It ain’t easy being popular.
Creative Staff
Story: Nico Tanigawa
Art: Nico Tanigawa
Translation: Krista Shipley, Karie Shipley
What They Say:
Tomoko’s schedule is looking surprisingly packed these days. Between trips to the mall, open-campus events with friends, and surprise family visits, she hardly has any time to herself! All this socializing can really wear a girl out – life without friends was a whole lot simpler!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
It seems like Tomoko never has any time for herself anymore. Who knew that being popular would be this tough? Things were so much simpler when she had no friends. They were also much sadder back then. Don’t go back to those days, Tomoko!
Lunchtime is always so noisy and crowded. Akane treats Tomoko to lunch one day as an apology for making such a fuss before. At the cafeteria, Hina asks if Tomoko and Komiyama are friends? They both bluntly reply in unison that they aren’t. In fact, they don’t like each other. Hina finds that odd since they both seem to be on the same wavelength. It’s hard to argue with that. Tomoko mentions that Komiyama once made a pass on her brother, Tomoki. We all know how that turned out. This brings back painful memories for Komiyama. She’s still totally into him though. Hilariously, Yuri chimes in from another table that she has met Tomoki before. She’s even touched him before! This causes Komiyama to go crazy and asking where exactly did she touch him!? Meanwhile, Tomoki isn’t too far away and Yoshida starts teasing him. She has her arm around him which catches the attention of Komiyama. This leads to an argument between both girls. Eventually, their friends intervene to stop the fight but Tomoki actually grabs Yoshida’s boob. Oh my! Komiyama calls her a slut and gets punched in the stomach for her troubles. Yoshida storms off, clearly embarrassed. Tomoko walks up to her brother and brags that she has touched Yoshida’s bare boob before. Therefore, she outranks him. Ah, now that’s the Tomoko we all know and love. Her lunch breaks sure are wild now.
Things are also pretty rowdy in class. There’s one chapter where Yuu-chan returns a manga that Tomoko lent her. They both admit that it brought them to tears. Them feels yo. Mako borrows the manga next and she also breaks down crying. Yoshida is the next to get her hands on it and even she sobs! This must be one emotional manga. The manga ends up with Yuri and she reads it at home. However, she doesn’t shed a single tear after reading it. She’s quite troubled by this because she believes that it means she’s different from Tomoko and the others. The next day at school, Mako has Minami read that manga. Minami finishes the manga and proclaims that it was boring. This makes Yuri come to the conclusion that she must be the same type of person as Minami. She really thought she connected with Tomoko more. Speaking of Tomoko, she stops by Yuri’s desk and gives her a different manga. She admits that the manga Yuri read was probably not to her liking and brought her one that would be. Although she won’t admit it, this causes Yuri to shed a few tears! D’awww. You can tell that Yuri was really happy at that moment. It’s nice to see some emotion from her. I want to see her smile one day.
Golden Week is coming up and Tomoko is looking forward to having some time to relax. Well, she was anyways. Before she knows it, her Golden Week is packed with college open houses. First up is attending the Chiba West University open house with Yuri. It’s actually a highly ranked university and a lot of the schools are tough to get into. However, the School of Education isn’t too bad. The only problem is that both Tomoko and Yuri don’t see themselves as teachers. They’re just not good with kids. True enough! Tomoko pictures Yuri slapping a kid across the face as a teacher. Yeah, this is definitely not the college for them. Yuri isn’t even sure what college to attend or what to study. Tomoko admits that she doesn’t either but it’s okay. Some people just go to college to have fun. I can confirm that a lot of people do go to college just to have fun. Anyway, they still have time to decide on a college. No need to worry about it now. Although, Yuri would prefer to go to the same college as Tomoko. D’awww. Tell us how you really feel, Yuri! Tomoko spends the rest of her week checking out other colleges with Nemoto, Okada, and Katou.
A lot of funny stuff happens after each open house. After the open house with Yuri, Tomoko makes her go shopping with her. She makes Yuri wear sexy clothes and it reminds her of the days she would sexually harass Yuu-chan before she became popular. It’s a shame she became a slut. No mincing words with Tomoko, huh? Okada takes Nemoto and Tomoko to Akihabara after their open house. Okada suggested Akiba because she knows that geeks love this place. The way she said it was kinda mean. As payback, Nemoto and Tomoko have a competition to see who can freak her out the most. Nemoto takes her to a shop that sells BL. Ha, that’s kids’ stuff. Tomoko takes her to an adult shop and shows her a vibrating adult toy. I personally did not need to see that. Okada certainly isn’t amused by any of this. In a hilarious twist of fate, Tomoko jokes with that Nemoto that she may have to do a role in a hardcore eroge when she becomes a voice actor. She teases that if she can’t do it, she’ll never make it as one. Nemoto goes and buys a hardcore eroge immediately. I guess that means Tomoko wins the competition?
Tomoko finds herself in a strange predicament with Katou after the open house they attended together. She reveals her dirty and nasty side to her. She felt like she couldn’t hide it anymore. Tomok admits to being a pervert and that she blamed the d*ck pics on her friend. She was the one that was enjoying looking at them. So what? That was Katou’s nonchalant answer. Tomoko confesses to having erotic fantasies all the time and enjoys sexually harassing her friends. Yup, huge pervert alright. But no matter what she says, Katou doesn’t back down. She simply accepts Tomoko for who she is. Honestly, I did not expect Katou to handle this so well. Is she some sort of saint? Or maybe she’s secretly a pervert herself? Regardless, Tomoko finally has some free time after all those open houses. Just kidding! Kii-chan unexpectedly comes over to her house and forces Tomoko to show her around her school. She sees that Tomoko has a lot of friends and they seem to have a lot of fun together. Kii-chan regrets not being able to go to the same school as her. But hey, she still has a chance to attend the same college as her in three years! And if Tomoko fails to get into one on her first try, that’s an extra year they can spend together! Tomoko is terrified at the idea and promises to study hard to get into a college on the first try. Good luck!
In Summary:
Ever since the beginning of the series, Tomoko has wanted to be popular. That was the goal. She wanted to put that loner life behind her. It’s crazy to think that now she’s hanging out with friends and socializing with so many people on a daily basis. She’s totally a normie now. Good for her! The dirty jokes sprinkled throughout the story were what you would expect from the series. You either love ’em or you hate ’em. I still enjoy most of them. I liked that this volume focused on everyone’s future aspirations. Some people have a clear goal in mind, others just plan to wing it. Either way, being prepared for the future is always a good thing!
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: T
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: October 15th, 2019
MSRP: $13.00 (US), $17.00 (CAN)