Kaguya and Shirogane went all the way, which means they should probably tell the rest of the student council that they’re even dating. Chika acts up, but Ino acts out, and Yu discovers the joys of things he already liked.
Phew, there’s a lot of aftermath from our last instalment and this volume wobbles all over the place cleaning up the fallout and it really does itself no favours narratively, aiming away from the comedy somewhat but not upping the plot to make up for it.
The part where Kaguya tells Fujiwara about her relationship is kind of dull, although this is nearly made up for in the next chapter, which features two smash cuts that are the funniest jokes in the book (the other big laugh is another smash cut later on from Ino).
We then get a dire chapter featuring a teacher at the school, who is so incredibly boring and, coupled with a very lame plot where Kaguya thinks she’s being blackmailed, essentially wastes pages as far as I’m concerned to impart a very trite lesson.
As if that wasn’t enough, we’re subjected to a ‘Fujiwara teaches Shirogane something’ story, which is a running gag that has been stagnating for ages. The point of this one truly has its heart in the right place, but the tedium of the walk to get to that point is palpable.
At this stage, you’ll forgive me if I felt despair setting in, but the colossal train wreck that is the Ino and Ishigami relationship comes roaring back and, while I don’t love everywhere it goes, it’s sure fascinating.
Ishigami is realizing that his former/current crush makes an awkward friend, but Ino is too timid to do anything about it. Until she gets some well-meaning, but ultimately bad, advice from Fujiwara, who basically flips a switch that she should have left alone.
Ino is a textbook case of a very good girl whose behaviour is wound so tight that when she goes in the other direction she’s incredibly forward. She really starts raising some eyebrows before recovering a little, but it’s interesting to see her at her most scheming.
This whole storyline really goes all over creation, with sugar daddies, Discord servers, and a large chunk of the plot concerned with Apex Legends of all things. Strangely, as somebody who played an absolute ton of Apex during the start of the pandemic, it’s rather impressive how accurate the depiction was.
What follows is the story of two people who don’t know exactly what they mean to one another, but also don’t want one another to be with anybody else. It’s a mess, but an interesting one, especially given that, attraction aside, it’s hard to see what these two even have in common.
Even if I don’t think it all succeeds, it’s light years better than the first sections, and there are some real emotional beatdowns in here, including one about the truth of how some friendships are formed that’s as awkward as all get out. My feeling has always been that these two had a spark, but it’s still questionable if it will, or should, amount to more.
Whether this series is as strong as it once was or not is barely worth asking because it is what it is and has drifted so far from its initial premise from sheer necessity (can you imagine if this was 20+ volumes of the same old battles with no progression?).
I’ve liked it when it was silly, I’ve liked it when it was serious. I think what’s working against it is the sheer longevity, honestly. Not much can be consistent over as much time as this manga and I’m happy to settle for pretty okay to good with occasional bursts of excellence like the previous volume.
3.5 stars - with not quite enough going on to move it up a notch, this is definitely one of the less impressive volumes of this series I’ve read in a bit, though it definitely gets better the farther along in it you go, as the Ishigami/Ino storyline is the one that has me the most invested now.