Yoh is still mired in her student council dilemma, but she’s set free by a plot by Haruma. Or not. Touya finally figures out his feelings and an old friend who’s a new girl enters the fray and she’s fooling nobody reading this book.
How will this series end? That is the mystery that truly keeps me going with a series that is pure baloney with a melodrama glaze. I mean, Haruma is on all the covers so I don’t doubt that the Yoh and Haruma pairing is inevitable, it’s just how they plan to sell it as at all palatable.
Haruma looks after Yoh, certainly, but he’s also possessive and even if he’s not the psychopath he’s portrayed as, he’s definitely got a few boundary issues that aren’t being properly dealt with. Even if this is a projection of his past traumas it is a lot to be forcing on poor Yoh.
Like many a book before it, this series decides that the way forward is to introduce lots of antagonists who are way worse than Haruma to take the edge off him (although he definitely has one speech to himself that I’m sure is supposed to be open to interpretation but comes across like the devious plan of a total lunatic). I noted this last review, but like any good escalation they double down on it with this volume.
We do get a very satisfying dispatch of the smug bastard president from last volume, who manages to get some seriously tasty comeuppance that Yoh definitely had some hand in, but leaves a big question mark as to how much involvement he had overall because that’s this story.
Haruma steals some kisses, freaks Yoh out (her agency in this volume might be the worst it’s ever been - she is way too wishy-washy about her own life), and generally skulks around while Touya tries to sort out his feelings as well. I mean, Touya might as well not even try - the only thing he has going for him is that he’s genuinely nice and mentally stable.
We also get the introduction of Yoh’s old “friend” Wakana, who refers to herself in the third person which immediately marks her as pure evil. Okay, also once you hear any of her and Yoh’s history you will realize that this dame is poison. There is no actual good reason for Yoh to be so accommodating of her (especially after she literally emotionally abuses Yoh by triggering her), such that it makes Yoh come off super poorly this time out.
So we get Yoh once again letting her life be destroyed by being too nice, which is apparently how this series will work going forward. Yoh gets into the soup, Haruma saves her (or not), rinse and repeat, with occasional side hints about the pure evil that happened in Haruma’s house (my money is on Yoh having saved him and he’s repaying the favour, he’s just super creepy about it).
I guess the problem, besides this being a ludicrous thriller, is that by playing so coy with all the Haruma stuff (seriously, it’s practically a Japanese fish pond) it makes him into a total creep even without intending it. And Yoh gets imperilled constantly, which I guess is a slight change from the usual shojo antics, but is really selling out a character I like who deserves better than the material she’s in.
It’s such a strange series - I have rarely, if ever, rooted for the rival before, but here we are. Not that I expect anything to come of it, this title’s telling a different tale but it is definitely of its genre. I just hope we aren’t supposed to be cheering for Haruma at this stage.
3 stars - pure car crash entertainment. It’s absolutely just a dogpile of nonsense that isn’t ready to show its hand yet, so keeps layering on the crazy instead. Definitely one of those stories where I’m entertained, but I get the feeling it’s not necessarily for the reasons the mangaka intended.