Bland betrayal.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kanae Hazuki
Translation: Alethea and Athena Nibley
What They Say
There’s nothing like loving and getting loved back! Mei and Yamato are finally sure of their feelings for one another, but somehow, longtime loner Mei still feels anxious. Fashion model Megumi still hasn’t given up on Yamato, and Yamato’s best friend from middle school, Kai, has started at their high school. How will Yamato handle facing a part of his life he’d rather forget?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Though he almost went down a dark path last volume, Kai seems to be hitting it off in school, with literally more fan girls than he knows what to do with. Soon enough, he meets up with Mei and Yamato when hiding from these rabid fans. Of all things, this ends up with the group going to karaoke along with Megumi. However, both Mei and Kai end up unnerved from the crowd, and end up having a bit of a bonding moment on their own. However, Yamato ends up overseeing this, and though he doesn’t misunderstand, it still sets off some jealousy. To make matters worse, Kai ends up admitting to him that he’s now falling for Mei.
Later on, Kai realizes that Megumi doesn’t really like Land when she’s trying to butter him up. Realizing that she can’t use Kai to get at Yamato, Megumi changes her plan and starts clinging to Asumi. From there she really steps up her misdeeds, manipulating Mei’s friends away from her while prodding Yamato’s insecurity. Though none of her friends actually mean to betray her, Megumi is sneaky enough about the whole affair that nobody catches on, leaving our heroine feeling thoroughly abandoned.
With Kai’s help, will Mei be able to break free of Megumi’s psychological trap? And will it end up blowing up in the cruel girl’s face, or will she manage to weasel out of getting caught?
In Summary
This volume is more than a little disappointing. Rather than tackle intense issues as it has in the past, instead we get rather average romantic drama that kind be found in most any shojo series. Furthermore, it’s all orchestrated by Megumi stepping out of the depth that she showed off last volume and devolving into a generic scheming meddler trope. The only thing that saves the volume from being completely bland is that Kai gets some nice scenes to develop his character, but it’s not enough to make this volume particularly interesting. It’s a real shame to see the story devolve to this degree, but hopefully it’ll be able to regain some of its edge and uniqueness in future volumes. For now, though, this remains a bland yet serviceable entry into the series.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B-
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: December 16th, 2014
MSRP: $10.99
