Title: The Girl Past the Filters Vol. 2
Author: Suzu Omi
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Publication Date: May 26, 2026
The Story
Narumi continued to help Efa/Koto out by taking more photos of her; however, before he could do that, she wanted to invited him out to go shopping. They got caught in a sudden downpour, so they had to take refuge inside a karaoke parlor. There, he snapped some new photos for her, and he thought that things were going just fine… until they received a brand-new transfer student in class by the name of Mnami Kugarazaka… and she’s a total klutz who keeps falling down after tripping over, virtually, nothing.
When she’s told that her seat is next to Narumi’s, she instantly recognizes him, and he does her, too. It turned out that Narumi and Minami are childhood friends, and to make matters worse, Minami was the girl he tried to smile at and made her hate him!
Here, the volume shifts to focus on Minami and Narumi’s past together. Before she moved away, she had given him a rock… one that he has kept to this day, and as a thank you for the rock, he gave her a hair clip… one that she also wears to this day, too. You would think that this would be an instant pairing, but it’s not that simple because Minami has taken notice of Koto. In fact, she caught them taking photos together in Narumi’s club room during lunch without understanding a single thing about the situation. This prompts Minami to dig into things, so she and Koto go to a bathhouse and have a pretty peculiar conversation… one that ends in an unexpected manner.
Despite what Minami said to Koto, things begin to play out, and she wonders if she has made a terrible mistake!
Characters
The biggest focus here was on Minami. Despite being a stone face, Koto could instantly tell that his expression became even more stone-faced and frozen when he saw that Minami was the transfer student. When we dig into their backstory from when they were kids, it became obvious that Minami always had a crush on him. In fact, Narumi still remembered the day he tried to smile, and how that made her feel. When he asked her if she hated him, she flat-out denied it, which made his heart soar… even if his face didn’t reveal that.
Minami herself is very energetic, bubbly, and just ditzy as all heck. When she’s not tripping over air, she’s slipping from chairs when trying to reach books on a top shelf, and falling crotch-first onto Narumi’s face… (Gotta love those romantic comedy moments). Despite the embarrassing situations that she always ends up in, she doesn’t (completely) freak out when they happen. In fact, it’s almost as if she enjoys Narumi seeing her in compromising positions. Either that, or the whole childhood friends aspect gives him some sort of weird pass.
She does make a selfless act by yielding to Koto when she picks up on the fact that Koto might be realizing her feelings for Narumi, and while she didn’t second-guess that decision at first, as time goes on, she starts wondering if she had made a mistake. Underneath her over-the-top personality beats the heart of a regular girl who is in love, but she’s not as dumb as she might come off as. She knows it’s been ten years since she moved away, and things can change in a decade. She’s well aware of the fact that Koto might be in his heart, which is why she yielded and has regrets. While that was mature of her, she still can’t let her feelings go… and this is a good thing.
Final Thoughts
One of the things I dislike about romance stories… and this is something I’ve said in plenty of other reviews… is introducing a third wheel character, make us believe that they have a shot, only to see them lose every single time. I’ve always said that if there will be a romance triangle, it needs to be unpredictable, and while yes… because we went a full first volume of Koto and Narumi developing their relationship, it might seem like the obvious ship, I don’t believe their relationship was developed to a level where it was conclusive. With the way Minami was introduced, it leveled the playing field, and now we have a genuine love triangle without much of a conclusion.
I say that because while Koto was simply enjoying having Narumi take photos of her, it wasn’t until this volume that she began to question whether she had feelings for him. In fact, by the time Minami invited her to the bathhouse, she still wasn’t sure, but Minami could tell right away. Also at that point, there were hints that Minami liked Narumi, but she was so overjoyed to know a friend at her new school for once, versus all the other times she had to start from scratch when she moved, that it came off as just relief and joy… not romance. It took her until the end of this volume for her to realize her feelings, too.
But while it seems like there is a true competition here, I still think Koto will win out in the end because of one major clue that Minami herself gave us… she moves frequently. She said that it took her family ten years of constantly moving around to come back home, but she never once said that this was the final time that they were moving. Get the Kleenex box ready because I’m sure that Minami is going to settle on her feelings, and right when she makes her move, her family will pack up and disappear again… leaving Narumi all to Koto. I also would think that would make things rather tense and awkward for a bit, but it would be something they eventually overcome. At least, that’s how I would write it… but I’m not Suzu Omi, so we’ll see what direction they take the story in.
A very solid follow-up to the debut volume, and I highly enjoyed it! I’m definitely looking forward to more!
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This item was purchased for review.
