14-sai no Koi

Kanata Tanaka and Kazuki Yoshikawa are two emotionally mature 14-year-olds that all of their peers admire. At first glance, the pair seem detached from the masses, excelling at the top of their class. The tall and beautiful Kanata has a strict aura around her that discourages boys from talking to her, while Kazuki's refined yet friendly playfulness prevents girls from interacting with him.

The truth is that—underneath this facade—both Kanata and Kazuki are just 14-year-olds in love with each other. As they learn to navigate their secret budding relationship, the young couple must also learn to come to terms with their complicated emotions and settle on how they wish to present themselves in front of others.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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14-sai no Koi was published in English as Love at Fourteen by Yen Press from December 16, 2014 to December 13, 2022.

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Tanaka, Kanata

Main

Yoshikawa, Kazuki

Main

Nagai, Tatsumi

Supporting

Hinohara, Yuka

Supporting

Toudou, Akemi

Supporting

Ichinose

Supporting

Shiki, Aoi

Supporting

Reviews

Dec 29, 2022

kikichan_

Recommended

"Two dorks in love" – is, imo, how you could sum up the main love story between Yoshikawa and Tanaka. It is simple, honest, pure and overall really heart warming. Sure, the story is mainly as easy as that, but this manga doesn't aspire to be a complicated romantic drama, so no point in judging it as such.

A "deeper" topic in the story would be the struggle with social "masks" that are so important within the japanese society, namely keeping up the tiring act, being praised for one's fabricated character while musing, whether you could ever show your "true self" to anyone, all happening on ...

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Mar 12, 2025

tabbycatcircus

Mixed Feelings

Short chapters compose the bulk of this manga, following a lot of different stories and making for a fun read. So this was more like reading 50 normal chapters.

From the beginning the way the relationship between the main couple is presented points to this idea on how, while puberty can make relations between the two sexes more exciting, there's also this poignancy and bittersweetness. Their interactions will always be framed to the casual observer by the fact that they are "man and woman" and since they are in middle school and romance is presumably not allowed, they must act accordingly and hide their true relationship. ... The innocence is gone, and there are so many things to be aware about. Even just going to each other's house is "improper" when only a year before, with their immature bodies, there would have been no problem.
And then there's how genuine their relationship feels. There was never any need for any dramatic confession scene, sometimes actions speak louder than words. They seek out ways to enjoy each other's company, get into arguments, and reconcile. And when they feel ready to have sex, they have honest discussions about it and do their research. They explore it without shame, which is so refreshing and heartwarming (because usually these discussions can be tinged with misogyny and puritanism). So I was genuinely happy for them when it came time. And after they've gone all the way, paradoxically they don't need to worry about what is proper anymore (at least in private) which seems to be a nice "bookend" to the aforementioned theme.

There are quite a few age gap romances in a story with a title like this. I don't care about the ages of characters in a romance as long as they don't register to me as little kids (because I like to swoon over the male characters), so I've hardly read any romances that take place in middle school because 14 year old characters are generally drawn as little kids.
The male student x female teacher did not turn me off, because the male student generally gave me the impression of a young man and not a kid so he was swoon-worthy. However I found the elementary schooler x middle schooler and middle schooler x office lady strange to read about.
Speaking of the male student x female teacher... it is very good, and probably better than the main couple. 10/10 dynamic and writing.

There's this gay character that was very annoying, because they seem to have the idea that they can "seduce" this other character of the same sex and interfere in their relationship (YOU FUCKER THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS) and they even get encouraged by another teacher in this aspect (who also pines for a same-sex friend)... And these characters keep appearing over and over (but I kept reading those chapters because I'm a masochist) and the narrative tries to make it so that they're such compwex characters uwu by exploring the "selfish desires vs making your loved one happy" inner conflict.
I just hate it when the gay friend is their friend who's already in a relationship/in love in a romance manga, because sure, romance is important to me, but I also want to see how platonic relationships of the same sex can flourish alongside that. On top of that, the object of this gay character's affections wants them to be closer, and is blissfully unaware, which really rubs me the wrong way especially given the drama that happens later on which causes significant loneliness and reliance on gay friend. Ugh.

At the very least, all these characters form a supportive general friend group with each other over time.

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Feb 9, 2024

ninelline

Not Recommended

I don't want to be rude or anything, but this is my first time being so disgusted by a manga.
The story tries to introduce us to the relationships and feelings of 14-year-old teenagers, where there is the discovery of new feelings and self-revelations.
The manga fails in everything it sets out to do, there is no story, there are characters with feelings and such, but there is no real development, either in the characters or in the narrative. The chapters are EXTREMELY short, the author couldn't even make a story interesting enough to fill a chapter, and had to make several very short “extra” chapters. This ...

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Poll: 14-sai no Koi Chapter 51 Discussion Short_Circut - Feb 18, 2022	4 replies	by bakakisima »» Apr 3, 2024 9:24 AM
Poll: 14-sai no Koi Chapter 47 Discussion bakakisima - Apr 1, 2024	0 replies	by bakakisima »» Apr 1, 2024 8:14 AM
Poll: 14-sai no Koi Chapter 44 Discussion bakakisima - Mar 31, 2024	1 replies	by erikjohn3355 »» Mar 31, 2024 6:59 PM
Poll: 14-sai no Koi Chapter 38 Discussion bakakisima - Mar 30, 2024	0 replies	by bakakisima »» Mar 30, 2024 7:21 AM
Poll: 14-sai no Koi Chapter 22 Discussion Stark700 - Jul 12, 2014	7 replies	by bakakisima »» Mar 28, 2024 7:30 AM

14-sai no Koi
Love at Fourteen
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Love at Fourteen
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