With the end of the school festival, Nanami and Ichijo decide to finally make the leap. After a lovely date and general floating around Cloud Nine, Nanami gets a mysterious letter. And then, well, lord have mercy on a girl from down in the boondocks… (or the Japanese equivalent)
By this point it is ridiculous to keep pointing it out, but this series is really well written and it shines in both its characters and the way it tells a story that has been erecting its foundations on the ground laid by many other shojo. It’s better than its genre trappings.
The aftermath of the festival, where Nanami and Ichijo are both trying to confess to one another, is a great example of how such a simple scene can turn into a series of strong moments for every main character in the series.
If there’s a weak spot here it’s actually the date proper, which is a fairly standard visit to a fairly standard location. It’s not bad, but honestly lacks the punch it should for such a momentous event.
Still, that mysterious letter kicks the story off in a whole other direction that I kind of loved. It once more takes something that’s a very basic concept, yet runs with it in some surprising (and, admittedly, a little implausible at times) directions.
This entire plot line turns into a real speed bump for the course of true love, but I think the way Nanami handles herself and the writing handles her (I love how she’s no pushover) is spot-on. She’s a low-key great heroine; simple in her way, yet effective. Her basic niceness doesn’t mean she’s naive, it just means she’s willing to try and understand, which is more than some can say, as it turns out.
No, it turns out that Ichijo is the problem here as he ends up not standing up for himself, or Nanami, simply because he’s both far too dependent on the hand that feeds and has a very obvious weak point in the form of his mother, which some people are only too happy to use to apply pressure.
Look, all I can say about this volume is that it has moments for everybody. The dog, Kon, a really good part where Chihiro acknowledges how perceptions can make life hard. And Ieiri ends up being a voice of comfort and wisdom, which is quite the turn - it’s another testament to the writing that he still has lots to do even after his status as a relationship obstacle fades away.
4 stars - an okay date and some oddly misplaced plot swerves that are a bit over the top for the norm keep it from perfection, but this is a shojo that is absolutely worth the time and effort to read. It’s a very strong telling of a story that’s been done to death.