REVIEW: Shout Loud, My Heart – A College x Band BL

Sometimes I read a story so good, I imagine ripping out the pages of the book and eating them one by one. That sounds insane, right? But there’s no other way to describe how it makes me feel. I want to absorb every word, sketch, line, and screentone. I want it to live forever in the corners of my brain and the depths of my heart. For me, the latest story to do this to me was Shout Loud, My Heart.

When Kodansha announced it acquired the license to Youga Rayri’s one-shot BL manga about boys in a band, the internet went wild. The art just looked SO good, and with popular music BL’s like Given and Pink Heart Jam, we could always use more band stories. I went into the story as blind as possible and walked away with a new favorite BL.

Shout Loud, My Heart follows Gen, a guitarist for a band named Eve, who meets Mika (known as Mike), the lead singer of a band named Adam. The two orbit each other as they go to the same university, and they perform at a lot of the same band events. They’re both interested in each other and captivated by each other’s talent.

The story progresses quickly, and the chapters shift through both characters’ POVs. You get a real feel for how they are processing each other in real time. Gen, who is a little cold and aloof, finds himself melting around Mika. While Mika wants to do whatever he can to get close to Gen. Their mutual interest ends up integrating into their music.

I always want every one-shot to be 300 chapters long, but I appreciated how the story flows in these few chapters. The story moves fast and feels like there are gaps in between the chapters, where we don’t see every interaction between Gen and Mika as they grow closer. This pacing is not for everyone, but I love it. The fast pace feels like you’re with them, falling in love in real time. It’s something that happens over time between all the meaningful moments.

While I love both the leads, Gen has my full heart. Initially, it seems that he will fall into a tsundere trope, but he doesn’t. He willfully surrenders to love, open to whatever road Mika will take him on. He’s also surprisingly blunt and unshamed in his feelings. It’s so refreshing to see a story with minimal drama and misunderstandings (don’t get me wrong, I love those, too).

All of these factors combined have left me obsessed with this story. I’ve already reread it about 4 times and continue to revisit certain scenes. It’s perfect start to finish and just manages to encapture the way you can just find your person and get together! I’m never the one to want a manga to be adapted into an anime, but Shout Loud, My Heart is one I can definitely envision animated. College boys in rock bands? We need more!

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Shout Loud, My Heart

Mangaka: Youga Rayri
Translation: Jacqueline Fung
Letterer: Nicole Roderick
Editor: Vanessa Tenazas

Publisher: Kodansha

Shout Loud, My Heart is available for pre-order here and will be available on June 17, 2025.

Thank you, Kodansha and NetGalley, for an advanced reviewer copy.