Title: Honey Lemon Soda Vol. 9
Author: Mayu Murata
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 176
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance
Publication Date: June 24, 2025
The Story
We continue to see the growth of Ishimori as she continues to become more and more independent. It starts off with her new class all going out together. Despite facing some criticisms, she pushes through and forces herself to interact with others, including going to the batting cages, where she surprises everyone and hits a home run. Despite her efforts, the dark clouds from her past refuse to dissipate.
Suddenly, while Miura is standing around outside, a girl runs into him, which is very reminiscent of what happened when Ishimori and Miura first, technically, met. Her name is Nano Iwakawa, and just like Ishimori, she has an issue with social anxiety. This becomes an issue as Kai notices it and instinctively tries to help her out. Coupled with the fact that Ishimori is becoming more and more independent, rumors begin to swirl around the school that since Ishimori doesn’t need Kai anymore, he’s gravitating towards someone else to help.
Those rumors get worse as people begin to think that Iwakawa is trying to steal Kai away from Ishimori. This ends up getting to Ishimori, where she begins to second-guess everything. It makes her sick to the point where she falls down the stairs at school due to anemia. Is all of this just in Ishimori’s head, or is there something more to Iwakara that we haven’t seen yet?
Characters
First off, I keep praising Ishimori’s development with each volume, and this one is no different. To see her ignoring the noise and putting her best foot forward is a sight to behold. She truly is standing on her own, even if the rest of the school refuses to see it. Yes, they still pick on her and even recount her time in middle school, where she was excessively bullied. It is a black cloud that she cannot seem to escape; however, if her class gathering proved anything, it’s that there is a silver lining to that black cloud that she can overcome as long as she remains persistent! Plus, there’s some evidence of that later on in the volume where some people at school are beginning to stand up for her! The progress keeps pushing forward with her, and it’s amazing to see!
The biggest focus is on the new girl, Nano Iwakawa. She’s been a part of the school this whole time; however, she described herself as invisible and quiet. She said that she had been watching Ishimori for a while now and noticed just how much she had changed and was able to improve. It filled her with joy to know that she could escape the life she had and wanted to become like her. She even asks if Ishimori would love to become friends. This means that we have a girl who is going through the same thing that Ishimori went/is still going through, so if there is anyone who can help Iwakawa overcome her insecurities, it’s her.
At first, you would think that this would be a great way to further Ishimori’s development… for her to take her newfound confidence and bestow it upon someone else akin to a master passing down their expertise to a student; however, as we get to know Iwakawa a little more, that might not be the case with her at all. Some things about her seem a bit off. We don’t know the situation fully as of yet, but the twist introduced in this volume just made things a heck of a lot more interesting!
Final Thoughts
While the previous volume was scattered and seemed directionless, this one introduced a brand-new arc that was cohesive and gave us some much-needed fresh air to the series. With Miura and Ishimori dating, one would have believed that we would now peer into their life as a couple, see them go on dates, and do the typical cute stuff. Never did I expect there to be drama like this introduced so early, but in a way, I’m glad it was introduced. Nano’s introduction was done very well, and it saved us from this series falling into the pitfall of being just another basic romance. While I’m sure seeing Kai and Ishimori going on dates together and seeing the whimsy that would stem from said activities, this is a much more interesting route to take.
We do not know Iwakawa’s full story yet, but it seems as if we’re going to get that explanation in the next volume. My only complaint is that we didn’t get a chance for this arc to breathe. Iwakawa was introduced around a quarter of the way through the book. About halfway through, we finally get to see her arc take shape, and by the end, it was strongly hinted at what she was up to, and it seems to be wrapping up at the start of the tenth volume. To me, that is too fast-paced. Had this arc been slow-burned with Iwakawa slowly wedging her way in between Ishimori and Kai, it would have made the impact that much more profound. Instead, it seems as if this plot was just something that was conceived and tossed in to fill in space, and that bugs me a little.
It also bugs me because this is an interesting development. I actually want to spend more time with it. Having Iwakawa be a copycat of Ishimori was great because she could have had a little doppelganger following her around. Imagine how good this would have been had Ishimori and Iwakawa built up a solid, nearly unbreakable friendship, only to find out that there was something off about Iwakawa. If that friendship built up over several volumes without any indication whatsoever that there was something more to her. The shock and impact would have been tremendous, but that’s not what we got.
I feel as if I say this a lot with rushed content… and that it’s wasted potential. With a story plot like this, it could have been incredible, but it was nearly concluded in ¾ of a single volume, which is just three total chapters. I’m not an editor, nor do I work for a major manga publishing company, so I have zero clue if the shortness of this plot was the intention of the mangaka or the direction of the editor, but as a greedy reader and nothing more, when I’m given something good like this, I want it to stay around longer than what was given. It’s as simple as that.
In any event. We might get Iwakawa’s story in the next volume. We’ll see how everything plays out.
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