Chiharu bursts onto the scene!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Go Ikeyamada
Translation/Adaptation: Tomo Kimura
What They Say
The Kobayashi twins, Megumu and Mitsuru, were named after historical figures, but only Megumu has grown up with a taste for history. So when Mitsuru is in danger of losing his weekends to extra history classes, he convinces his sister to swap clothes with him and ace his tests! After all, how hard can it be for them to play each other? Megumu has once again switched places with her brother, just in time to encounter Akechi’s newest student—the angry guy she met in the park! Chiharu Uesugi knows something about Aoi’s past, and seems determined to take him down. Megumu wants to protect her boyfriend, but will she be able to foil whatever nefarious plan Uesugi has cooked up when he blackmails her into a date?! Find out in volume 7 of So Cute It Hurts!!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Continuing off from last time, things immediately turn into a brawl between Aoi and Chiharu. It’s fairly even, but Megumu jumps in and helps put an end to things. She then tries to ask Aoi what the deal is between the two of them, but it makes him uncomfortable so she doesn’t push, meaning we’re left hanging as to what the hell is going on. Aoi realizes how bad this situation could go and tells Megumu not to hang around, but our heroine is having none of that and instead stays by his side. And of course to make things super extra awkward Chiharu transfers into Megumu’s class and end up sitting next to her! This leads to an amusing gag where she tries to “disguise” herself, but it still doesn’t take him long to figure out that she’s the girl he met in the park.
We then get some bits with Mitsuru and Azusa, but… to be honest their plotline doesn’t really go anywhere this volume. Their plot this time pretty much just comes down to a bit of flirtation and one cute little moment involving an accidental “kiss.” Speaking of which, Megumu and Aoi also get a cute kiss, getting around the barrier in their relationship using a window. Which in trying to think on it would look pretty silly in real life and could be rather unsanitary, but it works well and is rather charming in the context of the story.
Finally, the meat of the back half of the story goes into Chiharu forcing Megumu into a “date” by putting the lost gift from Aoi on the line. Much as this seems like a terrible idea, our heroine accepts (though she does at least come properly equipped, as we’re shown). And thus we get another battle date, which once more proves fairly amusing. It’s not quite as over the top as the last one, but it certainly does have a nice gag or two as our heroine uses unorthodox methods of attack to fight back. And of course in the process we learn that Chiharu may be kind of dick, but he’s not entirely rotten and certainly doesn’t aim to torment Megumu anywhere near as much as he can. Though he does use the opportunity to send a rather dangerous looking picture to Aoi, sparking up the flames of battle once again.
In Summary
As with last time, we get another entry in the series that is more solid and well-done than mind-blowing or trope-breaking. Almost all of the attention this time around goes to slowly advancing the relationships of our heroes while also pulling Chiharu into the cast. And for what it’s worth, both of our main characters do get a nice memorable moment with their partner, so it’s not bad on that front, even if Mitsuru and Azusa are barely in the volume. On the other hand, Chiharu has some solid scenes that help us to figure out a bit about the type of guy he is, but it’s kind of awkward that we still have no idea what’s actually driving him. Of course the payoff may still be there to make all this setup worth it in the future, though. So for now we get yet another entry that’s just a tad disappointing when held up against its exemplary predecessors, but is still plenty worth a read.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: June 7th, 2016
MSRP: $9.99
