Title: Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible Vol. 12
Author: Nene Yukimori
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 217
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance, Comedy
Publication Date: March 5, 2024
Final Thoughts
All things must come to an end and Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible is no exception.
It’s class trip time in the final volume. They explore a couple of shrines around Kyoto as they all realize that this could be the very last class trip they take together. During the trip, they make a vow to one day return in the future after they have moved on from school. Once the promise is made, it goes right into the ending and while the series made it painfully obvious how it would end, I’ll leave you all to discover how the ending we all wanted unfolded.
Reflecting back on these past two years, what stuck out the most was the dynamic of the main character, Shiraishi. It all started off with the established premise that Kubo was in love with Shiraishi who was “invisible.” No one paid attention to him but this one girl, for some reason, always knew how to spot him. Kubo teased him at first but as their feelings developed, they began to just enjoy each other’s company and things took off from there.
Going with an established premise out of the gate does take away from a natural progression of things a bit, though. Introducing us to Shiraishi, how he’s invisible, and then introducing Kubo as a girl who can see him and slowly lean into it is how I would have written it.
Don’t take that last statement wrong, though. I am not saying my way is better… it’s just that I love slow-burn stories and while this series didn’t really slow-burn the premise, they did draw out the growth of their feelings and admiration for one another. The point I’m trying to make is that for someone like me who enjoys the slow burn, just jumping right into the premise, establishing it, and carrying forward from Page 1 worked and worked well. Even with it not being my preferred way of building up a premise, it still hooked me from the get-go.
I also loved Shiraishi’s journey from being the kid that nobody could see to being someone who had no problem with other people seeing him… sort of. While the problem still exists, it’s been resolved with those who became his closest friends. It still showed growth in his confidence, though. A lot of that was accented in this final volume as Shiraishi took some big steps forward and put himself outside of his comfort zone on several occasions. Seeing that growth over the course of the series was very rewarding so I thought that his character was handled very well.
As for the side characters, Seita always stole the show with his cuteness whenever he was around. Junta’s mother was also very nice and supportive while Akina and Saki added their own levels of sassiness to keep things fresh and interesting. Of course, there are Sudo and Tama as well who lend their friendship where needed. The running gag of Sudo coming off as this wise and elegant advisor when, in reality, he was just talking out of his rear the entire time was great. I wished that we had more of that throughout the series.
It was a well-balanced cast that truly carried the story. Even with the span of twelve volumes, the story itself was simply the journey of Shiraishi and Kubo toward their destination of being together as a couple. We knew it would happen, it was painfully obvious from the beginning, but it was one of those stories that was meant to sit back and watch unfold even though the ending was as obvious as a red elephant in a white room.
If there is one thing that this series teaches us is that you don’t have to have mystery surrounding a relationship to enjoy a good romance story. The “Will he/Will she?” dynamic can work but it has been overdone so many times. Sometimes it’s best to just give the answer away and just let things play out knowing that they’ll get together in the end. It’s a simpler form of storytelling and if executed properly, simpler can be better.
Was it better in this case?
Yes, it was.
Overall Score 4/5
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
