This is very cute and I happily admit that it can be quite charming, plus it has the advantage of focusing on two school kids while pretty much never setting foot in a school, save for the occasional cutaway. Clever change of pace, that.
However, I know I have used the term charming banality before and it applies to this series as well. I don’t think it does anything exceptionally well, maybe the art, but it goes down very easily and doesn’t make many wrong moves.
Having another volume to work with also gives the characters some needed depth. I liked the reaction shots of the three adults following and commenting on the situation, which soon reveals that the trio are using this as salve for their own romantic misfires in life.
I would say there’s an over-reliance on basic misunderstandings that doesn’t come off as especially funny. There’s one involving lip balm and another that’s about gaming that are so brutally obvious they don’t work as actual punchlines.
What I did appreciate is that the characters who showed up to cause problems in the first volume rotate back in at various times, typically the most inopportune ones, to throw a wrench into things. It makes perfect sense given the train setting too and adds a ‘special guest star’ vibe that you don’t tend to see in manga.
Nayu and Hikoichi, as we now know them, make for a pretty sweet pairing and I like that they have similar temperaments. It explains why this is taking forever, as they cautiously dip a toe into the romance lane, only for it to be frequently run over.
I still think the running commentary that provides part of the unique perspective of the series remains pretty underwhelming. Seeing three otherwise unrelated people bond is nice, but their incessant chatter often just tells us what we can see for ourselves.
This volume expands its scope a little more, however, and that does improve it quite a bit. Little details like Hikoichi shopping for a birthday gift for Nayu with his useless buddies, or Nayu’s scheming best friend, make this feel a bit more robust.
At the end of the day, it’s a perfectly fine story about two super shy kids falling in love and the obstacles on the way there. I’m entirely not against that and, while I think it could be doing more, there’s no denying that this has a welcome originality to it.
3 stars - if I was splitting hairs fine I could see giving this maybe an extra 0.25, but that’s indeed silly. I’m low-key fond of this, but it’s not what I would call essential.
It is still a high school manga but outside school. It worked because it is in a different scenario, in a traibn where they met when they go to school. They have a fandom: a manager, an office lady and an uni student. The three of them are rotting for the younger ones who are in love. The interaction between the highschoolers are cute, they are navigating in the romantic aspect. Their struggle and how to overcome their shyness are awesome. No rushing.