En-chan has been struggling with her manga, and it's left her feeling depressed. Hoping to cheer her up, Koeda suggests that their class should open a café inspired by En-chan's favorite series -- Magical Honey -- for the school cultural festival. Later that fall, Koeda and Masamune end up in the same group for the school field trip. They share plenty of fun, romantic moments while traveling through Nara and Kyoto, but partway through their trip, an unexpected incident interrupts their plans! Check out volume 11 of the slow-burn romance of a pure-hearted girl stumbling through love.
En-chan gets her groove back, we get another reminder that Kyoto exists, we get some unnecessary reminders that rivals exist, and it’s the holidays again in a jam-packed episode of My Sweet Girl!
It speaks to the gentle quality of this series that I read two volumes in rapid succession and didn’t feel like it was wearing out its welcome. As always, this series doesn’t exactly excel, but it definitely maintains a consistency that’s quite rare for a story of this length.
If this volume has a failing, it’s the way it consistently makes the weirdest contrivances part of its narrative. Watching En-chan get reinvigorated by the school festival is very sweet, but it really hinges on her making a fairly bad professional decision (even if it does work out because story) and her entire class going along with Koeda’s plan.
I can take or leave school trip arcs, but this one’s pretty good because it does some photorealistic art stuff but not too much (and Koeda feeding the deer might be my favourite part of this book) and has a brilliantly sweet moment between our leads (and a not-so-brilliant close encounter, hehe).
We see yet another ‘what the heck’ story pivot during the trip, however, when useless rival guy shows up again for no reason except to annoy me (I assume). This is another coincidence too far, but at least they get past the jealousy and sulking portions relatively quickly and gracefully. I liked Koeda’s pushiness in not letting it turn into a Thing.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that there is some very clever dialogue in this volume. Hagiwara’s hilariously straightforward post-high school plans and Masamune’s manipulation of the rules to get some affection from Koeda during the trip are both high points.
Finally we have the Christmas side of things and I particularly enjoyed that it’s a really cute, simple story about Masamune’s family plus we get a bit of a revelation that some manga would make a whole meal out of, but this series is smart enough to just treat as something that happened in the past.
3 stars, maybe even 3.5 for some good dialogue and extra bits of cute fluff (that bear costume is something else). I suspect we’re moving towards the end in a couple volumes and that feels about right, since my most pressing question right now is if Take and En-chan are going to realize they’re perfect for one another or not.
SIGH. I’m at that point where this manga’s story is starting to feel like most other shojo series out there - and that’s a sad thing for me to say because I once really liked how this story somehow managed to distinguish itself from those other series. Now all I think is, “How much longer do we have to go?”
AHHH EN-CHAN 😭😭😭😭😭 What a great way to "showcase" En-chan and give her a mini-arc! Aside from that, there was also the field trip and we get to learn more about Masamune's family! Anyway, I can't believe there are only 2 volumes left. I can't wait to see what happens next.
I am getting a little bored! This is why shojo series should be 10 volumes or less!!!! Lol. But I do love Koeda and Masamune together. I want to see how this ends…
Omg this one was so freaking cute. They are so cute together. I loved their relationship. They are both kind of insecure but not about their feelings or trust in each other.