We already dealt with Gorou having a little affection for Fumi, so that storyline is totally over, right? And Fumi and Akatsuki are dating, so nothing to worry about, right? And that new editor, Uneda, well, she’s no problem either… right!?
This volume really works for me because it comes barrelling at its premise head-on for a change and everybody manages to basically do everything wrong, which makes for a clusterfluff of epic proportions.
Fumi’s a high school girl with all the insecurities that entails, so it’s no surprise that she keeps comparing herself to the efficient and put-together Uneda, who seems like an excellent match for Akatsuki.
Uneda’s also an adult; the reason this keeps getting out of hand is because Fumi and Akatsuki are keeping their relationship under wraps and Uneda therefore has no reason to hold back when she takes an interest in him beyond his work.
Fumi, being hypercritical of her shortcomings, comes to the idea that Uneda really is better for Akatsuki. So she just waits for the inevitable, except doesn’t bother talking to him about all this.
Her worry sends her over to visit Gorou, who is still being a friend, but clearly hasn’t given up on the notion of adding ‘more than’ to that appellation. Gorou tries to help, but he’s also not doing anything to sideline his own feelings.
Which Fumi doesn’t know about, but Akatsuki does, just like Fumi knows about Uneda’s true intentions while Akatsuki is completely oblivious (one reason this series gets away with its age gap is that both of the leads are emotionally high schoolers).
It’s a fun catastrophe. Poor Uneda is really nice and gets along swimmingly with Fumi, she’s just also attracted to Akatsuki. And she treats Fumi like, say, a teenager, which she actually is.
Uneda is innocent in all this the way that everybody else isn’t. If people would actually communicate, or, in Gorou’s case, read a room he already knows how to read, this could all be avoided.
Instead it explodes into hurt feelings on everybody’s part and, as often happens in these cases, they just keep hurting themselves while trying to figure it out. Which is what leaves us on that particularly nasty little cliffhanger, of course.
This is a believable mess. Whatever I think of Mika Yamamori’s work, and I tend to look positively on it anyway, she knows how to write really good characters. And draw them - Akatsuki’s permanent slouch is present in so many scenes. She’s really good across the board here.
4.5 stars - I wouldn’t say it’s quite worth five stars, but this makes for some delicious drama that is entirely reasonable in the moment and that takes more work to pull off than it might first appear. Good job.