Title: In So Deep, It’s Love Already Vol. 2
Author: Reida Soragaki
Publisher: Tokyopop
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 184
Genre: Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy
Publication Date: May 26, 2026
The Story
Kirino steels herself and wants to get closer to Kametani so that she can learn more about him. Ever since she decided to stan him, she has been obsessed to the point where she wonders about him every waking minute of the day; however, Kametani is still having his issue with being shy around girls… except her. He seemed to make some considerable improvements, and she begins to wonder if that means he’s beginning to warm up to her as something more than just a friend.
As she gets closer to him, she asks him an all-important question, but when he gives her the answer, she’s taken aback and left in complete shock. At first, she believes that all of her hopes and dreams had been destroyed in that instant, but instead, it fuels her with determination. She goes out of her way to dress up as nicely as possible for a date that’s not a date with him to a petting zoo. There, things go a bit awry, but she’s surprised when she discovers that Kametani had a special moment planned for the end of their date that’s totally not a date.
That moment leads to Kirino asking him for reaffirmation on the answer he had given her before. What he says sends her spiraling to a constant pattern of second-guessing herself… that is until Kametani comes forward and explains things properly. All of this happens when we get another transfer student named Mio Sakurai. She can’t help but draw parallels to how Kametani transferred into the class. Shortly after, they are asked to perform Snow White as a play, and Kirino ends up with the one role she didn’t expect!
Characters
Until the very end of the volume, the main focus was on Kirino and Kametani. In Kirino’s instance, she is still quite smitten with Kametani; however, just when she thought that she was making progress, something he said derailed all of it. For a series that is supposed to depict how obsessive someone can become over someone, you could just feel the dagger going right through her heart when he said what he did. You felt bad for Kirino, and you got that feeling that your world shattered alongside hers. Then, how she didn’t give up didn’t feel like desperation. It felt as if she was seeking the answers that she needed to… either to find out if it was all a mistake, or if she would receive closure. Then, there was the second dagger through the heart… and that’s when you truly felt bad for her. I thought this was well written, even though Kirino did still come off as a big fan who lived inside of her head a bit too much.
Kametani, on the other hand, is a terrible liar. His actions didn’t match the answer that he had given Kirino that started all of this mess, but it was quite obvious to see why he said what he did. You have to remember how easily he gets embarrassed around girls to understand why he said what he did. When you put everything together, you realize that it wasn’t a truth but more like a white lie to serve as a coping mechanism for his debility. Even knowing that, Kirino, as a character, didn’t know that at all, and that’s why everything felt rather cold and devastating. Kametani does explain things, and while it doesn’t rectify the situation entirely, it does offer a platform for things to continue on and be salvaged.
Now, we have our third wheel character… Mio Sakurai. Not much is known about him, but it is quite obvious that he is a pretty boy who all the girls instantly fell in love with. He seems a bit outgoing and confident, but the curious thing is that out of all the girls in the class that ran up to him, Kirino was not one of them, and he took sharp notice of that. That’s the extent of his involvement right now, so we’ll see how they build on this. Hopefully, it’s not the hopeless third wheel angle that has been done to death in so many of these romance series, but we’ll see.
Final Thoughts
After a strong first volume, I didn’t know how they would be able to keep up the quality, but adding the right amount of drama mixed with comedy alongside the romance aspects did the trick, and in my opinion, the second volume blew the first one away. There were a lot of dynamics here at play that deepened Kirino and Kametani’s journey to becoming a couple, but it’s almost as if the series realized that things needed to slow down, so they pumped the brakes in a way that felt natural, yet shocking at the same time. While the situation got resolved (or mostly resolved) within half a volume, it still didn’t feel as if it got rushed. Leaving Kirino hanging like that wouldn’t have been a good way to end the volume, but at the same time, realigning their relationship, setting some different expectations, while providing a renewed hope was the right call.
When developing relationships, setbacks offer a good way to extend the story, add some drama, and develop your characters, but a lot of the time, mistakes are made by having the characters make up, then continue on as if nothing happened… like everything is right with the world again, but you don’t get that here. While things do get smoothed over, it feels like a slightly different normalcy… and that’s a good thing. It’s as if expectations were realigned, and now they can proceed under a better understanding of what each other wants out of this.
It’s a bit refreshing to see things play out like that, but I still wonder what Mio’s role will be. He wasn’t keenly aware of Kirino leaving herself out like that for no reason. I’m assuming we’ll see more of him in the third volume, but for now, we have a play to get through!
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