1: Volumes 1–4

Read the setup in one sitting. By the end of Volume 4, you’ll have a clear picture of all four main characters and their tangled feelings. This is a natural stopping point because the initial dynamics are established and you can take a breath before the drama intensifies.

Session 2: Volumes 5–8

The emotional middle of the series hits hardest when you read it in one continuous stretch. Confessions and rejections lose their impact if you space them out too much — the momentum matters. Set aside a few hours for this block if you can.

Session 3: Volumes 9–12

Once you start the resolution phase, you probably won’t want to stop anyway. The final four volumes move quickly, and the payoff for everything that’s been building lands in rapid succession. Volume 12 brings the story to its conclusion, tying up the romantic threads that have been weaving through the entire series.

The “Just Read It All” Option

Twelve volumes of shojo manga isn’t a huge time commitment. If you’ve got a free afternoon or evening, reading the whole thing in one or two sittings is genuinely a satisfying way to experience it. The emotional connections between scenes are clearest when you don’t have long gaps between volumes.

The Animated Film — What to Know

An animated feature film adaptation of Love Me, Love Me Not was released in September 2020, produced by A-1 Pictures, a Japanese animation studio. It’s a standalone film rather than an anime TV series (a serialized animated show), so it tells a compressed version of the story in a single sitting.

If you’re wondering whether to watch the film first or read the manga first — read the manga first. The full 12-volume story gives you significantly more depth with each character. You spend time inside their heads, watching small moments accumulate into real emotional shifts. A single film, no matter how well-made, can’t capture all of that.

The film is separate from the manga reading order. You don’t need to watch it at any particular point in your reading, and skipping it entirely won’t leave any gaps in the manga’s story. Think of it as a companion piece — something to enjoy after you’ve finished the manga if you want to revisit these characters in a different format.

Which Edition Should You Buy — All 12 Volumes Breakdown

The VIZ Media Shojo Beat Edition

The Shojo Beat edition from VIZ Media is the only official English release of Love Me, Love Me Not. It covers the complete series across 12 paperback volumes, and all 12 are also available digitally.

There is no box set or omnibus edition (a single book combining multiple volumes into one) for this series as of this writing. If you want physical copies, you’re buying the individual paperback volumes. If you prefer digital, VIZ offers the complete series through platforms like their own app and other major digital manga retailers for instant reading.

The Teen rating means the content is appropriate for the age group the genre naturally appeals to — there’s nothing here that would give parents pause. It’s emotionally intense at times, as romance manga tends to be, but there’s no graphic content.

Paperback vs. Digital

Paperback is the way to go if you like having manga on a shelf — and the artwork on the book spines for shojo series tends to look lovely lined up in a row. Digital is great if you want to start reading immediately or if you’re short on shelf space. Both formats contain the same translation and content.

If You Enjoy Io Sakisaka’s Work

Sakisaka is known for this particular flavor of emotionally grounded high-school romance. If you read Love Me, Love Me Not and want more, her other major works — Strobe Edge and Ao Haru Ride — explore similar themes with different casts. Both are also completed series, so you can marathon those as well. Each story stands entirely on its own — there are no shared characters or plotlines between them.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many volumes of Love Me, Love Me Not manga are there?

12 volumes in both the Japanese and English editions. The series is fully complete.

Is Love Me, Love Me Not finished?

Yes — the manga is completed. All 12 English volumes have been released by VIZ Media, with the final volume published in January 2022. You can read the entire story right now with no waiting.

Who publishes Love Me, Love Me Not in English?

VIZ Media publishes the series under their Shojo Beat label. It’s available in paperback and digital formats.

Is there an anime adaptation?

There is an animated feature film by A-1 Pictures, released in 2020. It’s a standalone movie rather than an anime TV series. Reading the manga first is recommended, as the 12-volume story has far more room to develop its characters and relationships.

Do I need to read Strobe Edge or Ao Haru Ride before Love Me, Love Me Not?

No. Love Me, Love Me Not is a completely standalone story. There are no shared characters, plot connections, or required reading from any of Io Sakisaka’s other works. You can start this series with zero background.

What order should I read Love Me, Love Me Not in?

Volumes 1 through 12 in numbered order — straightforward and simple. The animated film is a separate adaptation and doesn’t factor into the manga reading sequence. Start with Volume 1 and read straight through to Volume 12.