krystalicia_'s reviews
177 reviews

I’m a Toma stan. Toma and Kominato can truly do no wrong to me. Am I glad that Kou finally realized Narumi was doing shady stuff? Yes. But I’m annoyed he knew she was doing shady things and never called her out on it fully. Grief will make you do stupid or selfish things, sure, but it is not your responsibility to carry someone else’s grief for them.

Also: love Yuri and Uchimiya together 🥺

Ok so here’s the thing. I love Toma so much. I love how direct he is with his feelings and how comfortable he is in being vulnerable with his friends and Futaba. That said, I know that Futaba will never return his feelings and that’s ok too, but I am glad they’re showing that getting over someone is a process, I just wish she wouldn’t feel the need to change herself into someone more feminine to be desirable or strictly to make someone jealous. But I also get that it’s realistic, especially for high school.

Very funny how I went from being understanding of Narumi to not being able to stand her, but I’ll just chalk it up to a well written character. I actually really enjoyed this volume, especially that it finally called out how inappropriate it is for students and teachers to be even perceived as too close and Murao finally wised up to her putting herself and Mr. Tanaka I’m danger. HOWEVER, I am dropping this down to 3 starts because there was this one line in there that made me want to forgot a character existed. 

This volume was a full on emotional rollercoaster. Like it really is just so absolutely devastating that this is how Kou’s brain works. We’re introduced to Narumi who has gone through very similar familial problems as Kou, but in her case, she was abandoned and I think even without that being a factor, I’d still feel terrible. Do I agree with any of the decisions she’s made? No, but I also can see why she said the things she said and acted the way she did because at this point, she feels she only has Kou as a support. Grief is a bitch and can make you do ugly things. I just hope Kou stops shouldering all of it on his own and for once does what he wants to do.

I am feeling allllll the emotions right now. This volume is angsty as hell and I’m living for it. We formally meet the additional “love interests” for our main characters and honestly, I kind of love Toma. He’s such a little dork and I love it, but he also wears his heart on his sleeve. If I wasn’t already so invested in the slow burn of Kou and Futaba, I would honestly be so ok with him and Futaba being endgame. Also, Kominato is best boy, but y’all knew this.

Ray is honestly too OP and I’m not even mad at it. He’s a morally gray character done well and I can’t wait to see him continue to develop throughout the series. Also, I continue to forgot how dark this story actually is. Like these kids are 12 and under and they things they’re experiencing is actually horrifying.

We’re making progress! Futaba has finally acknowledged her feelings and Kou is still being a brat!! You’re getting glimpses into Kou’s past and I’m pretty sure we get more in depth in the next volume, but you can already tell when is trying his absolute best to not care about anything and failing miserably. We also see Futaba and Yuri’s friendship tested but strengthened due to Futaba being honest about her feelings and honestly, I love seeing girls not letting guys come between them. Knocking down a star because it has a trope I hate but overall, still solid.

This volume had no business making me as emotional as it did.

This was so much more unsettling than I remember the anime being. Like when I saw this was classified as horror, I was thinking “yea I’m sure it is for kids”, but no, even at 28 some of the panels were creepy as hell. The first volume is usually foundational and this was no different. We get introduced to our main group of kiddos: Emma, Norman, and Ray; as well as our villians: Mom and the demons the kids are all signed up to be fed to. The anime remains pretty true to this volume, so none of this information was really new to me, but excited to keep reading because I know it will start getting more intense as the kids start to prepare for their escape.

This was so cute and wholesome. One thing about anime/manga: I love a good training camp/team bonding arc and this volume didn’t disappoint. You get a glimpse into the core 5 characters of the story as they attend a leadership retreat and have to work together so they can lead their class, but also their high schoolers so you know there’s a ton of angst. A couple of things:
1) I am patiently waiting for Kou and Futaba to get their lives together and just admit that they have feelings for each other, but also completely understand why they’re holding back. There’s this whole level of we’re not who we used to be so it won’t work and fronting galore.
2) we get a full glimpse at Murao’s crush on Mr. Tanaka and because there was only one season of the show, we didn’t really get to see that he resolved. As of now, it is coming off as high school crush on teacher and teacher trying to be supportive while setting boundaries and I really hope it continues that way because if it does develop into something romantic, I’d have to DNF and that would be heartbreaking.