Komi Can't Communicate, Vol. 34

古見さんは、コミュ症です。 [Komi-san wa, Komyushō Desu.] #34

by Tomohito Oda

The journey to 100 friends begins with a single conversation.

Socially anxious high school student Shoko Komi’s greatest dream is to make some friends, but everyone at school mistakes her crippling social anxiety for cool reserve. Luckily she meets Tadano, a timid wallflower who decides to step out of his comfort zone in order to help her achieve her goal of making 100 friends.

It’s culture festival time! As third-years, Komi and her classmates can opt out of participating in order to focus on exams, but Komi (at Najimi’s instigation) convinces everyone that they should enjoy one last festival together. Now it’s Komi’s job as class rep to make sure everyone works together to get their booth ready in time. Can a girl with a communication disorder wrangle so many unique personalities, or will the culture festival turn into a culture flop?

Genres: Manga, Romance, Humor, Contemporary, Fiction, Young Adult, Graphic Novels

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 18, 2024

About the author

ODA Tomohito
Name (in native language): 小田智仁
Associated Names: オダトモヒト

Tomohito Oda won the grand prize for World Worst One in the 70th Shogakukan New Comic Artist Awards in 2012. Oda’s series Digicon, about a tough high school girl who finds herself in control of an alien with plans for world domination, ran from 2014 to 2015.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Please do not look to this review for complex insight into this series. I am absolutely just marking my time until it ends.

Kawai is the new Yamai, inasmuch as my enjoyment plummets as soon as either of them shows up in this series. Ironically, Yamai is contained to a subplot and doesn’t come across nearly as bad as usual.

Kawai turns her entire school’s festival into a celebration of Komi, which wouldn’t be terrible (and parts of that side of those chapters is worth a chuckle), except for Kawai’s obsession with marrying Komi and Tadano, neither of whom are interested.

That absurdity is the point of the whole thing, but we’ve been scraping the barrel for a while now. This is a series which thinks that wacky hairstyles are a shortcut for comedy and is happy to hammer that button to the point of abuse.

The school festival for Itan also crops up and becomes a standoff over a ramen stand that ultimately proves entirely pointless and everything is just so exaggerated. I haven’t lost my sense of humour last I checked, but I don’t find this engaging.

Things finally pick up towards the end - Tadano getting randomly dressed as a girl again is always amusing, even if that’s an old gag by now. Najimi, who is way more obnoxious than usual this volume, gets the best gag of the volume as a black market noodle dealer who is quickly targeted by the student council. It’s a brief joke, but a good one.

Introducing a new class for Komi was a smart way to bring new characters in, but none of them have been especially memorable versus the old ones who show up now and then. The one grumpy girl has a reasonably strong chapter, but she’s the exception.

And that one student who loves yuri shows up to encourage Yamai and Nakanaka to couple up and likes their band, but only as far as they’re concerned. This is a good chapter because I’ve also been on board that ship AND the reaction of the bandmates is pretty good.

Is it bad? No, even if I think it’s a pale shadow of itself. Is it good? Also no, which is the problem. It reads fast because I’m trying to get through it quickly, not because I’m excited for what’s coming next. It has basically gone too long and used its creative fuel up ages ago.

2.5 stars - I can’t round it up, even with a few more bright spots than I originally thought were there. I think this is mostly tedious and only occasionally entertaining and I doubt I’ll be changing my mind.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cruise control is fully engaged as we coast toward the final volume.

Tropes include a love confession and some cross-dressing, but the majority of the book is a three-day cultural festival to give the dozens of side characters something to do.

We're doled out just enough Komi moments to make it worthwhile, but it's far from the satisfied feeling I got from early volumes.


FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Chapters 443-455 -- Bonus

[Anna Quilter · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
centred mainly around the Schools Culture Festival and Komi's uging to get the class to participate.
my only slight grumbling is Komi and Tadano's face time here is minimal...and surely that is what this Manga is about.
plus..the slightly annoying/creepy Rami reappears still insisting she wants to marry Komi and Tadano...ENOUGH!
For Realsies!

[Zuli · Rating 2 out of 5]

a bit disappointed

[Othy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still fun, but the series is getting a bit sentimental and sappy as it goes on and prepares for its finale.

[Mithun Sarker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, it's a decent volume, lots of filler, though. Frankly, there have been fillers mostly in the last few volumes. Still, it is enjoyable, and there's still a bit of character developments here and there.

[Nicolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 34 features Komi's third and last cultural festival as a high school student. I still think the first one was a classic arc and its sequels mere pretenders. Let's us go over the story points.

Rumiko got a consolation arc as a side plot. Honestly, I wished the author focused more on Komi. This one and off arc gave sunken Rumi-Tadano shippers the closure they deserved.

Shiina might be the most important character for Komi's development, especially in the later chapters, but I really don't like her. However, her contrary nature, and she's especially belligerent toward Komi was the catalyst that enabled the main character to grow from her shell. This was a classmate that did not coddle her, that's for sure.

Speaking of classmates, I miss her original year one classmates. I just don't have the emotional connection to her third-year class. For the cultural festival, the class prepared ramen for their food stall, but this arc could have used Agari from year one for her foodie expertise.

The end is near for this series, and I hope the author sticks the landing at least.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 2 out of 5]

THREE more issues to go, and it's mostly uphill from here to the finish for me. Komi, improving slowly but steadily with her communication disorder, in her kinda weird goal to make 100 friends before graduation, can count off a couple more we will never remember. And one highlight of the series, her relationship to Tadano, is going nowhere, nothing new to say, so it is a sidelined story line?!

The focus of this issue is yet one more School Festival, senior year, and Komi as her group's school rep leads her group through this one more time. I am in a minority here in sorta skimming all this, nothing new, I say, but 2/3 of the ratings for this issue are 4 and 5 stars, so consider the burned-out source who 2 stars this volume.

The highlight of last volume's weak issue is the awkward two-ships-passing-in-the -night failure to create a relationship between Rumiko and Watai. But it is making progress, with e whole school watching, including Komi as consultant and a school reporeter asking her questions. Komi and Tadano hide and try to watch the progress toward a coupling, a little cute. I bet in one of the last issues this will all get sorted out, where more focus on Komi and Tadano as a couple happens, and then Rumiko agrees to get together with Watai.

[Des Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything Rumiko focused was fantastic. Mostly this was about the culture festival, which is always fun in this series, even if less impactful than previous years. None the less, we got some very fun character gimmicks and lots of great art. I really enjoyed the author acknowledging the "Yamanaka" discourse, and the story of their band was very cute and fun. I don't know how much more this series has to say, but as a heartfelt gag manga, it's still ridiculously easy to enjoy.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25/5
We're back at the culture festival for Year 3 in this volume. This year, Komi and Tadano's class decides to do a ramen stand and they have to perfect the right ramen recipe. A majority of this volume surrounds the preparations for and then days of the culture festival. It's fun to see the class come together and see how Komi is leading the class this year.

[Ady Weasley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pobre Wakai, Rumiko lo tuvo todo estrenado, pero gracias a ella su desempeño en el partido fue increíble...no estoy del todo contenta con Rumiko pero me da felicidad verlos.

El último festival de cultura de Komi y todos lograron cumplir las expectativas , el tradicional travestismo de Tadano no podía faltar jiji. Nos acercamos al final

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't tell anymore if Komi is adding to her target of 100 friends but I do like obsessive Shota Kori (who looks a bit like Komi). But I liked this volume, probably because of the ramen. I also liked Muzuka and chibi Komi breaking down her barriers. And no, I did not feel like eating chilli shrimp at the end of this volume! Haha.

[Felicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

In these final volumes, Tadano makes few appearances and his interactions with Komi are also thinned out. Some of the nicer chapters are those about Rumiko, Yama and Nakanaka. After so much dedication, the ramen twist was almost hilarious.

[DJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish Komi and Tadano had more time together, but their moments were cute. Saying Komi isn't the reason the class does something, but they have literally been doing that since volume one is gaslighting, and I loved it.

[Andrea Hubbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75/5 Stars

[Trent · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

[Ciel Dahlberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was better than the previous few volumes, but the school festival volume always is.

[Domenico Auriemma · Rating 3 out of 5]

BASTA FESTIVAL, NON NE POSSO PIÙ.
Parlate di più di Shiina e della relazione tra komi e tadano.
Manbagi ha accettato la proposta di fidanzamento del calciatore, in modo particolare. Carino

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Jessica Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75 stars

[Hilary Nihlen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for the staff reading challenge. The first time I've ever read manga! Fun exercise. I know I missed a ton of cultural stuff in the story.

[Ari · Rating 5 out of 5]

RAMEN FEST >:3

[Tika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love a good culture festival read

[Keira Mc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahhhh this is the last culture festival, I wonder if the manga is going to come to an end when they leave high school or if it will keep going. I hope it goes for longer until Komi makes 100 friends