By Maki Minami. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz.
Most of this volume sees Hikari and Kei taking a backseat to the rest of the cast, as the author starts to wrap up the various side plots she’s had going on. The one exception is an amusing chapter where Hikari thinks that Kei has eaten a love potion candy, making him overly romantic towards her. This is particularly hysterical given that Kei has been gaga over Hikari since the start of the manga. Needless to say, he decides to milk this for all its worth, stressing Hikari out with his affection, which he normally keeps a clamp on as it embarrasses her. The whole chapter ends with their first mutual, consensual kiss, and it’s lovely.
The rest of the volume gets devoted to the other couples (sans Akira and Tadashi, who have little to do here). Finn takes everyone to her home country, and ends up competing with Alisa for Ryu’s affections – which is especially awkward as Finn has to pretend to be a guy. And then, as we all knew would happen, Hikari finds out Finn’s secret. This is the weak link of the volume, being a very cliched resolution, with a hideous deus ex machina resolving things (the cast seem stunned when they hear it, as if they know how pathetic it is). Oh well, at the end we have another official couple.
Then we move to the strongest part of the volume, which is the one couple that *doesn’t* become official. I’ve enjoyed the pairing of Megumi and Yahiro from the moment it was first thrown at us, if only as it’s a total crack pairing – you sense that Minami saw they were the two main leftovers, and cackled at the idea of them being a couple. Then started to see how she would make it work. As it has some honest thought devoted to both of its participants, it thus *does* work. If only as it’s clear there’s much work to do. Megumi realizes herself how ridiculous it is having a crush on Yahiro, and knows (as does Yahiro) that he’s still too wrapped up in his past feelings for Akira to do anything right now.
And yet there’s just so much that’s wonderfully sweet here. And hilarious. From Megumi’s pathetic attempts to get a boyfriend off the street (and Yahiro laughing and tearing her apart for doing so), to the wonderful image of an insanely angry Yahiro bursting into Akira’s party (and completely ignoring Akira, I note), screaming Megumi’s name and asking if she wanted to make a fool out of him as he drags her off. And this is capped with Yahiro’s commanding (and browbeating) tone as he gets Megumi to sing perfectly. These two chapters are some of the best in the entire manga.
The volume then ends with a chapter about Alisa and Aoi, another crack pairing that works less well, mostly as it’s a last-minute pair the spares type, rather than showing the thought Megumi and Yahiro did. I was amused at Alisa, not knowing Finn’s secret as the others now do, point blank asking “Are you gay?”.
We have two volumes to go, and we still need to wrap up Kei’s grandfather’s issues, so I suspect this may be the last we see of the main supporting cast. If so, it’s a good issue to go out on. Especially recommended if you enjoy seeing shy wallflower in love with villainous jerk played RIGHT.
