ODA Tomohito Name (in native language):小田智仁 Associated Names:オダトモヒト
Tomohito Oda won the grand prize for World Worst One in the 70th Shogakukan New Comic Artist Awards in 2012. Oda’s series Digicon, about a tough high school girl who finds herself in control of an alien with plans for world domination, ran from 2014 to 2015.
The school election volume, where Komi supports an unlikely--and basically unfriendly--Kiyoko Isagi, who doesn’t exactly have a communication disorder, but she has kept people at arm’s length because of her OCD focus on cleanliness. So it’s an unlikely basis for a popularity campaign, and she’s an unlikely person for sweet Komi to support, but, you know, she’s working on that 100 friend goal, so she rallies the troops for Isagi, and Najimi helps, too.
A dinner date is the occasion for Twister, but it is also the occasion for Yamai to lust for Komi, eh. While Manbagi crushes on Tadano (if you are looking for Tadano and Komi to get together, you must continue to hold your breath. . .). The energy and fun level is high, and it’s a fine resolution--guess who wins the election??
Time for a new friend for Komi! Kiyoki Isagi is a neat freak and germophobe who is running for student council president even though she has effectively shut herself off from interacting with her classmates. She's so strict in her principles, she refuses Komi's help on the campaign so as to avoid the perception that she is using Komi's popularity for votes.
But Komi's gravity well cannot be escaped, and Isagi is drawn in, revealing the person beneath all the quirks and a connection to Shibuki Ase, the classmate who is self-conscious about her sweat and body odor. Isagi proves interesting, but I'm not sure she deserves a full book at the expense of the main characters, as no real progress is made with Komi and Tadano, though they have a nice moment in the closing pages.
In many ways, the younger siblings of Komi and Tadano are slowly taking over the book with their comedic B-plot shenanigans, getting more screen time directly interacting than the main characters, including a double date this time.
Still a good time, and I have two more volumes on hand from the library. On to the next!
This volume introduced a classmate and friend who is ever more socially inept than Komi is, and she wants to run for student council president! Unfortunately, that arc seemed to drag on too long for me, but at least I was rewarded with a couple of gems.
First one is a Manbagi story that moves forward the overarching story for this school year. It's a short and cute story about Rumiko processing her feelings.
Second one is the Komi family having a small dinner party for Komi and Shoko's friends. It has lots of story threads coming together for a short story. It's always fun when stories like this reward to the long time Komi reader.
It’s school election time and Komi’s classmate Isagi has pledged to clean up the school. She’s certainly got the right mindset, as her passion for cleanliness is textbook OCD. Can Komi and friends win her over? Elsewhere, dinner dates happen and I’ve never hated Twister so much in my life.
You are eating salmon and bite down on a bone. You are walking in a beautiful forest and a rotting deer carcass is on the side of the road. You are enjoying something and a fork is jammed into your ear. These all describe how I feel every time Yamai shows up.
Yamai’s horny-for-Komi attitude and ecchi leanings are so out of step with everything else that it utterly kills the book when she appears. She’s in this for just a side story, but, for me, it’s enough to poison the well. The rest of the manga basically fights against it (and this scheme of hers is particularly icky, involving Twister and groin shots).
And it nearly manages - Isagi being a clean freak is not the most novel of characteristics, but it’s pretty funny (her modesty is amusingly nothing in the face of staying clean). Having been there, I don’t necessarily love her OCD being the point of the joke, but there’s more to this than meets the eye.
Isagi’s story is wrapped up in that of Ase, the girl who sweats, and Isagi takes an irrational amount of responsibility for Ase being as withdrawn as she is. Isagi’s also got a lot of self-recognition that I think makes her easier to relate to than might otherwise be the case. And, you know, she might have thought to talk to Ase before now…
This whole student council thing turns out to be a bonanza, allowing for an object lesson in never meeting your heroes while providing lots and lots of nonsense and fun. Najimi is on fire throughout, but they really come through with the hilarious campaign poster and the smile ranking system that brings back the judging panel.
There are a couple of notable new characters - the one guy in Komi’s brother’s class who thinks everybody is into him, even though nobody can get his name right (this joke starts off dumb, but is repeated and escalated SO much that it’s an absolute riot by the end).
They also introduce a tsundere character for a whole panel, but the introduction is one of my favourite parts of the book as it shreds the fourth wall to good effect. Yes, this series knows how to properly use that to augment its jokes and this is one of the few places I’ll allow it.
We get a brutally funny set of chapters with Manbagi swooning hard over Tadano, going to crazy teenage extremes even as she’s incredibly adorable about it. I like how other people are slowly putting the pieces together on this crush.
Then there’s a dinner party that rages out of control thanks to Komi’s mother (her being fed up with her family of non-communicators and resulting impact on her age is great) and the very, very sweet ending to the student election that brings the heart and brings it really well. It’s a very solid volume, even after all these entries - big cheer to this series still going strong.
3 stars - seriously, give this 4 if you aren’t a grumpy old reviewer who hates Yamai with a passion and can look past her appearances. It’s another great volume of Komi, with the usual anchor attached to it to drag it down.
Another great installment in this series. Though this volume didn't address the story that I was hoping it would, Komi made another new friend, and it was lovely to get to know her! Can't wait to see how things go in the next volume.
Continuing the trend of "one or two volumes are stellar, then the next one is average," this was a perfectly average volume. Yes, Isagi's backstory and personality quirk was interesting from a character standpoint, but as a person she was pretty boring. I also didn't care much for the student council election, but meeting the current student council president was fun. Anytime Najimi was front and center my heart swelled because I love them, and the chapters with Manbagi thinking about Tadano were super cute. Also, I'm not really engaged with Hitomi's and Shousuke's plotlines, so whenever it cuts to them my eyes kind of glaze over.
All that being said, with all of my gripes and moments of enjoyment put together, I can safely say this was a good volume. Not great, but good. And that's all I can ask for at this point.
Komi Can’t Communicate Vol. 15 was another great addition to the series as one of Komi's classmates runs for school president.
It's time for the election of a new school president at Itan High and one of Komi's classmates is running for the position. But per school rules, Kiyoko Isagi needs to pick a campaign representative and she doesn't have anyone she could ask. Luckily for Kiyoko, Komi and her friends have some ideas!
Komi Can’t Communicate continues to be a great manga series that I'm really enjoying making my way through. The premise of a girl who can't communicate wanting to make 100 friends is a lot of fun. After two volumes where Komi didn't make any new friends, she makes one in this volume with Kiyoko Isagi bringing her total up to thirty-four friends. It was nice getting to see the return of Komi's friends list and her being able to add another name.
The bulk of this volume deals with the school election as Komi and her friends try to help Kiyoko out with her campaign. Kiyoko is initially unwilling to trust or get close to anyone in large part due to what is likely OCD. Kiyoko cannot deal with uncleanliness or being touched by others which makes it hard for her to develop friendships. I liked that Komi and the others were able to work through that to help her out. In addition to the election storyline there were a few others from Twister with the class (which was really just an excuse for Yamai to get to touch Komi), Hitomi dragging some friends to the movies (mostly siblings of some of the other characters), and a height check where Komi is happy to learn Tadano is taller than her. The final storyline involved a dinner party Komi's mother hosted where she insisted the kids invite friends over which was fun.
Overall Komi Can’t Communicate Vol. 15 was an enjoyable read and I'm looking forward to picking up the next volume soon.
Olipa taas touhut! Tässä osassa suurimman osan tarinasta otti Komin uuden ystävän Isagin pyrkimys päästä oppilaskunnan hallituksen puheenjohtajaksi. Tämä vaati koko luokan apua, johon kuuluin muun muassa mainoskampanja sekä puhe koko koulun edessä!
Muita pienempiä tarinoita olivat pienempien sisarusten yhteinen hengailuhetki (Katain sisko oli aika söpö ehkä jopa Komin veljen mielestä?!?), Manbagin haaveiluhetki ja lopuksi yhteinen ruokailuhetki Komin perheen luona!
We get a rather interesting story as we see Komi reluctantly help icy student Isagi with her campaign for school president. It immediately becomes a wild ride as others will help her fit into the perfect candidate and the unanimous decision is a huge surprise. A- (91%/Excellent)
While there were some cute and fun moments at the end of this manga, I didn’t really care a good chunk of it. The election chapters were boring and I just wanted them to end.
This is probably my least favourite volume of the series so far 😅
This volume was fun as always. However, I did think that some moments attempted to be heartfelt, but ended up being just a little awkward. I'll give this three stars.
Tomohito don't you dare give us a miscommunication trope and don't mess up Rumiko and Komi's friendships 😭😭Komi and Tadano are end game. Highlight of this volume is Tadano being finally taller than Komi
This volume mainly introduces a new character/Komi's friend: Kiyoko Isagi, a very fastidious girl, who I didn't find particularly interesting or alluring as a character. And same goes for the whole Election thing.
Therefore, I can't say #15 is a much bigger improvement compared to #14, but at least the last part takes us back to the main story and Sanjurokuro is quite a fun character... or if not him, his name and its circumstances.
The main storyline of the election is good in concept but a bit odd in execution. But all our favorite characters are still around and they can't keep avoiding their decision forever.
Communication 197: We're already off to a bad start. I hate Yamai's inclusion so much. I don't mind the representation of girls having crushes on other girls, but she is a horrible depiction of it. Rigging a game to exploit Komi sexually? That is absolutely disgusting.
On the other hand, the student council president election arc was amazing. Why can't we get more of that??? Komi was really showing her growth, and is starting to become more comfortable reaching out to people.
Honestly, the character that this volume focuses on is boring and generally unlikable. Furthermore, it's not important for the main plot/love triangle. Didn’t enjoy this volume very much.