Bring on the dates!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Go Ikeyamada
Translation/Adaptation: Tomo Kimura
What They Say
Megumu’s life has gone from weird to wonderful – she no longer has to cross dress as her brother, and her true love, Aoi, has asked her out on a date! It’s the beginning of a beautiful relationship, even if they have to stay two feet apart at all times or risk Aoi going into anaphylactic girl shock. Meanwhile, Mitsuru is back in his own clothes too, but he’s making war, not love! Can he defeat the school bully and win the hand of his sweetheart, Shino?!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
For the two central plot points of this volume, we follow Megumu and Aoi as they start dating, and also Mitsuru during his fight/date with Tokugawa. Before that kicks off though, Aoi turns to Mitsuru for dating advice, and along the way they unintentionally see Megumu being super doofy. With that bit of cuteness out of the way, the dates commence, and things kick off with an absolutely brilliant visual gag as Mitsuru and Tokugawa’s expectations clash in a fantastically over the top manner. In the meantime the other pair’s date carries on in a way very fitting of Megumu’s tastes, and things progress in a rather charming manner.
Going back to Mitsuru and Tokugawa’s fight/date, it progresses in a rather amusing manner, as it really does fall in-between romance and “combat”. This of course makes for some very fun moments that play great on Tokugawa’s character, and everything ends on a really wonderful note. Megumi and Aoi’s date continues on, though, and after a brief bit of a fight with some thugs, Aoi ends up standing up for his timid girlfriend. Oh, and the chapter climaxes with something that really treads the line between charming and super goofy looking in the pair’s method of “embracing” one another despite Aoi’s weakness. I ultimately found it cute enough and it worked, though I could easily see someone finding it downright silly looking.
Finally, things end on a powerful cliffhanger as Mitsuru sees something that’s enough to emotionally break him, and we also get a dark visual glimpse at something involving Aoi. And in the bonus chapter, we get a cute little bit involving Mitsuru and Aoi set back when the crossdressing was going on.
In Summary
While most other romance series would’ve entered a sort of rut and gotten their formula down by now, this one amazingly continues to truck on. There’s of course some more traditional romance presented here via Mitsuru and Aoi, though there are enough little tweaks to keep things feeling fresh. The real star, though, is Mitsuru and Tokugawa’s “date.” There are some fantastic gags and even an emotional moment or two throughout, and the pair simply play off one another wonderfully. Add to this a wonderful pair of strong cliffhangers that promise to keep things intense in the future, and you get another top notch entry in what’s quickly shaping up to be one of the most wonderful romance titles out there.
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: December 1st, 2015
MSRP: $9.99
