Title: Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible Vol. 3
Author: Nene Yukimori
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 169
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance, Comedy
Publication Date: September 6, 2022
The Story
The third volume of Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible continues its episodic trend while using those mini-stories to stretch an overarching narrative.
The volume starts off with Shiraishi being sick and Kubo worrying about him. This transitions into Shiraishi returning to school only to discover that Kubo is getting sick. From here, Shiraishi decides to eat lunch by himself until Kubo finds him and wants to join him. Shiraishi mentions liking hamburger steaks and this becomes the catalyst for the remainder of the volume.
Kubo, Saki, and Akina decide to have a picnic and so they invite Shiraishi and his little brother Seita along. This sparks Kubo’s desire to make hamburger steaks in hopes that Shiraishi would eat them. It’s a pretty cute ordeal but its made even cuter with the addition of Seita. Even when they go grocery shopping, Seita is there and adds this insane level of cuteness to everything. In fact, they even tease that Seita and Saki are a bit infatuated with each other (non-romantic. They’re little kids, after all!).
When it comes time for the picnic, Akina decides to do a bit of drinking and then says some things that rub Kubo the wrong way. Shiraishi thinks it’s his fault and things get a bit awkward but they end up getting resolved in the most adorable way possible! This leads us to the ending of the volume where it’s time to start second year but… that means a new class. Could Kubo and Shiraishi be broken up?
Characters
Anya from Spy x Family is in major trouble. Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible is getting a television anime and as soon as Seita makes his debut, it’s all over for her. It’s hard to imagine another character being cuter and more adorable than Anya but I think Seita wins and this volume seals it, hands-down! He may not spout “waku waku” from time to time but he doesn’t need to. Plus, his budding friendship with Saki is so adorable, that my blood sugars spiked and I might be falling into ketoacidosis.
The other big focus was Shiraishi and Kubo. Of course, we’ve seen their blossoming relationship ever since the first volume but it seems as if bigger steps were taken here to push us in that direction… until the picnic where the author hit the reset button. Honestly? I disliked that with a passion. I thought that pushing them together at this pace was a bit too fast but to slam on the brakes like that is also too jarring. It’s like you tease the reader with progress then cut it off at the knees at a moment’s notice. To me, that wastes all of that build-up. Had it been done more subtly over time, it would have felt a bit more natural. I honestly thought that they were gearing up to ship these two but after the picnic scene, if felt like such a waste.
Sure, it can be recalled later on but I just dislike the whole setback trope in love stories. I, personally, think it’s fine to use it after a couple gets together and they experience hardship because no relationship is ever perfect but leading up to that relationship, I like slow steady burns and any setbacks should come before the push. Here, we got the push and then the setback happened. I don’t know if that’s making much sense but the point is that it kind of took me out of the investment.
Final Thoughts
My feelings of Akina’s drunken aftermath aside, Seita kind of stole this volume with his high levels of adorableness. Kubo tried to keep the reason down low of why she wanted to make hamburger steak was cute but Akina saw right through it. The budding friendship between Seita and Saki is pretty cute and I thought it was hilarious when the four of them were together and Akina stood back and took all of it in. It was like “here’s a future family just waiting to happen!”
As I said, my only gripe was the aftermath of Akina’s drunken rambling at the picnic. Mainly because here we have Kubo who is making it painfully obvious that she loves Shiraishi and Shiraishi who is too dumb to realize it… despite the fact that Kubo (and by extension, her family), is the only one who notices him. That right there should be a massive clue that she likes him but as Shiraishi even states, he’s too dense. But what gets me is that even when Akira practically spells it out for him, he still has no clue that Kubo likes him… or does he?
There is one little bit of monologue by Shiraishi during the second-year class switch that suggests otherwise. It’s an interesting bit of dialogue that makes me wonder if he’s truly as dumb as he’s letting on. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully, the next ramp-up towards shipping them doesn’t get detailed again.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
