Title: I Want to End This Love Game Vol. 4
Author: Yuki Domoto
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 201
Genre: Shojo, Romance
Publication Date: November 12, 2024
The Story
We open up with the classic Pocky scene except it doesn’t just make their hearts flutter… it makes them kiss! Miku couldn’t believe that it had happened, and she began to cry when she got home. She thinks back to how she was so awkward when she was little and didn’t have many friends. Yukiya was the only one who stuck by her side until one day she played tag and ended up making some friends to play with. She remembers that and can’t help but feel not cute and uncool. It gets her so worked up that she gets a fever and is absent from school the next day.
Yukiya becomes worried about her and leaves school. He heads to her house where he takes care of her. Of course, word of what he did spreads and he’s embarrassed the next day when he has to go back. From there, she wants to make a cake to thank him for all his care but since that’s Westerner stuff, she decides to make ohagi… with Yukiya.
The end of the volume starts off with Miku wondering what Yukiya would be like if he were her boyfriend. This leads to a weird tangent where Yukiya talks to Miku about ear-cleaning ASMR which they engage in. Miku gives Yukiya a good old ear cleaning with a bit of teasing. From there they get on the topic of possibly trying an experiment… one that seems to work in otome games… Yukiya thinks it over and agrees!
Characters
We got some nice flashbacks to see how Miku was when she was a girl. Yukiya said it best when he talked about the differences between her back then and how she is now. As a girl, she was very timid and unsure of herself. She always felt that she would be in the way and didn’t seem to have many friends outside of Yukiya; however, once she opened up a little bit, all of that changed. It was a nice stark contrast between past and present but after the Pocky moment, it was easy to see the past version of herself leak out.
Yukiya, on the other hand, is beginning to think more deeply about things. He worried about the whole kiss thing just as much as Miku did but beyond that, he begins to wonder about where their relationship could go… especially after Miku asks him what he would do if he were her boyfriend. Plus, with Miku’s idea to close out the volume, it’s not as if he resisted much.
Final Thoughts
If there is one thing that I took away from this volume is that the love game is becoming less and less relevant to the overall development of the characters… which is a good thing because as I said in the first two reviews of this series, going back and forth and teasing one another only to keep asking “did that make your heart flutter?” got old.
In the previous volume, we saw that the love game could be passed on to help someone else with their relationship troubles turning into a tool for people to use. Now, it seems as if things are settling in and the story is becoming more of a typical slice-of-life rom-com. The game is still there but they aren’t exactly playing it anymore. Sure, they still utter the overused line but it’s becoming less and less prevalent. Instead, we are getting into the territory where the characters are beginning to reflect on their feelings.
When this happens, you know that a confession could be on the horizon. I’m not sure how long this series is but if it happens soon, I’ll wonder how the dynamic changes if they do end up together. Rather than being an overused trope, things are starting to get rather cute. In the next volume, they are going to try out Miku’s idea. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes and if it leads anywhere; however, I wouldn’t think it would unless we knew for sure that the final volume was around the corner, and seeing how it’s not, my guess is we’ll get some cute moments, some embarrassing moments, but in the end, we’ll be right back to square one.
But most importantly, we’ll see if what they do makes their hearts flutter.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
