Title: I Made Friends with the 2nd Prettiest Girl in My Class Vol. 3
Author: Rin Ono, Takata (Original Story), Azuri Hyuga (Characters)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 194
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance, Comedy
Publication Date: June 23, 2026
The Story
The school’s culture festival is in full swing, but instead of focusing on that, we open with last volume’s cliffhanger between Maki, Umi, and Yuu. The cat is let out of the bag, and Maki confesses that he and Umi have been friends this whole time, but despite Yuu being perfectly fine with it, Umi gets upset and storms out!
From here, Umi begins to ignore Maki to the point where he gets worried. He finally pulls her aside and has a heart-to-heart talk with her. It’s here that we learn about Yuu’s backstory, but there’s still something that Umi isn’t saying. That something gets revealed when they meet back up with Yuu. Umi confesses everything that she’s feeling, and what she has to say begins to drive a wedge between all three of them. Maki can’t let this stand, so he chases after her, and we get the final bits of the details.
Things eventually work out, and when they do, it’s Yuu who brings everyone back together, but for everything to work out, she has a condition. That condition leads to Maki and Umi being left alone with one another, and then, eventually, another hangout at Maki’s house. It’s there that they end up talking a little bit more, and right when Umi is about to head home, she says something that stuns Maki!
Characters
Wow… there was a TON of development in this volume. We got the complete backstory between Umi and Yuu, and the reason as to why Umi didn’t want anyone to know that she and Maki were friends. When she explained the reasoning behind it, everything suddenly made sense. Not only was it the reasons as to why she wanted to keep it a secret, but the reasons why she was scared to lose Maki if anyone found out.
Plus, when we got to Yuu’s backstory, it was kind of sad. As a child, she was the complete opposite of what she is now, and it’s only thanks to Umi that she was able to become such an outgoing person, but that whole thing that Umi held within her due to a certain incident from their past complicated things greatly, but only for her. The funny thing is… Umi didn’t realize that because of her efforts, when she first met Yuu, Yuu had become someone strong enough to face Umi’s true feelings head-on. If she had said the same thing to a much younger Yuu, it would have ended up in a total disaster. The one thing that was never said in this volume was that Yuu became stronger because of Umi. Of course, we all knew that from watching the backstory play out, but Yuu never flat-out said that to Umi to let her know how thankful she was. They danced around it, but it was one of those things that didn’t truly need to be said, but it was nice that it was conveyed in a way where anyone could have picked up on it.
As for Maki, I felt bad for him because he felt like the odd one out, much like he had been made to feel his entire life. Here, though, it wasn’t about blending into a background and being left to solitude. It was about slowly being pushed out from the two friends he had made, and losing that connection due to their shared history together, and not anything that had to do with him. Despite that, he knew that he was the instigator of it all when he confessed that he and Umi had been friends for a while now. He carried that guilt, which is why he tried his best to intervene and talk to Umi about everything. He wasn’t just trying to save his friendship with her; he was trying to save her friendship with Yuu for both himself and for them. Even though he clearly conveyed his feelings to Umi about how appreciative he was that they became his friends, he didn’t need to. His actions alone in this volume already sent that message loud and clear!
Final Thoughts
The third volume of a series is typically when the story takes a bit of a halt and focuses on the characters, and this one was no exception. I would have thought that things would have played out a little more slowly, but it didn’t. We got a massive info dump in this volume, and while there was a lot to take in, it did tie everything together. With the way this volume ended, it’s pretty clear where we are headed next, but with all of the drama out of the way, I wouldn’t be surprised if the fourth volume settles back into some episodic moments with Umi and Maki hanging out together once again. After all, that was the hook that made me fall in love with this series, so it would be nice to get some more of that.
The big question now is what happens to Yuu? It feels like she was relegated to being the third wheel, so does she fade more into the background? Will she have some bigger stake down the line? Will she say something that might complicate things between Maki and Umi? There are a lot of directions she could go in as a character; however, I doubt it’s going to be the latter. Without saying it, you got the sense that she knew she was defeated and that being with Maki was now out of her reach. She switched from friend mode to cheerleader mode pretty quickly, so I doubt this series will ever try to pull the third wheel angle. If anything, I can see her breaking down and confessing to Umi that she liked Maki, too, but still wishes them the best, much to the chagrin of her shattered heart, but we’ll need a lot of building to get there from this point.
So, what comes next for them? Only Rin Ono and Japanese readers who are ahead of us Westerners know, but this third volume was quite strong, so I’m looking forward to seeing how this series can continue to keep its foot on the gas.
Also, as a side note, readers of the site noticed that I did a First Reaction to the anime adaptation and not a review for it. The reason why I “dropped” the anime was this very review right here. I’m actively reviewing the manga, and with the English releases being behind, I knew that the anime was going to go beyond the manga’s second volume, and I simply didn’t want to get spoiled. I might look up where the anime left off in the manga, and go back and watch it on a volume-by-volume basis to see how it compares, but I didn’t drop it because I didn’t like the anime. I just didn’t want to get spoiled for my manga reviews. It’s the same reason why I “dropped” Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku. And now you know!
See you in Volume 4
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
