Junta Shiraishi blends into the background so much that even his classmates fail to spot him.
His goal is to make the most of his high school years, but that pesky invisibility gets in the way…until Nagisa Kubo notices him! Kubo’s playful teasing kicks Shiraishi out of his comfort zone and begins a friendship—or maybe something more?
A school camping trip marks Shiraishi and Kubo’s first overnight event together. Making curry, hiking, experiencing the forest after dark—everything’s fun for Shiraishi with his new friends! But then Kubo gets lost in the forest during a spooky courage walk. Can former loner Shiraishi step up to comfort a friend in need?
As cute and gentle as ever, but today that struck me as boring instead of warm and fuzzy. There's a school trip with camping and a courage walk and then just more of the same classroom interactions.
This series seems to be steadily improving. This volume specifically though was really chill, with a camping trip that had a lot of wholesome moments. I also really liked the chapter with Shiraishi and his brother, it was nice to see them bond.
Kubo won’t let Shiraishi be invisible, but, sad to say, neither of them is doing much for keeping the story terribly interesting either.
With the addition of the new friends, this series is really turning into the photocopier version of Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie!. But like most copies, it doesn’t have a patch on the original (and with releases here being what they are, Kubo might have come first, I admit).
The problem is with the friends themselves, for starters. They get the job done here, sure, but the delightfully pronounced oddball crew in Shikimori brought that series to life. They just help this one stay on life support.
It’s a sad truth that this series has just absolutely stalled out at the notion of moving Kubo and Shiraishi on to the confession stage, which does make sense given Shiraishi’s disposition, but that’s just leaving lots of lots of stolen glances and precious little else.
Yes, the friends being quite happy to jockey for ringside seats to the imminent coupling while they cheer our leads on is cute. Their banter is simply the usual stuff, nothing injury in the slightest. Shiraishi stepping up for Kubo when she gets scared is cute. But there’s about as much presence here as Shiraishi himself.
And even on its own merits, this is a boring volume. Now that people are noticing Shiraishi, the problem of removing the one interesting thing about your character now rears its head. Shiraishi is just boring when he’s not wallpaper. If you want more slices of this particular life, sure, it’s perfectly perfunctory, but it stops there.
I hate to keep bringing up Shikimori, but Shikimori never removed what was interesting about Izumi in that story. She complimented it, was strong where he needed it, and helped him see that he was better than he thought. Shiraishi just doesn’t have anything like that.
Don’t get me wrong, this story doesn’t have a mean bone in its body. It’s perfectly functional and has its moments, but they’re far more ‘yeah, that’s okay’ than any ‘wow’. It’s a cozy read leaning more toward sedative than it should be.
3 stars - I mean, it’s doing what it wants to do, so fair play to it. It’s just hard to recommend when a better example of this (minus that brutal first volume) is literally right over there waiting in the wings.
Class camping trip shenanigans, summer plans, hiccups and sore throats, ice cream, good deeds, and exam worries.
And once again Nene Yukimori with the tasteful perviness. It was an accident. We can't see anything. Shiraishi is a gentleman and averts his eyes immediately. Kubo doesn't overreact, get angry, or violent.
Also, I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but these little chibi characters are so cute~ Reminds me of reading Dramacon; I love Svetlana Chmakova!
This series is becoming more about the group of friends and less about pushing the romance and I'm ok with that. I didn't expect this direction but I'm enjoying this ride. The group is preparing for a fun summer together and they are doing everything they can to ensure that will happen. This series continues to be full of sweet moments.
Shiraishi's little brother is so precious, he's the cutest! I don't know who's cuter, him or Anya from Spy X Family🥰 Also, I love the group of friends, they're so sweet and adorable.
I'm glad that Shiraishi is gaining something from his high school experience 😁 Although sometimes his cluelessness to Kubo's feelings seems borderline insensitive to me 😐
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.