2 screenshot limit

A few changes happen to our couple in this second volume… This book feels less intense than the first one, but I think that’s really due to the introduction of a new group of characters into Chouko’s world.

As a college freshman, Chouko gets roped into a school club. She joins out mostly out of pity for the guy trying to recruit new members… so even though she’s not interested in the activities of the circle (they’re a Taisho Writers book group), she joins anyway. The current club members are already so grateful that she’s joined, but once they realize that she lives in the same house as Kei, they stage a scheme where they’ll follow him on a business vacation to the hot springs in Hakone.

The club members definitely change the tone of this series. They actually remind me of Yukino and Arima’s wacky gang of friends in Kare Kano. They mean well, but they get overly excited at times. And like Yukino before her, Chouko becomes a more interesting character once she starts interacting with people. I like how she’s pretty much down for going out and drinking with the group, almost as soon as they’ve met her. She really did just need other people to break out of her shell.

Kei, too, undergoes some interesting changes in volume 2. While we were made aware of his melancholy nature already, he also doesn’t seem to shy away from his developing feelings for Chouko. I actually was pretty shocked in his cocky statement to Paa-suke in the hot springs. He knows that there are numerous complications involved with pursuing a relationship with her beyond boarder and landlord, but at the same time, he’s no dummy. He knows that she has feelings for him just as he does for her.

I like the pace that this series is going along so far. This volume has a different feel from the first volume, but that change is a nice change in what’s already an extremely readable and enjoyable story.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 4:08 pm and is filed under cmx, manga & manhwa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.