I Hate You More Than Anyone 5

I was a bit disappointed that things remain largely the same on the Kazuha/Maki front.  I can’t say I mind too much, because the two of them are in a pretty good place right now, and I still think Maki is quite funny.  The two of them are apart due to Maki’s work schedule at the end of the volume, so maybe I can look forward to a cute reunion next time.

Things are once again peachy keen on the Senko/Kazuha front, though.  The two really are such good friends, and I have to say, I like that Senko seems to be gravitating against her will towards Toru Honjo.  Like I said, the Honjou family is one of the best things about this series, and Toru is probably my favorite character.  He’s just such a comically bad guy.  Case in point: I laughed really hard when, for no reason, there was an answering machine prank he pulled on Maki where he kept getting drunker and leaving messages every ten minutes.  I love him so much.

There’s a lot of focus on the younger Arata Honjo in this volume and his crush on Kazuha.  Arata is the subject of a crush himself, but is totally oblivious.  The girl in question is an old friend of his, and an old acquaintance of Kazuha.

Now, the one thing that got on my nerves a bit in this volume was the similarity between some of the character designs.  Arata’s potential girlfriend looks a lot like Senko and Kazuha’s friend in school, and the friend’s boyfriend is also Arata’s best friend and has a kind of generic design.  Arata and Toru look a lot alike save for the fact that Arata smiles more and Toru is somehow more apathetic-looking, but those two are brothers, so that’s understandable.  Chizuru appears and speaks to Toru at one point, and I couldn’t figure out who he was since he somehow looks like both Kazuha and Arata.  Kazuha’s sister and mom also have sort of generic character designs.  There are a few people who would never be mistaken for anyone else, but there are a handful of characters that I have trouble with sometimes.

I do like this series a lot, but it’s more of a “oh, I’ll pick this up next time I see it” appreiation than it is a burning need to find out what happens next in the lives of the characters.  Everything that happens is pretty standard shoujo stuff, and though it’s well-written, there are a lot of other series I have that are just as good or better.  I have to admit though, there are very few characters out there like Toru and Maki, and that alone probably makes I Hate You More Than Anyone worth reading.