By Maki Minami. Released in Japan by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz.
This volume of Special A has, in many ways, the same issues that Love Com Volume 16 did in my previous review. The couples have mostly gotten together, and we’re mostly stringing things along until the editor says “OK, you can end it now.” This means that there are some plot twists that seem obvious and unnecessary.
Enter Iori Tokiwa, the new “number Two” and rival to Kei for Hikari’s affections. Of course, we know he doesn’t have a chance in hell, but that’s OK, because he’s not there to make us believe Hikari might choose someone else. He’s there to make Kei go insane as he bonds with Hikari. Iori and Hikari share a lot of the same interests, and seeing the “drive to succeed” that Iori has reminds you that this is one thing that Kei definitely lacks.
Finn is still around as well, but Finn at least brings a bit more to the table. Her identity is still a secret to everyone except Ryu, and she’s also clearly fallen in love with Ryu, leading to a nasty rivalry with the twins. This chapter was actually pretty good, showing how a deep family bond (which is what Ryu and the twins have, despite not being related) can be fractured all too easily by newcomers. The way Ryu solved the problem was absolutely perfect.
And then there’s Hikari, our clueless heroine. She’s probably the reason I enjoyed this volume more than Love Com, as I simply enjoy watching her be dense. She goes way past other clueless heroines on the dense-o-meter, reaching some of the highest levels I’ve ever seen. Great Hikari moments in this volume include seeing how much she loves to study (again, something Kei simply doesn’t really do with her), and the last contest between her and Kei, which she throws and then demands Kei tell her to stay away from Iori.
Kei won’t do this, of course. He can be a frustratingly smug hero at times (witness his caveman-like entrance into Iori’s apartment and forced kiss earlier in the volume), but he is much better at self-analysis than Hikari is, and notes that he won’t ruin her budding friendship because of his own jealousy. He also gets a rare instance of misreading Hikari in this volume, where he thinks she was offended by the aforementioned forced kiss (she was merely happy, but communicating poorly, as she always does).
Akira and Tadashi fair the worst. They’re the simplest couple, and were the first to hook up, so they now get almost nothing to do at all.
Special A is still fun, but there’s an air of ‘what the hell can I do to mark time next?’ to these last couple of volumes. The series ends with Volume 17, though, so perhaps we’ll be seeing the endgame showing up soon.
