Onise's words at the end of the previous volume cause Nao to wonder whether her feelings for Sou really are romantic. As she puzzles through the concept of romantic feelings and how to recognize them, Onise suddenly brings things to a head. He

The volume ends with the introduction of a new character, Ayaha Futami, a classmate of Onise's who takes an interest in him.

I still think the entire "Nao has a crush on her uncle, who has been raising her since she was six" thing was weird and off-putting. And while I appreciated the way she started questioning how to recognize whether her feelings are romantic or not, I thought she figured things out awfully fast considering she'd spent years interpreting her love for her own uncle as romantic love.

I also didn't like the way Nao's epiphany happened.

Meguro included some moments showcasing Nao and Onise's budding friendships with Yashiro and Misaki, although they always referenced Nao and Onise's romance. The moments were cute, but I found myself thinking about the friendship storyline early on in Kimi ni Todoke that explicitly focused on Sawako, Chizuru, and Ayane, with no reference to Sawako's budding romance with Kazehaya. Yashiro supported Nao while she wondered what to do about Onise, and Misaki supported Onise as he decided to pursue Nao more actively. I thought the relationship between Onise and Misaki was slightly better done. It felt like they had a firmer foundation, in large part because Volume 1 had already done some of the work of breaking down Misaki's defenses on-page. Yashiro was a bit friendlier in this volume, but it came more out of the blue than Misaki's transformation.

Once Nao and Onise officially became a couple, I tended to like Meguro's efforts at "sweet" moments more. Onise turns out to be the sort of guy who moves both fast and slow, originally asking Na out "with marriage in mind," but worrying that by holding hands they're moving too fast. And Sou doing the "dad" thing, telling Onise that he'd better appreciate the cookies Nao put so much time into, was nice. I kind of hope Sou gets a romantic storyline at some point (with an adult! You have no idea how much I hate that I have to specify these things).

I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. I hope Futami is the good guy he appears to be and that Onise figures out a way to hang out with this new friend of his without making Nao feel like she's constantly being left out. But I worry that Meguro actually plans to make Futami a secret villain. I suppose I'll find out.

I'm still iffy about this series. Although the art style is cute and there are lots of cute moments, there are lots of aspects that I'm not wild about. I'm hoping the next volume is better.

Extras:

Author sidebars and a few extra AU (alternate universe) comics in which Meguro depicts Sou as a teacher and all of the series' other characters as small children.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

All Nao Kogure wants is to avoid attracting too much attention and to hopefully make a few friends. Unfortunately, for some reason Taiga Onise, the guy everyone in her class is afraid of and who punched some upperclassmen on his first day of high school, has taken an interest in her. When he asks her to be his girlfriend ("Would you please date me with marriage in mind?" - coming on a little strong), she's sure that what he really wants is for her to be his slave for the rest of high school. She worries that if she says no to him, he'll torment her or hurt her. Seeing no other solution, Nao says "yes" and prepares for the worst.

As it turns out, Onise's bad reputation is a misunderstanding and he's actually a pretty nice guy. The more Nao gets to know him, the more she likes him. Too bad she's in love with someone else: her uncle, Sou, who's been raising her since her parents died. In this volume, Nao and Onise also gradually become friends with Kayo Yashiro, a gorgeous but aloof girl, and Ayumu Misaki, a good-looking boy with a prickly personality.

This was...okay. There were indeed quite a few sweet moments, but there were also a few things that threw me off.

The fact that Onise knew from the start that Nao only agreed to date him because she was scared of him was a little icky and at odds with his overall sweetness, even though he was eventually honest with her and admitted that he knew. Also, Nao wholeheartedly agreeing to continue being friends with Onise, knowing that he still liked her romantically, seemed like a bad idea. Still, I liked seeing Nao and Onise get to know each other. Onise's habit of bulldozing his way into people's lives balanced out Nao's desire to simultaneously blend into the background and somehow make friends. He also seemed to be encouraging Misaki out of his own prickly shell.

One big thing in this volume that didn't appeal to me was Nao's crush on her uncle. Who is related to her by blood and who has raised her since she was six or so years old. There's a definite squick factor there, and I hope this aspect of the series gets phased out quickly. The end of this volume indicated that I might be lucky in that regard. Either that, or Onise's words will just make Nao cling to her crush on her uncle more tightly. Please, no.

I've requested the next volume via ILL, so I guess I'll find out. Crossing my fingers that volume 2 is the end of Nao's crush on her uncle, and the beginning of even cuter scenes with Nao, Onise, Misaki, and Yashiro. I want to find out the story behind Onise's part in the umbrella flashback, why Misaki's so angry, and what the deal is with Yashiro.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

I've written this review assuming that anyone reading it has either read the previous volume in this series or doesn't care about spoilers for past volumes. You've been warned.

Okay, so this volume basically has four separate stories. First, Sato is bummed because he's going to be forced to go on a family trip from Christmas to the start of the new year. Yoshida accidentally upsets him and then meets an old man who may or may not be Santa Claus. In the next part of the volume, Machiko, the student council president, comes up with a plan that she thinks will guarantee her a spot next to Sato at a warm kotatsu. After that, readers get to see where things stand between Azuma and Nishida. Sato proves to be more helpful than I expected. The volume wraps up with a class field trip, which is particularly special because it's Sato's very first field trip ever.

This is the first full volume since Sato told everyone that he and Yoshida are a couple. The first story, with the strange possible-Santa (okay, not really Santa, although Yoshida and Sato did manage to get a Christmas miracle) was a bit odd, but I loved how bummed Sato looked that he and Yoshida weren't going to get to spend that time together. I found Tanaka's artwork, which exaggerated his feelings by making him look particularly haggard and shadowed, to be surprisingly funny (and cute?), I think because the Sato of several volumes ago would never have shown so much of his true feelings in public.

Technically the next part of the volume, with all the girls fighting for the right to sit with Sato at the kotatsu, wasn't much different from any of the past “girls fighting for the right to be with Sato” stories. This difference, this time around, was that neither Sato nor Yoshida had to hide their feelings for each other. Sato gesturing for Yoshida to come sit with him while everyone was distracted was a lovely moment.

As for the bit with Azuma and Nishida, I'm not sure what to think of those two. If they became a couple, it would keep Nishida out of Sato and Yoshida's way, but they're so awkward together. Azuma can't seem to find a happy medium in his behavior towards Nishida – either he throws himself at him too forcefully, or he pulls back too much. Sato's advice to Azuma worked surprisingly well, but I'm not sure he'll be able to identify the right time to switch gears.

The field trip was the best part of the volume. I found myself smiling through almost the whole thing. Sato's open enthusiasm for the trip was a little weird after so many volumes of him trying to look as cool and calm as possible, but it was still fun to see. So much of this part was ridiculously adorable: Sato's anticipation of the trip, Yoshida enjoying Sato's anticipation of the trip, and the way all their classmates reacted. The girls managed to rein in their jealousy for once, just so that Sato could have a “nice and typical field trip.” Well, as typical as possible considering that girls from other schools all wanted Sato too.

As far as Sato and Yoshida being a couple went, most of the characters seemed to have either accepted it or decided not to think about it too much (it was tough to say, although at least no one went around saying “__ sure is a great guy! Even if he is gay!” the way they did with Nishida in volume 4). The school's boys were disappointed that Sato dating Yoshida didn't mean the girls had given up on him. The school's girls were just as determined to get him to themselves as ever, and yet they forced themselves to hang back during the field trip so that Sato could enjoy it with Yoshida. The most awkward moment came when everyone was about to go to sleep for the night (everyone in sleeping bags in the same room, girls in one room and boys in another) and Makimura ordered Sato and Yoshida not to “get it on” while he was sleeping nearby. Judging by the looks on everyone's faces, not even Sato had thought about doing anything until Makimura brought it up.

I really liked this volume. Sadly, I have now read all the volumes in this series that I had on hand. I definitely plan on buying more in the future.

Extras:

• A 2-page Torachin and Yamanaka update. I really could have done without this update, because I've gone from rooting for this pair to hoping that they break up (Yoshida agrees with me). Yamanaka should be in jail. He drugged Torachin and dragged him to a love hotel. Thankfully Torachin managed to get free and beat the crap out of him.
• A 6-page field trip extra. This shows a little of what was going on while Sato and Yoshida were off having fun. Yamanaka tried to cheat on Torachin (OMG, those two are the worst couple), and Azuma spent the whole time searching for Nishida.
• One color illustration of Nishida and Azuma.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

I think several of the characters in this series have forgotten the plot. And also possibly that Kujou is the main character. Still, I give this volume extra points for cuteness.

Mikage continues to be wildly jealous of Kujou because she likes Taiki and is under the mistaken impression that he's in love with Kujou. In her efforts to push the two of them apart, she gives Kujou alcohol while telling him it's juice and later takes a picture of Kujou and Touma engaged in something she thinks is sex (it's not).

Meanwhile, Taiki is pretty sure that Kujou is Kaito, but he doesn't want to see absolute proof and doesn't want other demons to see any either – he believes in taking care of his friends. Souya seems mostly uninterested in proving that Kujou is Kaito, but, unfortunately, Touma is very dedicated to their task. On the plus side, all three of them would prefer that no other demons find Kaito first, so they team up to protect Kujou when a new threat closes in.

I didn't so much like the beginning of this volume. Personally, I thought Mikage was horrible. When she took pictures of Touma and Kujou together, she kept saying that she thought they were having sex, but what actually seemed to be going on was that Touma was raping Kujou (he wasn't – he was just trying to forcibly remove his shirt). And all she wanted to do was take pictures of it all. I would be happy if she disappeared from all future volumes.

Touma got a somewhat larger part in this volume, and yet I still felt he was kind of boring. He was pretty much just a giant ball of werewolfy rage, but at least he remembered what he, Taiki, and Souya had been sent to do. Without him, I might have forgotten what the point of the series was until Sendou, the new teacher, showed up.

The overarching story was even more incoherent in this volume than it was in the first, and yet somehow I liked this volume more. Takashima found new sources of humor – I particularly enjoyed Yaezaki, the girly-girl transfer student whose dialogue included little stars. However, even more than that, I enjoyed this volume's increased level of cuteness. It not only had more Rebun in cat form, it also had the most OMG adorable mouse ever, Taiki in sweetie pie mode (he cares more about his friendship with Kujou than he does about the demon king's orders!), and even a bit of Taiki/Rebun semi romance. It feels weird saying this, since Rebun is basically a cat, but I totally ship her and Taiki.

All in all, I wouldn't say this is a great series, but I'm enjoying it so far. Here's hoping for more adorable animals and sweet Taiki moments.

Extras:

The beginning of the volume has a character list and a "story thus far" section. At the end, there is a one-page postscript manga created by the author.

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)