Summer break out in the countryside should be a breeze, but that’s presuming the stirrings of youth aren’t getting in the way. Mitsumi’s come to terms with how things went with her and Shima, but Shima could host a TED talk on being your own worst enemy.
This whole arc, like literally every other arc before it, is an absolute delight and continues to be both heartwarming and heartbreaking with a style that makes it look easy. There’s nothing quite like Skip & Loafer.
Shima sucks, he truly does, but he not only teenage boy sucks, he is acutely aware that he’s not the nicest person around right now and can’t seem to help it. Rarely has a character been so obviously trapped by their past this badly.
Oh, didn’t Shima come to terms with all that? As if moving beyond your traumas is that simple. He can’t forgive himself, he can’t forgive his mother, he can’t forgive himself for not forgiving his mother. He knows she’s changed and he hasn’t.
But that’s not going to stop two hearts that want to be together, no matter how much they might try and indicate otherwise. The small moments in this are so telling, from the way that Shima can’t keep his eyes off Mitsumi to her using his backpack for a pillow. The devil here is in the details.
As for Nao, well, she and Mika have a little moment themselves, plus or minus Tsukasa, who accidentally horns in on Mika’s venting about her confession being rejected. Don’t think I didn’t notice how impressed Tsukasa was by all that, manga. I’m on to you.
Actually, all the Nao stuff is great. That talk takes place at a place where she used to go when she was feeling unaccepted, which is very sweet, but nowhere near as sweet as what Mitsumi says when they get back to the apartment. Earned moment.
Surprise revelations about crushes and careers abound; I’m still waiting to see if Yuzuki winds up as a lesbian or simply aromantic. There’s nothing concrete, but there are possible hints. Mitsumi coming clean to her friends was just the icing on the cake.
We see Kento crushing it as a boyfriend and then there’s one of the series’ characteristic ‘this person has so much more going on than they appear’ with Kazakami, former student president, whose carefree ways are so much sadder than they first appeared.
As somebody who has grown up loving the things he loved, and been told not to, this really resonated with me. Not to the same extent, also I was never that popular, but it lands hard. Kazakami has a plan, but it doesn’t jive with who he actually is at all.
This interplays with one of the school’s teachers announcing her pregnancy, but it’s what she isn’t announcing that’s far more significant. She’s another elegantly layered character in a sea of them and her hidden side tickled me pink.
Skip & Loafer remains the most mature look at immaturity and, more accurately, growing up that I’ve seen in manga. It shows its teenaged cast as having more depth than you’d credit them with (and I say that having been a shallow teenager) and facing real issues.
5 stars - genuinely spectacular and always compelling, if you’ve enjoyed this up to now it delivers yet another winning volume.