5 – Swimsuits and the First Kiss
Another average chapter, sometimes I get lost amongst all that is happening (or not happening?) and feel that I don't know where the chapter is going.
It gets a bit boring, and the chapter story isn’t that interesting, we get to see another character, Kaho, being a bit mischievous, and playing around with the jealousy of Chise and Fumino.
There are a few good jokes and moments, but the rest is very plain and uninspired, I think it’s too ‘normal’.
5.5 – Why Test of Courage
One of those half chapters (with half the normal page length, so it’s only 20 pages long), it’s the standard quality that we’ve been getting (that is, not bad, but not great either).
I think I know what the problem is around here, we get introduced immediately in the manga three girls who like the main guy, without many reasons on why they like him, so there is no feeling or closeness. Their love feels artificial and weak.
Anyway this chapter is about a test of courage and walking through a forest, blah blah blah, a typical storyline, not done as great though. By this time, I’m not holding out much hope for the series.
6 – The First “NO”
Probably one of the better chapters so far, it was quite interesting (and quite funny). We learn a little bit about Nozomi, and why she is like that, quiet and mysterious. The chapter story is a lot more defined, and the events didn't stray too far from it. Nozomi also admits that she loves Takami, so now there is officially three girls loving him.
For some reason, I still feel all the back-stories for the characters seem lacking a bit, and it’s hard to feel like you know them personally. There are an abundance of To Love-Ru cameos here (as well as references to other manga like Black Cat), probably the most in any chapter to date, with appearances of Magical Kyouko, Run, Mikan, Haruna and Oshizu.
There were a lot of good hidden meaning jokes throughout the chapter and that’s what made this chapter more enjoyable, that and the fact that the story was actually better than normal make this chapter one of the better ones. The title refers to Nozomi disagreeing for the first time, since she had always agreed to what anyone said before.
7 – Public Bath x Battle!?
At first I thought it was one of the typical public bath chapters that is filled with ecchi (like the To Love-Ru chapters), and it was like that for the first half. Near the ending however, something relating to Nozomi’s past is threatened to be revealed, which made me wanting to read the next chapter.
There’s another To Love-Ru cameo, Yami this time, as a bath-goer, would have been cool if the cast was walking around and they see Yami chasing Rito, that would be a way more awesome cameo. I feel that it’s finally starting to get more interesting and I hold out the hope that the next chapter shall not be a disappointment, as it shows some promise.
This chapter however, is basically just a fan service chapter, but Kaho is shown is having a secret second motive, so it would be intriguing to see how that plays out as well. This is the first chapter where I thought the Harem finally starts to work well, with the three girls starting to fight it out…
8 – Cake and Smile and Finale
A decent chapter, it fulfilled it promise from the last chapter that it will be interesting, and it was. I really enjoyed this chapter, there were a few things going for it, the content was interesting, the characters seem to do what you would expect them to do, and the conclusion was interesting.
I wasn't sure how the story was going to work out, because Nozomi ran away from an academy, a person came to take her back, but of course, she didn't want to go, and the whole chapter was about this. Kaho seems a bit like the bad guy, but we still don't know too much about her yet. I guess the chapter focuses on a ‘friendship’ and ‘family’ theme, but at least it’s not overdone.
The situation at the end of the chapter seems so similar to To Love-Ru though (and speaking of which, there’s a cameo from Lala in one of the frames), with a transfer student (in this case Kaho) and then these girls clinging onto Takami, with him seemingly unaware of their affections, still, quite funny. With this chapter, the manga has become a bit more fun to read.
Overall
Better than the first volume, that is for sure, a few of the chapters stories are more interesting than before, which makes it less of a chore to finish it.
EDIT: can't believe this is the last volume that will be released, what a disappointment that it ended so quickly, with only 8 full chapters and 3 side chapters.
