After the hitting the brakes pretty hard on their relationship, Utsumi and Kurokawa are at loose ends. Utsumi is, charitably speaking, not taking things well and is holed up at Yuasa’s. Kurokawa is trying to move on, but that’s not so easy when everybody is friendly with everybody. With Kurokawa’s birthday AND Christmas looming, don’t fret, there’s plenty of things to screw up this time around.
Hey, finally a volume of this that does two steps forward and only one step back. Lots of Yuasa at the start gets things off on the right foot - one thing this book doesn’t lack is some all-time great characters. I love the way she calls Utsumi out on his melodramatic ‘I want to die’ BS.
Her tragic backstory is pretty overwrought, but I like the way she’s chosen to use it to force her to get the most out of life. She also has some hilarious hair movement during her sections.
Eri also gets some real cracking moments in this one, especially when she takes over as manager of the baseball team. It’s a brief moment, but fun - she’s just as intense as you’d expect.
Even our main characters aren’t as annoying to be around for a change. The birthday event for Kurokawa might be the most mature the series has been yet, capped by a very realistic moment when Utsumi admits that obviously he’s putting on a strong face, but he wanted Kurokawa to have a good birthday. It’s actually a measured look at people who’ve broken up but have all their friends in common and how they handle it.
Does the book have problems? It’s Good Ending, of course it does! Shou returns to be a constant also-ran in the chase for Utsumi. I do appreciate that Kurokawa browbeats Utsumi for blowing Shou off without telling her, though that just proves what a butt Utsumi can be.
And, of course, Omura returns, though this time the story is literally making her the (speaking of) butt of a joke and the way they justify her fan service moment in the story is somewhere beyond the realm of terminally stupid. Omura can’t seem to catch a break, whether it’s from this reviewer or the story.
Then the rather sweet ending to the Christmas debacle is pretty much ruined by showing that once more our characters are on a collision course with the most asinine plot contrivance to generate maximum melodramatic moodiness.
Said melodrama involves Kurokawa’s godawful first boyfriend, whose actions towards her were so reprehensible that if there’s even a whiff of her forgiving him I am liable to scream.
3.5 stars, shockingly, for lots of Yuasa and a strong first half - the birthday sequence is really good. As usual, the book sinks itself by the end, landing with a dull thud, and that leaves me rounding down because I’m already irritated by the prospective plot of the next volume.
ya siento que en este nuevo numero callo ó se volvió muy repetitivo las vivencias del protagonista, espero que vuelva generar un buen giro en el argumento y se nos vuelva a enganchar.
In general, the series is pretty cute. There are major up and down swings in my mood while reading this. Sometimes everything is happy and adorable, but other times I get frustrated with the characters because they don't seem to be thinking through anything at all.