“The Gang and the Group Call”
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Nene Yukimori
Translation: Amanda Haley
What They Say
You can’t be invisible when the heroine has her eyes on you!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the series recently picked up by Viz Media, this property from Nene Yukimori doesn’t have most of its chapters available yet but it’s an entirely accessible book as I was able to pick up this in the early 80s range of chapters and enjoy it easily enough. The series is one that works through some familiar kinds of material here for a high school romance with a bit of comedy and that helps as you just have to get a handle on the way the characters interact with each other. Yukimori’s a solid artist with good designs for the characters that feel their own and not just a carbon copy of something else and they make the locations work in their favor, though there are some slim panels as you’d expect.
With the beach adventure and all of its more intimate moments behind us, things are back to normal with everyone at home again. What this installment focuses on in terms of the event happening is a group phone call. Now, color me crazy, but I suspect this would be far more through text than anything else. But it works well as a group call with Shiraishi on the line with three others as they try to figure out something to do tomorrow on their day off. They’re still making sure that they’re all going to the festival together – and boy does one of them just want to go for the food, understandably so – but that’s definitely worth making sure of. The uncertainty of what to do is starting to make the call a bit awkward, however, especially since you’ve got Shiraishi getting quiet as he’s still not used to all of this.
What throws the call off, however, is the arrival of Seita into Shiraishi’s room. His little brother is all excited to blow bubbles with him that he just bought with their mother and can’t contain himself. The reveal of a little brother is a shock to some of those on the call but then it turns to everyone thinking spending some time hanging out and just blowing bubbles could actually be fun, a chance to recapture the childhood. It serves well to bring them together and for Shiraishi to manage his brother’s expectations as well, and it leads to an amusing conversation about meeting up at his place since Nagisa actually knows where he lives. But the best moment is at the end as they all show up together to get Shiraishi and Seita, and you see Shiraishi’s mother so absolutely pleased by this. With the whole concept of his invisibility being key to what started this, as a parent, seeing these happy and friendly faces there to be with her son does more than you can know until you’re in such a situation.
In Summary:
This series has a cute charm to it to be sure but installments like this really bring it out in a stronger way. This is the kind of chapter that makes you fall for it a little more seriously than you were before and in a deeper way than you realized. I really liked Yukimori’s design for Seita because it basically makes him out to be a living plush when you get down to it. It’s simple but effective and you totally understand why the girls are just enamored by his cuteness. I’m looking forward to seeing where the simplicity of this goes next.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Shonen Jump
Release Date: October 13th, 2021
