English Translation & Adaptation by: John Werry
Touch-up Art & Lettering by: Eve Grandt
Design by: Julian [JR] Robinson
Editor: Pancha Diaz
Hey all. Marion back again, and this time I bring to you good tidings and some Komi. With the state that the world is in now, one of the greatest joys I have is the ability to sit back and read one of the world's most comfy comics ever drawn. Join me as I rave once more about how the power of friendship is just as strong in slice of life manga as it is in super-powered, hot-blooded adventures.
Volume 8 brings us right where Volume 7 ended, with the end of Winter break and classes resuming. Immediately, the focus is on the next event--Komi and Tadano's class will be taking a field trip to Kyoto. School trips in anime are famous for being romantic opportunities in romcoms, and while we get a taste of it, the focus stays squarely on Komi trying to enjoy herself with her new and previously established friends. Before that, however, we do get a glimpse of her experiences in middle school as an outcast, and the fears and doubts that stemmed from her debilitating communication disorder and being unable to connect with her classmates. It leads up to a genuinely sad moment and sincerely heartwarming follow-up, where after admitting her worries to Tadano, without even skipping a beat, he offers to skip out on the trip if she doesn't feel comfortable going. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but Tadano thinks nothing of abandoning it if he could help his friend feel better. The gesture is immediately recognized by Komi, which gives her the resolve and confidence to go on the trip. Thankfully, the next day everyone immediately shows that this is not like her middle school days, and everyone wants to be in her group, so the teacher draws lots and we get two new girls for Komi to befriend: Ayami Sasaki, and Mikuni Kato.
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| Here we have runner Tadano attempting the oft-forgotten "Trip Skip Trick". Normally this technique is dangerous and many speedrunners suffered from an immense lack of experience after failing it and clipping right into their (social) deaths. If it's successful, however, we end up categorizing this landmark run as "skip%." |
Before that, though, we get another eccentric in the class introduced to us as Naruse Shisuto, the resident narcissist. Let me get this out of the way: Naruse is a great character. He is such a damned fool! He cannot read the room because he is so incredibly full of himself, but, for some reason, it lands him in some of the singularly amazing developments this series has concocted. Every time something goes wrong, he shrugs it off because his confidence and reassurance in himself to be able to do no wrong actually makes him an optimist. It's actually very charming once you see how he unifies the class in their mutual "who the hell is this guy" sentiment, or when he gets the boys riled up on the actual field trip. He is assigned to Tadano and Katai's group for the trip, and there's a scene where he notices Katai's powerful bulging muscles in the bath. He suggests for them to have a pose-off while Tadano takes pictures. This then prompts the idiot trio of Shinobino, Chiarai, and Sonoda to also join and start to respect Katai, rather than completely shrink in fear like usual. It's great! Naruse is actually the first person besides Tadano and Komi to accept Katai and welcome him into the class dynamic! And it leads to one of my favorite gags, where Tadano gets excited after being roped into the photographer role, and Komi noticing Tadano fervently photographing the boys being half naked is punctuated by a literal Galaxy Brain zoom-in. Masterful.
Ahem. Back to the trip. The students are broken into groups of three, who all get to socialize and get used to each other on the Shinkansen (bullet train) on the way to Kyoto. My favorite group was Yamai, Nakanaka, and Onigashima, for the fact that it was basically a corked bottle ready to explode. Komi's groupmates, Sasaki and Kato, both are nervous at the fact that they're with the class idol, but immediate make an alliance where they decide to give her the best time of her life. Komi feels a bit left out by their immediate connection as they don't really run things by her. It leads to Kato cooking up an itinerary that has them seeing temples, then taking the train to USJ, then Nara's Deer Park, and culminates in Sasaki getting frustrated at how much they're doing without time to relax. Komi diffuses the situation by showing them pictures and saying she had a lot of fun with them. The girls realized they riled themselves up unnecessarily, and that Komi is a normal girl like they are. These kinds of realizations in Komi's friends are what truly make this series special. There's no need to walk on eggshells because Komi isn't literally an untouchable idol, she's a regular girl like they are. It allows them to open up to her and also each other. We learn that Kato is actually the daughter of a famous Shogi master and wanted to become a pro, until she realized women shogi players aren't as publicly renown or respected as men. Ayami really loves yo-yo's and once won 3rd place at a yo-yo competition! She actually mistakenly walked in on Komi being "attacked" by an audience participation event with ninjas, and tried to defend her by fending them off with her yo-yo's, leading to an embarrassing moment for her when she realized it wasn't real. These girls, being able to share who they really are and what they love to each other, led to probably one of the more wholesome and accomplishing friendships Komi has ever made, considering the fact she didn't have Tadano there to guide her through it.
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| Your friends ever talk |
That mostly does it for the trip arc, at least thematically. We get plenty of cute Komi and Tadano moments sprinkled in, mostly with the flustered tour guide acknowledging like the rest of us that they should just get married. The guide was a very cute character, she would stumble on her words and worried that no one paid attention, but once she saw that Komi and Tadano were listening, she was really happy because it reminded her of when she was enraptured by a tour guide who loved her job, and inspired her to follow this career path. It's a very sweet capstone for a very minor character we likely won't ever see again. But she isn't the only one who ships them, because Ayami decides to get Tadano to sit next to Komi on the train ride back after she falls asleep--the night before, Ayami and Kato coaxed Komi into nonverbally admitting she had a crush on him. She sleeps on his shoulder and it's very adorable. Once she wakes up, they are awkward for a moment but quickly catch up and get to fill each other in on what they did on the trip. It's wholesome, lovely, and a reminder that this is a coming of age tale. That it's normal and expected for kids and teens to fumble around socially, and that it's those moments that allow us to grow as people! Komi is noticeably different from the beginning of the series: she is proactive in her own way when it comes to interacting with classmates, even if she is terrified. Tadano notices that and is proud of her for it.
After the trip arc, in Volume 9 we get the heart pounding Valentine's Day saga. It's mostly harmless, with no one actually confessing and exchanging friendship chocolates. The standout moment is definitely Katai giving our CHADano his chocolate before Komi could even muster the resolve to give him first. Naturally, Tadano is mortified because teen boys are silly and he didn't get any chocolate from a girl. Komi eventually gives him her baked goods after school at a park when he's asked to go on an errand. We get a really sweet moment between them admitting that they're happy and Komi gave him the tastiest batch... (Insert me having a heart attack here). I don't really have much else to say about the Valentine's Day arc besides the idiot trio's fantasies about Yamai, Nakanaka, and Inaka are very cute and pure. This volume is just really cute, okay?! We even get a sidestory chapter about how Komi's parent met and fell in love with each other. We got to see a former delinquent girl's heart melt for a shy, quiet boy who plays origami sumo, takes care of orphaned kitties, and bandaged her cut finger AND cooked the most banging dish in home economics class?? This couple was made for each other and I am beyond glad that they've curated such a loving environment for their kids.
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| I would also fall in love with this man. I'm sure you would too. Gap moé is that powerful. |
White Day is the natural consequent for Valentine's and what better way to start it than with Tadano beginning to acknowledge that he kinda sorta might actually do maybe have feelings for Komi possibly? He gets interrogated by his little sister Hitomi on what's making him so bashful since he never mentioned if he later got any chocolate from a girl or not, and his mother mistakenly thinks that he's returning the favor to the boy (Katai) who gave him chocolate before. Mama Tadano is so supportive, we love to see it. Anyway, once Hitomi confirms that what her brother is feeling is attachment and a budding form of love, she gets slightly pissed off because he looks kind of cute when he acts conflicted like that. It was the one moment that had me laugh out loud. After all was said and done, the CHADano makes his way to the Komi household on a weekend to deliver his gift. Komi's mom picks up on what's happening and invites him inside, as her daughter is running an errand. He gets silently terrorized by Komi's dad, until she shows up and shoos him away, then frantically tries to fix up her room. It's the single most relatable sequence I'd seen up to this point, haha. Parents can be embarrassing, but when you're on the receiving end of your friend's parents hospitality, it can be equally as frightening! Tadano gives her a small tub of hand cream and a piece of candy as thanks for his White Day gift, and shuffles out before he can get any more embarrassed.
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| POV: You (Tadano) are mortified at the lack of quality reviews on Komi Can't Communicate on the Internet (Komi's Dad). We at WSSTB (Komi) have entered the chat to fix that. |
That about does it for the events covered in these two books. There were more side stories and one-off chapters that I didn't cover, but they were mostly fluff that added more to the tone of the book, rather than providing more character development and "thematic meat" as I like to call it. I thoroughly enjoyed these two volumes. Like I said earlier, it really helps to have something this lighthearted and sincere in such a devastatingly emotional year as 2020 has been so far. If you haven't already, I highly recommend buying this series and reading it on your own!
This review was possible thanks to VIZ Media for providing review copies.
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