Being locked out of her house sees Risa spending the night at Zen’s, which promises a sudden introduction to his family. But Fumiya is still inserting himself in the narrative in ways you’re likely expecting.
Ah, well, it couldn’t stay perfect forever, I suppose. Despite maintaining its core strengths of two pretty great characters, this volume finally takes on a few of the usual beats of the genre and doesn’t suffer, precisely, but it’s not the slam dunk of the first three outings.
Oh, some of the flashes of greatness remain, don’t get me wrong. The 4-koma recap that opens the book sets the bar very high, but high bars are nothing for this story. Risa versus claw game later on is also one of the truly great character moments I’ve seen lately.
And Zen and Risa are consistently adorable together, with him being a bit less rough from her influence and her learning to live a little more because of his. Risa stands up for herself constantly, Zen treats her so well and respects her. They’re a really sweet couple.
So what’s the problem? The problem is twofold. One, some of the series’ typically delightful humour falls utterly flat. Two, it has so far been just the best about avoiding tropes such that when it wades into them more here it becomes shockingly distracting.
On the humour front, it’s mostly at the start when Risa is staying over at Zen’s. Some of the silliness is there, but the whole thing about Zen’s mom and her hobbies (and Risa’s reaction to that hobby) are just so, so ‘who cares’ for me. I think it was worth trying, but doesn’t pay off at all. There’s a shocking paucity of reaction shots too.
Despite his relegation to ‘mope who wants to be a rival but is bad at it’, Fumiya kind of still does all the same things that would entail, up to and including getting a near-date. The mystery of Risa’s lost keys from the beginning goes exactly where you think it does.
And the last part of the book devolves into one of those rival gang things that is so overdone by this point. I mean, it feels like this happens every other volume of Crossplay Love: Otaku x Punk, so it wasn’t very exciting to see it here.
Sure, Zen has a great entrance and Risa gets to be the hero for part of it, not that her actions would get much traction in the real world, but it’s all rather flat and hinges on the sort of coincidence the story has already used with Fumiya. That sort of thing happens a lot in manga, but in such a hitherto brilliant series it doesn’t work at all.
And there’s Risa’s awkward fumbling around after the idea of intimacy comes up, which makes for some drama and some sight gags and is pretty lame because she’s been such a unique character to this point. It doesn’t really amount to a whole lot in the course of the volume either except an arbitrary stumbling block.
Yeah, it’s still a good story, but even ruminating and re-reading it gave me no fantastic new insight that made me look better on it. It’s competently done and by-the-numbers, which is, in reality, a heck of a downgrade for how fresh it was before.
3.5 stars - I’m being absolutely generous as all get out here; this probably doesn’t rate more than a 3. However, a few bright spots keep my affection for the series afloat amidst an underwhelming volume.