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cyanide_latte's review
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Time to get back to the life and times of my favorite gals!
Where to start? I feel like this is a fairly fast-paced volume, and perhaps some of that can be attributed to the fact we have the opening chapter take place on New Year's, while the last and bonus chapters take place in the springtime. Maybe it's just that each chapter is a faster read? Or maybe it's that the opening chapter is rather lighthearted compared to everything that follows. Who knows!
I feel like the big theme of this volume deals with Ran, Miyu and Aya trying to prep for making it to second year and what they're going to do with school, but this feels more like the connecting point all three are struggling with (or in Ran's case, trying to ignore.) This volume focuses a lot on the stress Miyu in particular is dealing with, as she's determined to try and find a part-time job. She confides that there are issues with her mom and mom's boyfriend, and Miyu wants to get emancipated and be self-reliant. Ran and Aya make the effort to try to get part-time jobs with her, only for all three of them to be repeatedly turned down left and right due to their appearances at any place that would hire teens their age. They eventually snag a job, only for the hiring manager to reveal his true colors and tell Miyu he was hoping to get her to sign on for sex work, and he sexually harasses her in the process. Miyu defends herself and Ran and Aya come to her rescue.
This moves us to a discussion where Ran's older brother and Miyu's sweetheart, Yamato, steps in and introduces Miyu to the Kotobuki parents as the girl he wants to marry. C'mon, if you've been reading this series too, then you saw that coming (even if the characters didn't.) For all that Ran and Yamato constantly bicker, the way they come together to look after Miyu is heartwarming, and I'm of course very soft for the relationship between Yamato and Miyu. He goes out of his way to help offer Miyu tools so she doesn't need to feel like a burden or like she can't be independent, but knows that she can still rely on him to have her back.
From there, Miyu cram-studies with Aya, who agonizes about losing her friendship with Ran and Miyu if she does a different course in the upcoming school years (and of course our numbers 1 and 2 heartthrob boys manage to talk sense into her and remind her to have confidence in her friendships.) Miyu at one point collapses and the Kotobuki family helps her, offering her the chance to stay with them and have some safety until she can take a scholarship test (and maybe trick stubborn Ran into studying along the way.) This really is a positive volume in spite of the harassment the girls receive and the ugly look into how rough Miyu's home life is.
On the topic of the sexual harassment, the bonus chapter with the junior detectives also deals with this, particularly in a situation where an adult has been sexually harassing and abusing a minor, and this goes a bit more extreme than the harassment we see Miyu face in the volume in the earlier chapters. Please be aware of that if you're sensitive to this topic before diving in. It's still handled very well, things turn out good and the girl in question is safe by the end, but it's still chilling and stomach-turning. Women's and children's rights are still laws that are trying to be improved in Japan, and this is only a glimpse of the way things were back during this manga's original publication. The sad thing is, it can still function on a contemporary level, from what I understand, and I think that the bonus chapter in particular is one that can be brought up in discussions of how manga can mirror reality on the point of this topic in particular.
Where to start? I feel like this is a fairly fast-paced volume, and perhaps some of that can be attributed to the fact we have the opening chapter take place on New Year's, while the last and bonus chapters take place in the springtime. Maybe it's just that each chapter is a faster read? Or maybe it's that the opening chapter is rather lighthearted compared to everything that follows. Who knows!
I feel like the big theme of this volume deals with Ran, Miyu and Aya trying to prep for making it to second year and what they're going to do with school, but this feels more like the connecting point all three are struggling with (or in Ran's case, trying to ignore.) This volume focuses a lot on the stress Miyu in particular is dealing with, as she's determined to try and find a part-time job. She confides that there are issues with her mom and mom's boyfriend, and Miyu wants to get emancipated and be self-reliant. Ran and Aya make the effort to try to get part-time jobs with her, only for all three of them to be repeatedly turned down left and right due to their appearances at any place that would hire teens their age. They eventually snag a job, only for the hiring manager to reveal his true colors and tell Miyu he was hoping to get her to sign on for sex work, and he sexually harasses her in the process. Miyu defends herself and Ran and Aya come to her rescue.
This moves us to a discussion where Ran's older brother and Miyu's sweetheart, Yamato, steps in and introduces Miyu to the Kotobuki parents as the girl he wants to marry. C'mon, if you've been reading this series too, then you saw that coming (even if the characters didn't.) For all that Ran and Yamato constantly bicker, the way they come together to look after Miyu is heartwarming, and I'm of course very soft for the relationship between Yamato and Miyu. He goes out of his way to help offer Miyu tools so she doesn't need to feel like a burden or like she can't be independent, but knows that she can still rely on him to have her back.
From there, Miyu cram-studies with Aya, who agonizes about losing her friendship with Ran and Miyu if she does a different course in the upcoming school years (and of course our numbers 1 and 2 heartthrob boys manage to talk sense into her and remind her to have confidence in her friendships.) Miyu at one point collapses and the Kotobuki family helps her, offering her the chance to stay with them and have some safety until she can take a scholarship test (and maybe trick stubborn Ran into studying along the way.) This really is a positive volume in spite of the harassment the girls receive and the ugly look into how rough Miyu's home life is.
On the topic of the sexual harassment, the bonus chapter with the junior detectives also deals with this, particularly in a situation where an adult has been sexually harassing and abusing a minor, and this goes a bit more extreme than the harassment we see Miyu face in the volume in the earlier chapters. Please be aware of that if you're sensitive to this topic before diving in. It's still handled very well, things turn out good and the girl in question is safe by the end, but it's still chilling and stomach-turning. Women's and children's rights are still laws that are trying to be improved in Japan, and this is only a glimpse of the way things were back during this manga's original publication. The sad thing is, it can still function on a contemporary level, from what I understand, and I think that the bonus chapter in particular is one that can be brought up in discussions of how manga can mirror reality on the point of this topic in particular.
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