Kare First Love - Reception

Reception

Kare First Love was well received in Japan, selling more than 1.5 million copies as of July 3, 2004. It sold 3.5 million copies with its 9 tankōbon volumes by May 2006. Animefringe's Patrick King commends the manga's art as "visually pleasing", saying, " I don't think it's on the level of Yuu Watase or Miki Aihara (of Hot Gimmick fame), but character designs exhibit a life of their own. Comics Worth Reading's Johanna Draper Carlson comments that the manga is unlike many other shōjo manga series, this one doesn’t have many comedy or any fantasy or exaggerated elements. It’s just a straightforward romance demonstrating universal emotions." A later review by Carlson comments on the "recurring motif of a particular song Kiriya's mother used to play for him on the piano", saying that Karin playing the song "it’s almost as though she’s being groomed to take over from his mother in watching out for him. On the one hand, that’s poetic and symbolic of the passing of boy from son to husband; on the other, it’s sort of creepy, that Karin becomes his new little mother, an impression reinforced by the relative lack of romantic elements between the two in this volume." Mania.com's Mike Dungan compares Yuka to Sae from Peach Girl: "the friend that's no friend at all." A later review by Mike Dungan commends the character design of Karin, saying, "'s quite beautiful, but not in a garish or obvious way. It's the sort of beauty most women have, but never realize it."