Kaoruko Waguri, del prestigioso instituto femenino Kikyô, conoce a Rintarô Tsumugi, alumno del infame centro masculino Chidori.
El verano en que empiezan a salir da paso al nuevo trimestre escolar, y Rintarô y Kaoruko quedan un fin de semana a comienzos de otoño para disfrutar de su tiempo juntos tras una larga temporada. No obstante, cuatro compañeras del Kikyô los sorprenden en mitad de su cita.
Los prejuicios que tienen contra los chicos del Chidori junto con su preocupación por Kaoruko las lleva a estar en contra de su relación. Sin embargo, la reacción de Madoka Yuzuhara hace que decidan conocer a Rintarô.
THIS VOLUME WAS TOO ANGSTY. The fact Rintaro dyed his hair back to protect Kaoru. I CANNOT. The whole friend group is too kind and full of supportive and good people. The development is crazyy and I love it. They are all too wholesome in wanting to help Kaoru and Subaru and also telling Kaoru it’s ok to be vulnerable in front of them. Just AHHH. Rintaro and her being alike in the way they suppress their feelings to make others not worry😭. Rintaro wanting Kaoru to feel safe being weak in front of him. He is so supportive of her in a healthy way. So refreshing. The meet up scene was so awkward but cute and also angsty at the same time. Madoka is defo my new favourite girlie. I love her bubbly personality and her questions and energy at that meet up were too funny and adorable. Ayu man I get her mental breakdown tbh. Good people never see just how loved and good they really are. I now see that being a recurring thing in this manga. Ayu though, it was so sad seeing her calling herself names and blaming herself for ruining the meet up. I loved how Rintaro talked to afterwards and then Kaoru did then the girlies did. It was so uplifting to see how many people saw her as a good person and loved her too. Made me tear up tbh. That last scene was so funny too, when Madoka ran to catch up to the boys. LOVE HER
This was probably my least favorite of the series so far, and it still gets five stars!
I loved the first half, but the second half seemed a bit over-the-top to me with the secondary character's backstory. Japanese is also not my first langauge and I'm reading in Japanese, so I may have missed some nuance in that backstory. That said, the first half of the manga and one panel in particular completely stole the show! And the second half had deep themes of self-worth, showing the pain of comparison and the value of loving others.
i might just dye my hair black because of this. anw the characters in this story is well written and complex it's kind of unreal how good natured they are. plus the fact that they can all communicate well, express their wrongdoings, and admit the insecurities they have which they've been bottling up their whole life. they're so emotionally intelligent despite the fact that they're still young.
The dreaded moment of Kaoruko and Rintaro’s relationship being discovered has come to pass, which has put Kaoruko’s friendships between a rock and a hard case (I think I’m reusing that joke, but please understand).
But Rintaro’s never been anything like the thug he’s been mistaken for, so this just means the gang is going to come together and simply friend away the problems, which does tend to be this series’ modus operandi.
Still, in a world of cold cynicism, I don’t mind this sort of warmth, even if I do think it’s a little too simplified at times. Of course, this just means that when we get a little friction it stands out all the more.
As you can tell based on the cover, Rintaro goes back to his roots, so to speak, this volume and I’m genuinely glad that Kaoruko tried to stop him because I think this sort of ‘I’ve changed’ moment is far too conformist every time I see it.
Having her call that out was really welcome, and I have to say that his response to this was also terribly sweet and showed how much he cares about her. These two have a very genuine relationship, although it does lack a certain frisson of passion.
It was a great volume to show just how much Subaru has changed, not to mention her relationship with Rintaro. I really enjoyed the two of them playing off one another.
Honestly, all the supporting cast does a bang-up job this time out. They’ve come together to become such a close friend group and it’s nice to see them care for one another and hang out.
When the other girls do show up, it is really a vehicle for the Ayumi Sawatari show. And what a show it is. We’ve seen a lot of these characters who are slowly being crushed under both expectations and their efforts to live up to some failing to bear fruit.
What I loved was how this manifested as her unwillingness to meet the boys, as Ayumi has pinned her entire self-worth on saying that at least she isn’t as bad as the boys at the school next door. It’s a hell of a coping mechanism.
It’s also a coping mechanism that suddenly begins to fall apart in the face of a reality that’s a little more nuanced than that. I really loved how these conversations played out - her reluctance is believable, yet unusual.
And, yes, the power of having a good talk cures all the problems in the world. Still, Rentaro delivers a killer piece of dialogue that shows Ayumi that she’s not as bad as she thinks and it’s just a fantastic argument that I was super impressed by.
Overall, this is turning out to be a great arc. I’m genuinely looking forward to seeing where things go when next volume hits. I mean, it’ll be all love and peace, but somehow this keeps getting away with it.
4.5 stars - I genuinely do think that this might be too nice for its own good, but there’s no denying that it’s strength lies in precisely how nice it is. Very strong and a great volume.
Bin bisschen bummed, weil der Manga mit den letzten Bänden für mich keinen Funken Spannung mehr hatte. Dieser Band besonders, aber das liegt auch daran, dass ich den Konflikt rund um die Schulen von Anfang sehr schwach und überdramatisiert fand. Aktuell drehen sich die Bände nur darum, dass alle Charaktere sich um die Wette entschuldigen und empathisch versuchen es jedem Recht zu machen. Das wird fast zum Wettkampf und nimmt jeglichem Konflikt oder Wachstum die Luft weg. Es sind nicht mehr viele Bände, daher werd ich bis zum Ende lesen, aber ich hoffe, der nächste Band gefällt mir wieder besser. 🥲
i also absolutely love seeing the author explore kaoruko's friend group now, thereby giving us more to the central romance and making this an even more well-rounded story.
ayumi sawatara, dearest, i see you. you're not a failure just because the rest of your family is good at their own things and you certainly are not a worthless friend, seeing how you've made kaoruko feel so seen in her first year at kikyo. you are so loved.
oh, these children. i want to give each one of them a tight hug.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Wasn't really a fan of this volume. It mainly focused on the relationship among friends, especially the girls from Kikyo. Looking forward to seeing Madoka join the main group! She'll fit right in~
Side note, it's been a blast watching Rintaro's character development.
why are all these characters so fleshed out and so incredibly written, author who allowed you to be so good at your job 🗣️‼️ all of them being grateful to each other makes me feel so warm inside, their friendships are truly saving them :(
Y esto es porque la apariencia no lo es todo. Se aplica el dicho "las apariencias engañan". Aunque a veces ayudan (jajaja, me ha pasado). Madokita se va a la bolsa de favoritas. Los chicos son un amor.
le fait qu'un groupe de lycéen parle de chacun de leur problème de manière à trouver des solutions positives et saines n'est pas crédible, ils ont vraiment master la communication... j'adore que ce soit pas réaliste en tout cas ça fait du bien
Recap: meeting with the kikyo girls, one flips out after realizing the guys are all good and smart even. She runs off and rintaro chases her. She and Karoku make up and all the girls comfort each other. Ends with them going to dinner.
I know, I know. This will be a selfless reason he dyes his hair to protect her and I know I'll understand why, but I dislike every time the male lead changes their hair/appearance like this in the anime/manga lol. ♡
update: yep, I knew it. I get it, but I still don't like it LOL
Ah, another overflowingly sweet and positive volume. The boys prepare to meet with the girl friends of Kaoruko and Subaru who witnessed Kaoruko on a date with Rintaro and were shocked by it. Rintaro is determined to make sure he’s not harming Kaoruko’s reputation in any way. That leads to him dying his hair back to black even (it’s not a spoiler, as it’s already on the cover.)
The meeting is awkward at first, but most of the two groups are determined to behave well and treat each other nicely. And when one of them is a bit rude, it’s followed by a lot of soul-searching, confessions, and forgiveness.
I wasn’t sure I liked that the focus was widened from the main group, it added too many characters in the mix, but it helped to freshen up the story now that Rintaro and Kaoruko are finally dating. And I love how Rintaro has found his self-confidence, teasing and flirting with Kaoruko a little without completely losing his cool. And maybe the focus will change to other characters now that the main pair is together. I’ll have to read on to find out.
This is honestly starting to get a liiiittle too overpoweringly positive for me. Can we have maybe one character who isn't going to spend 50 pages apologizing about how they were a little bit mean once?
This whole volume is about the Kikyo girls finally meeting the Chidori boys. Of course they all get along fabulously, with Usami's cheerful extroversion breaking down any initial awkwardness. I still really enjoy the braids girl, Yuzuhara, who could be really cute paired up with Usami but probably way too chaotic. It's a little hard to understand how someone that casual and cheerfully careless about her grades would be at Kikyo, but that's kind of the theme of this volume.
While there was way too much time spent with everyone having long speeches about how happy they are to all be friends, and how every person is important in their own way, I did like the spin on why Ayu was so determined to hate Chidori. There's a little bit of brainwashing - Usami literally says they were "programmed" to dislike them, which is a great way of putting it - but Ayu has also been using Kikyo's superiority as a way to feel better about herself.
She's the youngest daughter in an extremely high-achieving family, but at Kikyo, she's middle of the road at best. Her grades keep slipping, no matter how hard she tries, and her only real consolation of late has been reminding herself that at least she's at Kikyo. At least she's average at a top-tier school that's so much better than other schools, which makes her better than other students, which means she's still doing okay.
But then she finds out that not only are the Chidori guys super friendly and nice and not scary delinquents at all, but one of them is a whole lot smarter than she is...and she can't handle it anymore. It's toppling her already shaky sense of self.
Honestly, some of this probably applies to the teachers, too, who can use their status as Kikyo instructors to feel better than their colleagues. It'd be interesting to see a bit more of the adult side of things, now that all the students are best friends.
I was surprised that Rintaro dyed his hair black for Kaoruko's friends - I'd seen spoilers of his hair a while ago and had assumed it would be more of the traditional meeting-the-family route, but in reality her family accepted him just as he was, and it was her judgy friends who needed the extra attention.
But it's also Rintaro's way of letting go of the hurtful past that had made him start bleaching his hair to begin with. He's happy now, with friends and tons of support. He doesn't need to hide behind the bleached armor anymore.
So there are some really nice messages still mixed in here. I'm just getting a little tired of the long speeches about how wonderful everyone is. Hopefully now that we've gotten the whole cast together, more of the actual story can progress from here.