Title: Miss Miyazen Would Love to Get Closer to You Vol. 2
Author: Akitaka
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 130
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Publication Date: November 8, 2022
The Story
Volume two continues to bring Miyazen and Sota (Yeah, typing out Matsubayashi over and over again is tiring. I’ll pretend we’re friends and on a first-name basis from here on out) closer together. It starts out with them going to a movie rental place. Sota is looking for a romance movie while Miyazen is looking for a yakuza film. They bump into each other and get embarrassed so they both leave after similar excuses and be on their way.
This introduces us to Sota’s sister… who’s first name isn’t given so we’ll call her “M.” He ends up borrowing a romance film from M and ends up getting ridiculed for it both at home and at school the next day. Sota’s friend Masaki ends up playing a bigger role as does Miyazen’s friend Toda. Apparently, Masaki and Toda know each other but Masaki always runs away from her when she gets close. More cuteness!
The second half of the manga takes us until a bit of a backstory of how Sota got into his junior high school, how he got his nickname, and how he talked Masaki into helping him study so he could get out of the delinquent life. It also turns out that Miyazen and Sota had met before during this time but I’ll let you discover how that ended up happening!
The volume comes to an end with Sota coming to a self-revelation about things and why Miyazen thinks so highly of him!
Characters
The backstory really helped develop our main characters. Without spoiling too much, it was a case of them crossing paths but with Sota never learning her name. It’s obvious that Miyazen remembers him from that fateful day and now we have a clear understanding of why she liked him from seemingly out of nowhere.
As for Sota, he wasn’t really a delinquent by choice. He kept trying to mind his own “beeswax” (as he put it) and just ended up getting into fights when he really wanted nothing to do with it all. Even though we don’t see the events that crowned him the Mountain Breaker, we get a very strong path to how it happened. Whether or not we’ll see it in a future flashback remains to be seen but it’s super obvious so I don’t think it’s needed. It was cool to see that Sota was the same person all this time, personality-wise. He was just a victim of dumb luck.
Masaki got more time to shine. We learn that he runs from Toda because he can’t stand noisy people. That means Masaki and I have a LOT in common because there’s one person that I just can’t stand because their levels of annoyance are out of this world. If I could pat Masaki on the back and tell him that I know how he feels, I would. He’s also incredibly smart as he was able to help Sota study and get into his current school. While they are best friends, Masaki is a bit cocky with a bit of an attitude, though. Nothing over-the-top or anything but it’s definitely there. Doesn’t make him a bad kid, though
As for Toda… yeah… she can be a bit overbearing but not to the extent of people I know. She’s a good friend to Miyazen but it’s a bit confusing. In the first volume, she was warning Miyazen about Sota… saying to be careful and not get close to him, and now in the second volume, she suddenly wants to be friends with him because of his relation to both Masaki and Miyazen. That’s pretty weird if you ask me, but okay. I’ll roll with it.
Final Thoughts
The second volume keeps the quality rolling. Naturally, with this only being four volumes, having Sota realize things now makes sense this is the halfway mark. I’m guessing the final two volumes will get us closer like a ladybug crawling across two fingers. I just hope it doesn’t take off flying at the last second and leave us wanting more.
The background information felt pretty complete and did its job. It was a bit on the generic side as it was just another case of “hey, I know you from the past but what’s your name!?” I’ve seen this quite a few times in different series but hey.. it works when it works and it certainly works here.
I’m guessing we’ll get more teases in the next volume and a confession in the final volume. That seems to be the way things are being set up. Both Masaki and Toda already know it’s their destiny so I wouldn’t be shocked to see them play some sort of role in pushing them closer together… although they are doing a good job of it on their own. Since it was an open-ended plot point, I wonder if they end up confessing while watching a romantic movie together? Hmm… time will tell but I’m really loving this series so far!
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This item was purchased for review.
