I Liked You First

Editorial Review

★4.5 / 5 — henhenta editorial rating (our own assessment, not the DLsite official user score)

This is a genuinely inventive entry in the yandere space, structured as a visual diary rather than a traditional narrative. The month-by-month framing transforms what could be static character study into something closer to documentary observation—tracking psychological unraveling across a full calendar year creates natural pacing and cyclical tension that conventional manga struggle to sustain. The premise leans on reverse NTR (where the protagonist’s affection becomes destructive rather than romantic) paired with yandere psychology, a combination that remains underexplored in the CG collection market despite obvious thematic potential.

The production approach reveals smart editorial choices. Fifty images across base CGs, variations, and dialogue-free iterations suggests the creators understood their audience’s preferences—variants and clean versions accommodate both narrative reading and collection utility. Pressurized Marshmallow’s circle identity matters here; they’ve carved out genuine expertise in yandere content, and this work feels purposeful rather than exploitative. Tsukishima Shiiru’s artwork handles the central conceit with visual precision: a single character’s degradation over twelve months demands consistency and subtle variation that many CG artists avoid.

The psychological framing is the real strength. Rather than climactic breakdown moments, this documents creeping deterioration—the kind that arrives month by month until the narrator recognizes something has fundamentally shifted. That structure naturally invites viewer complicity; you’re watching deterioration happen incrementally, which complicates simple consumption of “yandere content.”

The dialogue-free versions deserve specific mention—they shift the work from narrative CG toward something more impressionistic, letting visual language carry psychological weight without text anchoring interpretation.

This will resonate most with collectors invested in character psychology over plot mechanics, and those who’ve exhausted standard yandere framing and want something architecturally different. A strong recommendation for serious doujinshi readers seeking innovation within established genre parameters.