When we last left our hero, Katsura had become aware of and started reciprocating Sou's feelings. Katsura's brother, also Sou's best friend, had accepted the idea of their relationship, and Katsura's best friend who has a crush on him seems to be taking his time in deciding whether to make a move or not.

In volume 2, Sou and Katsura's brother have just left the archery club in the hands of Katsura and Kouichi (the aforementioned best friend). Kouichi is president, mostly due to his archery ability, but Katsura worries that his laid-back personality will lead the archery club into DOOM, or something.

Katsura is also just generally concerned because his archery, which featured prominently in the first volume, still isn't up to par-- and he always gets compared to his brother, who was extremely good at archery. An antagonistic new member of the club doesn't seem to be helping things either.

Now, those last two paragraphs are enough plot for a usual manga, but this is BL. So on top of all that, Katsura is also struggling to find himself in the midst of Sou, on whom he had once had a forced dependence.



As with the first volume, this series stays strictly in the real-life realm-- no weird left-turns a la Menkui! or anything like that. (Well, okay, I guess I question the realism of a strong, balanced relationship between two people whose history involves a very intentional manipulation, but we'll set that aside, yes?)

That may leave this title too boring for readers more fond of crack. Or smut, for that matter; there are a couple of smooching scenes and some hints at possible future smex, but this title will probably never be a hot, lustful tale of two high schoolers. (Or a high schooler and a college student, I suppose, since Sou is graduating.)

I didn't like this volume as much as I liked the first, probably because I don't feel like Katsura grew as much, or if he did it wasn't as clear. I also got a little tired of all the talk about how his archery would get better if he only cleared some vague, befuddled obstacle.

Still, it's a sweet story with a lot of heart.

Writer: Kannagi Satoru
Artist: Honami Yukine
Publisher: Juné (Upcoming Releases | Wiki Entry)
MSRP: $12.95
Warnings: No smex, but some vague teasing.
Censorship: N/A
Disclosure: This was a free review copy, courtesy of Juné.