Slightly Biased Manga

The fact that no volume of this series ever lived up to the first, coupled with the fact that every subsequent volume seemed like a lame attempt at fanservice, left me not too excited about the ending to this series.  I put off reading it for quite some time.

A lot of the problems I had with the last volume reappeared, which is that the characters spend a LOT of time sitting around talking about how much they like each other instead of doing anything, and a lot of time is spent see-sawing between Yasuna and Tomari.  This volume takes this to an insane level, and it made me want to take back any nice things I may have said about the plot twist at the end of volume 3.

I just… I just didn’t care about these characters that much.  I think the way their feelings developed was very well done, but they still somehow lacked depth as characters, or at least depth enough for me to sit around listening to their feelings for this long.  I couldn’t tell you what depth was missing, and I couldn’t tell you why it was I didn’t care about them, but there’s the problem.  It wouldn’t be a problem so much if anything else was going on, but it is literally just the three main characters sitting around talking about their feelings, mostly to themselves.

The one thing I do want to give the series credit for, other than a great first volume, was the fact that it definitely paired two of the girls together in the end.  I was totally shocked when this happened, because even for 3/4 of this volume, I was totally convinced that the three would wind up “together forever,” a casualty of reader popularity not allowing the writer to pair off the characters.  It happens though, and I was very impressed.  It doesn’t really change any of the characters, or their feelings, but it made me feel better, at least.  To be fair, there were also some genuinely touching moments between the pair, which surprised me since this was something the series had failed at right up to the end, plus it meant the characters are at least developed enough for me to enjoy the cute romance scenes between the two.  I was pleased.

There are some loose ends tied up among the classmates (and some surprisingly funny Ayuki side stories), and then the series just finishes, along with an explanation of its title.  The cute romance scenes at the end were good, as was the pairing, but I think most people would do well to read the first volume (because, I promise, it’s very good) and then stop there.  Wel, it was also unique for me, at least, for being the only multi-volume yuri-focused manga series I’ve read.