Is Aishiteruze Baby Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Overview

Kippei Katakura is the kind of teenager who's never had to be responsible for anything, least of all himself — he flirts his way through school and doesn't think much past the next day. That changes overnight when his five-year-old cousin Yuzuyu is dropped on his family's doorstep after her mother abandons her, and Kippei, more or less by default, ends up as her primary caretaker. Aishiteruze Baby spends its seven volumes on what happens when someone who's never taken anything seriously has to take care of a child who needs him to.

Yoko Maki doesn't play this as a cute fish-out-of-water comedy. The manga treats Yuzuyu's abandonment and Kippei's sudden responsibility as genuinely difficult, and lets both characters be messy and uncertain rather than instantly good at their new roles.

What it does well

Kippei's arc is the manga's strongest asset. His shift from a careless flirt to someone who actually shows up for another person happens gradually and believably, with real setbacks along the way rather than a clean, linear glow-up. By the later volumes, his growth feels like something the story earned rather than something it announced.

Yuzuyu herself is handled with unusual care for a child character in this kind of story. She's allowed to be scared, confused, and occasionally difficult, rather than functioning purely as an adorable motivator for the protagonist's development. That specificity is what keeps the central relationship from tipping into saccharine territory.

The manga is also willing to sit with real emotional discomfort — abandonment, grief, and the exhaustion of sudden responsibility — instead of resolving everything neatly. And at seven volumes, it never overstays its welcome; the story is told at exactly the length it needs, without arcs that exist just to extend the series.

Where it falls short

The romance between Kippei and his classmate Kokoro is clearly meant to be a co-lead thread, but it never gets the same depth as the family story. It often reads like it's fitting into the gaps left by the main plot rather than developing on its own terms, and Kokoro herself is thinner as a character than either Kippei or Yuzuyu.

A handful of side characters brought in to raise the emotional stakes — extended family members, other kids in Yuzuyu's orbit — get wrapped up quickly once they've served their narrative purpose, which stands out against how carefully the core trio is handled. And the opening setup, before the manga settles into its own rhythm, leans on a fairly familiar premise that takes a volume or so to feel distinct.

Verdict

Aishiteruze Baby is a sincere, well-paced shoujo drama that takes its unusual premise seriously instead of playing it for easy sentimentality. The romance subplot is the weak link, but the central story of Kippei and Yuzuyu is worth the short time it asks of you.