Rentaro’s new girlfriend, Momi Momiji, gets very handsy because she’s training to be the world’s best masseuse. Her hands will bring bliss to every strained muscle and stiff joint she comes in contact with. So lie back and relax. Momi and Rentaro’s tale is a touching one!
Girlfriend number fifteen is Momi Momiji, a passionate young masseuse with a very sensual touch who is in the same class as Kurumi and gives the whole Rentaro family a very special sensation. Later, our Rentaro meets Kusuri’s family who all definitely have the very youthful look like their daughter and very unexpectedly, Rentaro zings her very young-looking grandmother. Later, the group have a very intense time at a hot springs bathhouse and the girls each get their own funny fairy tale segment. A (100%/Outstanding)
From MILFs to close cousins, there seems to be no line that Rentaro won’t cross in search of his many soulmates. But when you’ve crossed every line… just invent even more lines, apparently.
We’re firmly in the ‘uneven grab bag’ phase of the series’ life, where we already know it’ll do whatever it wants whenever it wants to grab a cheap laugh or two, plus trying to be generally thoughtful about its cast. Consequently it loses some of the audacity it once had. Some, mind you, not all.
The first new girlfriend we get introduced to is the very handsy Momi, and that’s unfortunate because she’s super boring. Her thing is that she likes to grope boobs, but, well, we have many other characters who specialize in grabbing a handful, so she falls to the background real fast. They can’t all be winners.
Mind you, Rentaro saves this section somewhat because this finally goes beyond shattering the fourth wall to just grinding it to pieces and stomping on it. Turns out Rentaro needs a masseuse because he’s been working as an assistant on… this very manga… which leads to an insane visit to the series’ artist.
Rentaro may indeed be the first manga character to point out a texture he applied in a panel of his own book.
We’ll skip introducing Momi to the group because it’s dull.
Next up is a very silly story teaming Naddy and Chiyo together, as the latter tries to stop some classmates from smoking. The dialogue for these delinquents is so crazy that it becomes very funny, very fast, including a dig at both this manga and One Piece. In a nice change, this part barely features Rentaro, though he sets up the killer ending to the whole thing.
It’s when we get introduced to Kusuri’s family, she of the insane alchemy and definitely not meth, that things really go straight to the dogs, and deliberately so. First is the hilarious fake-out of potentially adding Kusuri’s mom to the clan, followed by the abrupt arrival of government agents.
Yeah, okay, that Spy x Family reference might be the sweatiest joke this series has done yet, which is saying something, but it’s so forced and ridiculous that I laughed anyway. Ditto that zinger about the lies parents tell their kids.
Then, hey, why not add another girlfriend to the mix in the form of Kusuri’s grandmother, who is an 89 year old with an 8 year old’s body because that’s just how this series rolls. Nothing truly surprises me any more, but this comes close.
Yaku proves to be one of the strongest recent additions to the cast, as she doesn’t have a sweet clue about anything modern and cue the old people and technology jokes.
Additionally, they renewed her body, but she’s not exactly swift with her memory, which makes for a very silly chapter where she misremembers everybody’s defining trait (helped by a roll call from Kusuri) and this gives an excuse for both comedy and horny art.
This all comes after Rentaro embraces his rebel phase to try and woo Yaku, which involves him dressing like an idiot, going to the conveniently located ‘Rebel Park’ and misbehaving on the playground equipment. The way this drives home Rentaro’s basic decency is a slick little touch.
The follow-up bathhouse section is mostly okay - it’s run by a relative of Iku’s, the series’ masochist, and basically goes about as you’d think from that description as the entire thing attacks everybody mercilessly.
The funniest part of it is definitely this volume’s token Karane x Hakari moment when a hot spring has some inflated effects and a tearful goodbye turns into a slap across the boobs and a parody of tearful goodbyes.
Top it off with a seemingly mean-spirited series omake that actually turns out to have a very happy ending and you’ve got a way stronger volume than last time. It’s definitely got some lulls, but the highs are closer to what I want here.
4 stars - a return to form, however you choose to read that, and some classic jokes make this one more of the level I hope the series can stay at going forward.
4.5/5 Un tome encore rempli d'humour excentrique ! Je me suis régalée à découvrir les nouvelles petites amies de Rentaro. Les épisodes de leur quotidien sont amusants à lire, j'ai hâte de lire la suite et voir la Rentaro Family grandir encore.