New drama springs forth from old loves!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Maki Enjoji
Translation: Tetsuchiro Miyaki
Adaptation: Nancy Thistlethwaite
What They Say
Hokuto is working harder than ever after his promotion, and the couple rarely spends time together anymore. Chiwa continues working at Ai-Max with Asahina, a guy she dated in college. Asahina knows she’s married to Hokuto, but he still has feelings for Chiwa.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After a lovely dream in which she’s able to freely talk business with her husband, Chiwa wakes up to reality. When Hokuto realizes that she is thinking about the importance of work versus time with her, he makes plans to take her out to dinner. While planning for this romantic engagement, Chiwa also finally pushes Asahina to stop treating her differently because of her marriage to Hokuto. Just when things seem to be going well, though, Chiwa finds Asahina calling her in to work overtime, interfering with her plans. To make matters worse she seems to have forgotten her phone and is unable to get in contact with Hokuto, and she feels she can’t ask off since she just asked not to be treated specially. However, Asahina admits that he knows what’s going on and hits on her, making things awkward. She flees and ends up injuring herself while rushing, but Hokuto finds her and the two are able to make up.
In the aftermath of what happened, Asahina steps down as Chiwa’s manager. Chiwa also goes to visit Hokuto’s father, and as a result she ends up in a huge fight with her husband over the matter. Though both father and son seem to accept their estranged relationship for their own reasons, Chiwa is absolutely unable to accept it. To make matters worse, Shitara also starts to antagonize Chiwa in a passive aggressive manner. Though they’re unable to resolve the core issue at hand, the two lovers are fortunately able to make up, realizing they can’t stand to be apart.
As the volume winds down, tensions flare up over old loves after being stoked by a meddling hand. Will Hokuto and Chiwa be able to keep it together in the face of these difficult trials and tribulations?
In Summary
Though this volume isn’t really the strongest entry into the series, it does at least hit on some nice plot points. In particular, the plot revolving around Hokuto’s father makes a really strong showing here, absolutely stealing the show. There’s also some nice office based issues raised that don’t feel too strained in the way they come across. On the other hand it’s a bit lame to see an interloper trying to screw up the couple’s relationship at this point, and the volume feels a bit lacking in any moments with a real punch to them. Hopefully future volumes will manage to regain some of that impact while sticking with the kind of story beats that show up here, but for now this is certainly a serviceable entry in the series that should keep fans satisfied.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 18+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: August 5th, 2014
MSRP: $9.99