Title: Don’t Blush, Sekime-san!

Creator: Shigure Tokita

Demographic: Seinen

Themes: first love, contemporary, high school romance, romcom, classmates

Status: Completed and Fully Translated

Published By: Shueisha

LINK

Official Summary:

His girlfriend is super popular, but he’s the only one who sees her turn bright-red! A rom-com about a boy and his over-embarrassed girlfriend!

Thinky Thoughts

Don’t Blush, Sekime-San! sits at the same table as Komi Can’t Communicate and The Dangers in My Heart. All three series are those contemporary male fantasies where a short semi-loser and a tall girl that’s just a little weird (or a lot weird, in Anna Yamada’s case in the third series) wind up in a warm relationship after some trouble. The difference between the three series is that Don’t Blush, Sekime-San!… isn’t about an easily overlooked guy or a loser. (I say this with warmth because I like Tadano from Komi and Dangers stars a Junpei Yoshino-looking little freak that I adore.)

Takadono, the male lead of Don’t Blush, Sekime-San! is precious. A little baby. I just want to gather him close and make him cake. At first glance, he seems like he falls into the genre conventions. Takadono is a tiny, unassuming, and visually average guy… and literally everyone loves him. Not in the way that male fantasy seinen/shonen protagonists are beloved while occasionally being Actual Trash ™, but like… the way that one cute and unassuming kid was super popular in school. You didn’t quite know why but you also didn’t have any complaints?

Anyway, Takadono is not used to being disliked, and so when one of his classmates, Sekime-san, goes out of her way to ignore him and refuses to talk to him or look at him… he assumes the worst. Sekime-san must hate him. Only… actually, her feelings for him are so much stronger and more positive than he could’ve expected.

I also need y’all to see the reason I picked this series up. I was on TikTok and someone posted the below panels from the second chapter where Takadono chases Sekime-san down to try and get an explanation for her behavior. Isn’t that just the cutest? Look at those cuties??

Once the cute confession is over, you’d think that that’d be the end of it. You’d think that we’re off to ride into the sunset, yest? Well… not so much. Because Sekime-san has a lot in common with Komi and that includes her inability to hold a conversation with the boy she likes. Despite the fact that Takadono and Sekime start dating really early on in the series, other couple milestones take a whole to happen because uh… Sekime-san likes Takadono so much that she can’t even walk home with him after school or talk with him in public. Any attempt makes her panic and run away at top speed, leaving her short little sweetheart blinking after her with confusion.

Honestly, the biggest roadblock to their developing relationship is… themselves.

And it’s not even that much of a roadblock, I’m going to be real.

That lack of external conflict really is another way that Don’t Blush, Sekime-San! breaks away from genre conventions. Normally, when the little dude gets the girl even in these male-gazey mangas, the boys in the class express annoyance or frustration with him. In Komi Can’t Communicate, multiple members of their class express aggression and even threaten Tadano for his deepening friendship with Komi, the quiet and most popular girl in class.

Here, they were upset with Sekime-san because they feared a romantic relationship would give them less time with their best bro. It was honestly very cute and across the series, the sweet friendship Takadono has with his male friends – who, by the way, use his tiny self to weight train in class because he’s so small and sturdy – is just as much a high point as his relationship with the shy and smart Sekime-san.

Honestly, the thing I love about Don’t Blush, Sekime-San! is that it’s just so stinking cute. Takadono is a darling little dumpling of a dude and Sekime-san is a shy sweetheart. They are so adorable and so good together and while the series is simple – no drama here and no love triangles – it means that you can just go into it with your head empty and have a good time.

Trust me, I reread it in its entirety whenever things get a little tough for me and I need a mood boost!