Title: 15 Minutes Before We Really Date Vol. 2
Author: Perico
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 164
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance
Publication Date: April 16, 2024
The Story
Yuuki and Natsuha continue their dating experience in 15 Minutes Before We Really Date Vol. 2. This time, the big problem that they are facing is their first kiss. Natsuha wants the kiss to mean something whereas Yuuki just wants to cut around all of the red tape and just kiss her… and feel her boobs.
After receiving some advice from a friend a school, Natsuha realizes that a kiss isn’t as big of a deal as she was making it out to be and decides to do it with Yuuki in the elevator at their apartment complex, except when the doors open, there are Yuuki and Natsuha’s parents standing there bearing witness to what was about to be a tender moment. Yuuki’s father is quite strict; however, in an over-the-top comical way. Since he works in the legal field, he drew up a contract stating no personal displays of affection on the apartment grounds premises… until they graduate.
Despite that, Nao, Yuuki’s sister, scores tickets to a Christmas light show and after talking to her friend Sousuke about them, she decides to keep them for herself but they end up in Yuuki and Natsuha’s hands, only to end up back in hers… oof, that was a bit confusing but, nevertheless, Yuuki and Natsuha end up watching the light show anyway from their balcony and, of course, with the parents away and no one to really enforce the contract… I’m sure you know what happens next.
After Christmas, we wrap up the volume with New Year’s, rounding out a nice little holiday season. No real cliffhanger here, though… just the fact that more and more people are becoming aware that they are dating which is a bit more impactful than it seems but not really. I’ll explain later.
Characters
Honestly… there was next to no character development between Natsuha and Yuuki. The only development here was Natsuha’s thoughts on her first kiss, where it should be, and whether or not she was making a big deal over it. Despite all of the thinking and worrying, it still happened naturally and in the way she had hoped that it would. Personality-wise, there wasn’t anything different about her.
The same could be said for Yuuki. He did have a moment during Christmas where he remembered trying to give Natsuha a present when they were younger but was scared to because everyone was making fun of them for always hanging around each other. He thought that if he gave her a present, he would have been judged even harder than he already was. This caused him some reservation but he seemed to get over it rather quickly without much in the way of deep thought However, then again, knowing how Yuuki is, deep thought isn’t one of his acquired skills so to see him struggle a bit was out of character for him. I just wish it was built upon a bit more to where it would mean something deeper than what was presented.
Nao and Sousuke continue to be the adorable couple that you want to see get together. Since our main couple was shipped in the first volume of the series, it’s all we’ve got in terms of hope. Nao going back and forth on whether or not to keep the light show tickets and then asking Sousuke what his holiday plans were was rather cute. The fact that Sousuke shared the same thoughts was even cuter. If I’m being honest, they should have been the main characters of this story… more on that in a minute, too.
Final Thoughts
The first volume was a bit rocky for me and while the second volume did have some improvements, it still had some of the same errors as the first volume. First off, we are now 30 chapters into this series and yet, we still have that same opening narrative bubble at the start of every chapter… “I’m dating my childhood friend.” Like, I can understand that if the manga was serialized weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc… and readers needed a reminder but when you bind the chapters together in a tankoban, it kind of becomes a bit insulting to have to be reminded so often… especially since the chapters are only a couple of pages long. It was quite annoying… although that is just a small gripe.
The bigger gripe here is the order of operations. We talked about the tickets to the light show and then the manga flat out tells the reader that it got ahead of itself and that the story of those tickets would be coming later and then it switched back to what the previous chapter was talking about. There are a couple of flashbacks that also come out of nowhere and break up the pacing a bit, too and while flashbacks are fine, they are typically utilized a lot better with proper build-up. Once we got past the first few chapters, things tended to slow down and get into a proper storytelling rhythm. I hope it stays that way because the first 20 chapters of this series felt as if they were created by an author who didn’t believe in outlines.
As for what I meant about people knowing about the two of them dating, I said it was more impactful because of Yuuki’s hesitation when deciding to give Natsuha a gift. Everyone knows them as childhood friends so they kind of wanted to keep it low-key… especially after the way his parents reacted when they found out. But, as the volume goes on, more and more people discover that they are dating and even Natsuha is just openly telling people that she has a boyfriend now meaning that it wasn’t that big of a deal, and, again, Yuuki overthought things.
Overthinking, overanalyzing separates the body from the mind as one of my favorite Tool songs says and this is a prime example of that. So, while the volume didn’t end on a shocking cliffhanger, it did leave us on a note where they are beginning to realize that their dating each other isn’t as big of an issue as they once thought and they are free to enjoy their relationship… as long as Natsuha gives up the boob (which she hasn’t to Yuuki’s chagrin.)
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
