Manga Review: My Little Monster (volume two)

After simply not having a chance to buy manga on a regular basis for so many years it still feels rather odd to get back into the swing of things and pick up a volume every other month, even back in high school when I was somehow able to buy manga I wasn't buying series as they came out, I was always trying to catch up with a million different series whenever I had a coupon! Of course, even back then in 2007-2009 there weren't many series coming out bi-monthly, I think Viz may have "sped up" some of it's big three shonen series and I would have gladly devoured more Fruits Basket if it came out six times a year instead of three but oh well. It's interesting that there's been such a bit shift towards these quicker releases, especially since Kodansha isn't trying to "catch up" with this series, it's already finished in Japan, but at least this way I won't suddenly have to start waiting four or more months for a new volume!

My Little Monster (volume two) by Robico

Shizuka has always aimed for the top of her class and is continually frustrated that slacker Haru beats her. But there might be more to life than just grades and it looks like she

As The Manga Bookshelf has already noted, if the first volume introduced us to our main cast and especially focused on what an odd bird Haru is then this second volume shifts the focus subtly to show that Shizuka doesn't have it all together either. And while Haru on some level does want to fit in better so he can make more friends and enjoy life more Shizuka pretty stubbornly does not, she was happy with her life of isolation and it's only now that she's starting to feel unfulfilled with studying all the time for good grades (but does really like her good grades which creates some understandable panic here). I really like that both characters in the couple here are strange and a bit off, that's much more true to life than the "normal person tries to help odd person" set-up I usually find in stories and it certainly will help the story go on longer since it has more material to play around with. 

Other than that, not much in this volume stuck out at me, it was a pretty low key one. We do meet a new girl who sets up a love triangle with Shizuka and Haru who I honestly didn't like much in the anime either, it felt really forced, as if the character herself wasn't THAT interested in Haru romantically. But, if this really is like the anime, then that plotline should be dropped fairly quickly, although there are more love triangles coming later....