Title: Mint Chocolate Vol. 3
Author: Mami Orikasa
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy
Publication Date: August 10, 2021
The Story
Volume three of Mint Chocolate has quite the abrupt development in which saw Kyouhei confess to Nanami. Nanami returns his feelings and the two of them start dating; however, things are not as black and white as they seem. Obviously, with them being siblings, Kyouhei doesn’t want anyone to find out. Still, he has his moments of weakness and one of them ends up causing them more trouble than what it is worth.
Kyouhei couldn’t hold back and ends up kissing Nanami on their front porch. Itou ends up taking a picture of them and begins to spread the word around the school that the two of them are siblings; however, she doesn’t tell anyone about the two of them dating… yet. Itou wants something in return; however, this isn’t your typical blackmail operation. What Itou wants is a bit of a head-scratcher and it makes you wonder why she felt the need to go down the blackmail route to get what she wanted?
All the while, Kyouhei decides to get himself a part-time job after the new year. The volume tries to make it mysterious but if you pay attention to the very beginning of the volume, it’s super obvious why he picked up the job. The manga ends with the fruits of his labor which was also foreshadowed throughout the volume, too.
Characters
The only real big development came from Kyouhei and Nanami’s confessions. That was the biggest shift in their characters… going from siblings through remarriage to being a couple. Despite that, it’s par for the course for the two of them without any big dramatic shifts in their personalities. Sure, they’re thinking about each other a little more now but it seems to be about the same amount before their confessions. In this case, dating hasn’t really changed either of them with the exception of Kyouhei.
Even though he’s doing his best to not really show his affection, the simple fact that he got a part-time job for Nanami’s sake speaks volumes about the way he feels about her. Orikasa could have left it at that; however, she made it very clear throughout the volume that Kyouhei’s feelings for her aren’t exactly a mystery. In fact, the volume started out with a small flashback which showed where both of their feelings for each other began.
It was a little interesting to see that the two of them knew each other before the remarriage but, then again, in these kinds of stories, that’s usually the typical setup.
As for Itou… I have no idea how to feel about her other than the fact that she’s a blithering idiot. When you find out what her true intentions are, it makes you wonder just how desperate she must be to achieve her goal that she has to resort to blackmail in order to get it! She’s the kind of character that deserves to get smacked… like into next week. Watch… I’ll say that and she’ll end up having a deep backstory that’s going to have me look like a monster for saying something like that.
Final Thoughts
My prediction didn’t come true. I felt that they would continue to tease this relationship; however, after we received several pages of Nanami and Kyouhei kissing and confessing to one another, that prediction went right out the window.
Now we’ve switched to focusing on keeping their relationship a secret but there is now the monkey wrench of Itou in the picture. Her demands are weird but it’s enough to cause a bit of drama with Nanami. It’ll be interesting to see how all of this plays out and if it results in the secret being kept.
Honestly, I’d want the secret to get out. Don’t follow the typical roadmap and just let the entire world know that the two of them are dating. With it out in the open, have Nanami and Kyouhei face the challenges of the public eye and the public’s perception of their relationship and have them overcome it as a couple! Plot points like that are often saved for the end and are resolved rather quickly; however, if done right, one could build an entire series around it. Or, you could even add a bit of comedy to it by having neither character care about people knowing and just rubbing it in everyone’s faces!
I don’t think that’s how this is going to go but it’s certainly fun to think about! I’m sure we will see the situation with Itou continue in the next volume or, perhaps, maybe we’ll get some more focus on Kyouhei and Nanami after the way this volume ended? Volume 4 has a few ways it can go so it’ll be interesting to see what direction it takes!
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**This item was provided for review by Yen Press
