An Incurable Case of Love: Volume 1 manga review

An Incurable Case of Love Graphic Novel Volume 1 cover image

An Incurable Case of Love is a “josei” manga (comics for adult women) from Maki Enjoji, creator of the Happy Marriage?! manga.  VIZ Media is publishing an English-language edition of An Incurable Case of Love in a series of graphic novel.

An Incurable Case of Love, Vol. 1 (Chapters 1 to 5) introduces Nanase Sakura.  Five years ago, she witnessed a handsome and charming doctor save a stranger’s life.  Inspired by this mystery physician, Nanase trains to become a nurse.  On her first day as a new nurse, Nanase meets the doctor again.

However, Dr. Kairi Tendo turns out to be nothing like the man she imagined or remembered him to be.  He is so harsh and blunt, especially with her, that Nanase nicknames him “Dark Lord.”  But, of course, there is more to him than she realizes.

THE LOWDOWN:  The An Incurable Case of Love manga is not a typical “Shojo Beat” romance manga.  For one thing, it has a “mature” rating and is a “josei” manga, and secondly, the romantic lead characters are both adults with serious adult responsibilities.

An Incurable Case of Love Graphic Novel Volume 1 is also the first time that I have read a manga set largely in a hospital and focusing on a nurse and a doctor.  I have enjoyed romantic manga starring people who worked in the food industry, in the banking industry, and in the entertainment industry.  I have enjoyed love stories featuring aliens, magical girls, and vampires, to name a few supernatural types.  But no medical personnel, as far as I can remember.

An Incurable Case of Love also focuses on two characters badly at odds with one another.  Nurse Nanase and Dr. Tendo clash so much that them getting together might take some willing suspension of disbelief.  The hospital setting also presents sick and dying patients... yikes!  JN Productions translation ably mixes the drama and the couple's sparring, and Inori Fukuda Trant's lettering captures the frequent shifts in mood.  So this first volume is an interesting read.

I am curious about An Incurable Case of Love; this first volume is not great, but it does have potential.  I think this series is certainly worth two reads; by then, I'll have an idea how strong this series is going to be.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for romance among the medical set will want to try the Shojo Beat title, An Incurable Case of Love.

B+
7 out of 10