Title: The Anemone Feels the Heat Vol. 2
Author: Ren Sakuragi
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 178
Genre: Yuri, Slice-of-Life
Publication Date: August 26, 2025
The Story
In this volume, Nagisa continues to struggle with Mashiro and looking her in the eye; however, as the volume progresses, that’s a problem that quickly takes a backseat to a whole new problem. Before we get to that, while Nagisa is attempting to study, Mashiro is squatted next to her, constantly staring at her. It’s a bit distracting, but just when Nagisa thought that it wouldn’t end, Uda shows up and wonders if they are having a staring contest. She mentions that Nagisa reminds her of someone who’s on the student council, but neglects to say who it is.
Mashiro feels a bit off, so Nagisa takes her to the nurse’s office. There, she sees that the nurse is actually in for once, and that her face is in proximity to another student, and not in a “I’m taking your temperature” kind of way. After Nagisa drops her off, the student chases after her, calling her by name. Surprised that this random girl knows her name, she questions it. She says that she is in the process of memorizing every first-year student. From the stripes on her tie, Nagisa deduces that she’s a third year. After an odd conversation, she leaves.
Mashiro ends up getting sick, so Nagisa visits her. There, she meets Mashiro’s father, who thanks her for being a friend, saying that Mashiro has had it tough throughout her life because of her condition and was never able to make friends because of it. She goes on to talk about how she did up her hair for her when she went to a study sleepover at Nagisa’s house. Mashiro overhears this and becomes embarrassed. He leaves to do groceries, so Nagisa stays by her bed and comforts her. There, Mashiro says something that catches Nagisa off guard.
This leads Nagisa to really question things, especially after she has a second run-in with that mysterious girl who turns out to be the Student Council President. She delivers a warning to Nagisa about her feelings, but Nagisa doesn’t heed that advice. When Nagisa decides to take that next step forward, what will happen?
Characters
Nagisa’s development was the most significant here. In the span of two volumes, she went from a girl who couldn’t stand to look at Mashiro because she was the reason why she had to settle for going to that school, to someone who has come to truly admire her… and not just in a friendly way. Nagisa’s feelings for Mashiro are romantic, but she spent a great deal of time in this volume pondering what those feelings truly were. It wasn’t just about her romantic feelings, either; it was about how she viewed Mashiro and how she didn’t deserve to be ignored, all because of the mishap that happened that caused her to miss her exam. Nagisa’s entire worldview changed completely, and now, she has to figure out the best way to move forward.
Mashiro, on the other hand, has dealt with the same scenario when it comes to her feelings for Nagisa, except, Mashiro is… well… not as much of a deep thinker as Nagisa is. She is more simplistic, let’s say… so, when she pondered what Nagisa meant to her, it was on a basic level, but it doesn’t mean that those thoughts didn’t carry any weight or meaning. She knows that her feelings for Nagisa were romantic, but the thing is, when she told Nagisa that she liked her, she didn’t want to let her know what that truly meant, so when Nagisa said it back, she got scared… not because Nagisa confessed, but just being told that made her wonder what would happen if Nagisa found out that by “like” she actually meant “love.” At least, both of our main characters realize the same thing, but it’s cute watching them arrive at that conclusion in their own ways.
Now, we have our new character, Mizuki Nanjou, the Student Council President. She has a crush on the school nurse, but she knows that it’s a forbidden love. An adult cannot date a student, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t going to go there every day and shoot her shot. She tries to offer Nagisa some advice from time to time, but she comes across in a prudent way that is more off-putting than it is helpful. On one of her little lectures to Nagisa, she does get put in her place by yet another new character who has yet to be named. I guess we’ll see more of her later on, but she is (at my best guess) another member of the student council, and someone who looks to be the person who keeps Mizuki in check. We’ll see if I’m right later on down the line.
Final Thoughts
The depth of the character development continues; however, with a couple of new faces in the mix, things have been switched up. I am a bit surprised to see the plot moving this quickly, though. It made me wonder if it was a short series, which you would think I would know because I use AniList to keep track of my progress on all of the manga that I read, but when I went to update my progress, I saw that I forgot to add this series to my list! After finding it, sure enough, this series is already concluded in Japan with a total of nine volumes, so it’s not super short, but it’s not a long-running series either, so it makes sense that the plot would move at a quicker-than-normal pace.
Even though we received a “confession,” you can’t truly call it that. Sure, Nagisa told Mashiro that she liked her, but in this scenario, it can easily be seen as “like you as a friend.” It wasn’t delivered in such a way that it conveyed any romantic feelings… even if Nagisa is beginning to realize that she’s in love with Mashiro. You have to remember that Nagisa is just now getting used to being able to look her in the eye after the incident. So, when she told Mashiro she liked her, to me, it was her finally moving past that incident and accepting Mashiro as a friend. The romance confession can come later.
Mizuki’s story is a bit odd. I am not sure why she would chase after a forbidden love, realize it is forbidden, then double down on it. One would think that once you realize that it’s not going to happen, they should just give up, but I guess Mizuki is built differently. I mean, more power to her, but it just comes across as odd that she would offer relationship advice when she, herself, is in a hopeless situation. I will say one thing, though… at least Mizuki isn’t in love with Mashiro, thus setting up a pointless love triangle that will go nowhere like 95% of the other romance series out there. So, extra points to this series for that!
In any event, in the next volume, we will deal with the fallout from Nagisa’s non-confession that could have been a confession, but I confess that I, myself, am not sure any confessing was confessed.
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