It was originally serialized in Shōjo Comic from March 2002 to August 2004, and the individual chapters were published in ten tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan from September 2002 to December 2004.

It focuses on the romance between the seemingly plain, shy Karin and the cool Aoi Kiriya, as they experience their first love.

One of them, Aoi Kiriya, is taking pictures of girls on the bus, and initially, all three make snide remarks about Karin.

When he realizes she is reading a photography book called Blue by a photographer named Yuji, Kiriya approaches her, but she ignores him.

Kiriya waits outside of her school to return the book and Yuka coerces Karin into arranging a group date.

Written by Kaho Miyasaka, the first chapter of the Kare First Love manga premiered in the March 2002 issue of the bi-monthly magazine Shōjo Comic.

[15] Released September 23, 2004, Kare First Love - Songs And Melodies (彼 first love〜ソングス アンド メロディーズ〜) is an instrumental CD produced by Momo & Grapes.

[19] Animefringe's Patrick King commends the manga's art as "visually pleasing", saying, " I don't think it's on the level of Yuu Watase or Miki Aihara (of Hot Gimmick fame), but [Kaho Miyasaka's] character designs exhibit a life of their own.

On the one hand, that's poetic and symbolic of the passing of boy from son to husband; on the other, it's sort of creepy, that Karin becomes his new little mother, an impression reinforced by the relative lack of romantic elements between the two in this volume.

"[24] Sequential Tart's Margaret O'Connell comments on the reversal of the truism present in manga aimed at female readers that "Japanese men have difficulty expressing their emotions" through her comparison of Karin with Momoka in St. Dragon Girl, where she "attempt to use Valentine's chocolates and condoms — plus an explanatory note the second time around — to convey what she is too tongue-tied to say aloud ultimately enables her to connect with the object of her affection when words have repeatedly failed her.

Despite the often over the top antics of many manga characters, Japan is still a relatively undemonstrative culture by Western standards.