Title: I Want to End This Love Game Vol. 6
Author: Yuki Domoto
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 201
Genre: Shojo, Romance
Publication Date: May 13, 2025
The Story
Our sixth volume opens up with the tail end of the fake dating game. Miku and Yukiya want to spend more time as a couple; however, they completely forgot about the rehearsal for the sports day dance routine. There is also a relay race, but Yukia isn’t taking part in that… yet. Since Yukia is introverted and extremely unathletic, he can’t get the timing down for the dance routine, so Miku offers to help him out despite being in a different group. As she’s helping him, their attention is called to the gym where Class 5 is killing it with an extremely over-the-top routine, led by an even more over-the-top person named Yamabuki. The class realizes that they have their work cut out for them.
Suddenly, the fake dating ends. They spend some time on a swing set just talking about things; however, is causes Yukia to do a lot of reflecting. He realized that Miku made an incredible effort to change while he has done nothing. He makes up his mind and declares that he’s going to enter the relay race, but there is a giant problem… he can’t run to save his life!
He tries to practice on his own; however, he’s not getting anywhere, even with Miku offering her services as a personal cheerleader. He turns to the other members of his team; however, he has a hard time opening the lines of communication. Once he does, he tries his hardest, but it’s apparent that everyone on the team is much better than him. He’s fine with starting off the race because he made a promise to himself that if he won, he would do something that he should have done a long time ago. By putting the weakest link first, it would give his team the best chance at succeeding. Plus, he has another reason why he wants to win… a reason that gets the better of him as our volumes close out with another decision that puts Yukiya in the worst-case scenario!
Characters
The biggest development in this volume belongs to Yukiya. The spotlight was solely on him and his desire to change himself. The love game has run its course, and because of such, Yukiya knows that he needs to be honest with his feelings, but that honesty isn’t going to change anything unless he changes first. This was the driving motivation behind his wanting to take part in the relay race, and why he made such a bone-headed decision at the end of the volume. Despite the motivation behind it, you have to be relieved that he is motivated and determined to better himself. I like how his character didn’t just spontaneously jump into it, though. You can see that a lot of it is forced, but he’s the one doing the forcing. That shows just how determined he is to achieve his goal, which is pretty admirable!
Yamabuki seems like a nice guy, but you can tell that he has a bit of an ego. He’s very persuasive and extroverted. Pair that with a lot of high energy, and you get someone who seems to be a go-getter who exudes a lot of enthusiasm; however, there is one moment in the volume where he is taken aback when Miku gets upset with him. He is filled with disbelief that a girl became legitimately angry with him, as if it were a blow to his ego. That one moment says a lot about his character. Sure, he may pour on the charm and try to push people’s limits to bring out the best in everyone, but he seems as if he’s doing it all to make himself look good because that, in turn, will make him irresistible. While it’s not blatant, that character trait is there, and his surprise over Miku’s admonishment was proof of that!
Final Thoughts
This was a pretty decent volume. I was shocked that we only got a single line talking about something that makes your heart flutter! It proves that, yes, it can be used sporadically and not on every other page! Kidding aside, I am a little disappointed with this volume because it fell into yet another overused plot device… sports day. Before you say that sports day is common in high school manga, I’m not referring to the event itself, but rather, I’m referring to the plot of using sports day to base whether or not you’re going to confess to the girl you like. The whole “if I win, I’ll confess” plot has been overused too much in this genre, so it makes me roll my eyes whenever I see it.
I don’t want that aspect to take away from the fact that we’re finally getting a bit more serious when it comes to Miku and Yukiya’s feelings for one another, but I was hoping that a different approach would have been used. When they were on the swings together, and he was going back through his memories and recalling everything, that would have been the perfect time to pull the trigger. At that point, the fake dating between the two of them was officially over. How nice it would have been had Yukiya recalled all of those memories and said something along the lines of… “Say, Miku. Tomorrow, we go back to being just childhood friends, but what if we didn’t have to?” Then, add a bit of his introverted side as he struggles to get the words out until he finally says it? It would have been heart-warming, cute, and the perfect end to that arc, but nope! Sports day because SPORTS!
The upside to this is that Yukiya is using all of this for a bit of self-improvement… even if it is wrapped around the basic premise of “if I win, then I’ll have the confidence to change and ask out my crush!” It will be interesting to see how this plays out, especially after Yukiya stuck his foot in his mouth without any hot sauce to help with the taste. Because I’ve seen this trope one too many times, I can envision how it’s going to go. Now, all I have to do is wait and see if I’m right. In fact, I want the opposite (or something else) to happen. I’m hoping this series can surprise me.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
