Onegai, sensei-chan!
Creative Staff:
Original Story: Mag Hsu
Story and Art: Nao Emoto
Translation: Ko Ransom
Lettering: Evan Hayden
Editing: Ajani Oloye
What They Say
After helping his teacher Hermès overcome her stage fright, Serizawa has hope that love may someday blossom between them. But the dashing prince of the prepschool steps into the picture and may stand in the way of Serizawa’s relationship with Hermès. This princelike boy says that he and Serizawa are two of a kind, but what does he mean by that and how does Hermès fit into everything?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Perhaps it’s that Hermès’ story was broken up between two volumes, but seeing it pick up here shows some signs of wear from the get-go. Serizawa making unlikely friends with the “prince” of his prep school establishes a buddy confidant that makes the overall story feel like any other romance story. And while it makes sense for Serizawa to remember more details for events that happened more recently, what made earlier recollections enjoyable and unique were just how intimate they were.
Focus being solely on Serizawa and the girl he had on his mind at the time prevents the story from rambling for too long, which is exactly what happened this time around. With so many characters introduced over a short span of time, you aren’t able to fully connect with each of them and instead of better fleshing out the world, the sudden interest in all of them spreads the story too thin. And even though strands of the plot come together near the end of Hermès’ arc, it never feels as satisfactory as it could have been had it ended more abruptly. Instead, we’re left with an awkward one-sided romance between a student and teacher that turns out just as embarrassing and cringe-worthy for Serizawa as you’d expect it to be, with far too much time to take in just how awkward and one-sided the romance was in the first place.
The one-sided relationships continue, as we’re treated with no flash-forward to Serizawa in the present, and instead immediately move on to the next failed-romance-flashback in the form of college classmate Tsukoshi Makino. From the get-go, Makino’s story is already far more interesting than Hermès’ in that it takes the basis of Hermès’ story and reverses it, starting off with a one-sided romance that shows the possibility of blossoming into something more. Serizawa spends time with Makino solely to lighten her workload, which is chock-full of classes as well as part-time jobs to support her family which has fallen on hard times. Such a burden never gets to her, though, as her down-to-earthiness keeps her moving forward without any (apparent) cares in the world. Establishing how romantically transparent both parties are from the start is satisfying, and makes things much more interesting when the possibility of a relationship is played around with as the story progresses.
The sudden introduction of yet another girl during Makino’s story adds for another appreciated twist in the plot. But even with what it has going for it, Forget Me Not volume 2 just didn’t pack as much punch as the nostalgia-filled volume 1, with the lack of present-time Serizawa making it more apparent that the stories this time around are more contrived and episodic.
In Summary:
With the story as a whole bouncing between so many new memories, it’s only natural for some of them to shine brighter than others. Serizawa’s recollection of Hermès overstays its welcome and spreads itself a bit too thin come its story’s conclusion, while the following story is cheerier, but ultimately not as endearing as the ones told last volume. Immediately jumping to the next memory rather than seeing what’s going on with Serizawa in the present makes this volume feel more like a collection of vignettes than an overarching story leading up to a common end goal. Not the best Forget Me Not has to offer, but I’m holding out hope for volume 3 to catch the same spark that the first volume did.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Older Teen
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: May 17th, 2016
MSRP: $10.99
