Title: My Special One Vol. 9
Author: Momoko Koda
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 185
Genre: Shojo, Romance
Publication Date: March 4, 2025
The Story
Oops! In my final thoughts in my previous review, I thought the Emika x Kanato arc was over; however, I was wrong! The arc continues as we take a look at their life after they have gotten together! We start off with a trip to a hot spring; however, they are not alone as Sahoko tagged along. Apparently, it was supposed to be a double date but Kouta couldn’t make it due to his schedule. Sahoko was going to back you, but Emika begged her to come along so she did. When they arrived, we learned about the legend of the romance God Uio. It was, um, quite the interesting tale…
After the hot spring, we fast forward through both Christmas and New Year! Emika invited Kanato over to her house to meet her parents. Of course, he wanted nothing to do with something like that so soon; however, he caved and agreed to stop by. Her parents seemed nice enough until Kanato found himself in a situation alone with Emika’s mother. She began to relentlessly drill him with questions as if she were measuring him up for her approval. Kanato grows more and more nervous; however, things really hit the fan when she breaks out the bottle of tequila! Drunk Kanato says some pretty interesting things as does Emika’s mother!
After that, Emika wants to spend some time alone with Kanato. She strongly hinted at the “activities” that she wanted to do with him; however, she backed herself into a corner because she had zero experience in said activities. In typical Emika fashion, she overthought everything and enacted a pretty wild plan to prepare herself. After that, we settle things down with Valentine’s Date and some chocolate; however, Emika is worked up over that, too, all due to some things her co-workers talked about.
Characters
Once again, the volume heavily focuses on Emiko and Kanato; however, the bulk of the development is all on Emika… but can you truly call it development when it’s more of the same thing from her? She spent the majority of the volume overthinking everything when it came to her relationship with Kanato, and yet, no matter how many times she worried, things worked out in the end or they were never as bad as she made them out to be. Despite this happening over and over again in volume after volume, she hasn’t learned to settle down and trust herself and/or Kanato more. Maybe this is just how she will always be but you would think after being the focus for, quite literally, half of this series, she would have learned a thing or two about overthinking things by now.
Kanato did get a little bit of development when he ended up alone with Emika’s mother. Despite how he normally is, it was extremely self-conscious and so worried about making a good impression that he was walking on eggshells the entire time her was there. When he got drunk, he said some things that Emika overheard and we got to see a side of Kanato that we had been waiting for. While it wasn’t much, it was still a nice moment that was sure to strengthen the bond between them.
Final Thoughts
Do I dare say that this tril— four-part series is over? Do I make that bold prediction only to see Volume 10 carry things forward even more? I can’t be sure of my own calculations anymore. Nevertheless, there were a lot of fun moments in this volume. I felt Kanato meeting Emika’s parents was the best of the four chapters as we got to see that softer, more considerate side of Kanato. Still missing Sahoko and Kouta; however, we did get a little bit of them in the opening chapter so it was a nice little reminder that they are still the main characters of this series and all that!
Something tells me Kanato x Emika isn’t over yet. The ending didn’t truly draw any sort of conclusion to their ar,c but with only two volumes remaining, I hope they mix more of Sahoko and Emika back into things because, this is their manga series after all! Kanato and Emika are supposed to be the supporting cast and now they’ve had as much, if not more, time in the spotlight than our two main characters. That’s quite the imbalance! While I am appreciative that the series took its time in developing their supporting characters, this is a bit overkill. I could understand it if this were a 20+ volume series and we would have plenty of time to get caught back up with Sahoko and Kouta, but we are just 2 volumes away from the grand finale. Volume 11 is it… and I hate to play the role of spoiler here, but Emika and Kanato did things and progressed further than Sahoko and Kouta!
That’s just… weird. I’m starting to think that Momoko Koda felt that they made a mistake and pivoted mid-series to tell a story they meant to tell from the beginning… but again, much like I was with predicting the Kanato x Emika arc being a trilogy… the last two volumes could put the spotlight back on main characters and make me eat my foot with a side of Frank’s Red Hot. I guess we’ll see where it heads once Volume 10 gets here.
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
