Wandervogel, Volume 2: Sense of Wonder

by Sakae Kusama

Genres: Manga

200 pages, Paperback

Published April 28, 2026

About the author

Associated names :
草間榮
草间さかえ
soft machine
soft_machine

Name (in native language) : 草間さかえ

Zodiac : Pisces

Blood type : B

Reviews

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this one so much. It was funny, and delightfully romantic, and way more of a straightforward narrative this time around.

Does it give satisfying answers to all the mysteries and weirdness in the first volume? Ehhh. If that's what you're expecting, you might be disappointed. For instance, apparently the kidnapping doctor was actually Yuuto's grandfather - his mom's dad. Which maybe I should've understood earlier, but the plot and everyone's memories of the past were so thoroughly fractured that it was difficult to follow.

There also isn't that much in the way of emotional resolution. But I'm okay with that because I think it's more realistic. Yuuto can't recover all those years of loss and isolation. Even if his grandfather was "rescuing" him - called there by Yuuto's dying father to take him away before he got too ill to take care of his son - the erasure of his memories and weird restrictions of his movements and social life were inexcusable. And none of that gets addressed.

What Yuuto's able to do is answer one big question, or sort of three: what happened to his father, had that been a good relationship, and why was he taken away? With those gaping holes from his past settled as much as possible with the main parties no longer around to fill in any blanks, the best he can do now is move on. And he's doing that, by starting his life over, under his own name, with his childhood love and current boyfriend supporting him. Plus he has a network of oddball friends now who will trek to old neighborhoods with him to help him pick apart his past.

The rest of the story is focused on Ryou and Ibu, and goodness I like them so much. They're so strange and so in love with each other. Once you get past the whole mysterious "omg is he a mind reader, how mysterious and powerful" aspect of Ibu, you find out that he's kind of a big dummy with a brilliant imagination and total devotion to his boyfriend...and an unexpected amount of fear that he might lose Ryou.

I loved how exasperated Ryou is while being immensely fond and protective of him. They're such a strange couple but a wonderful fit. It's such an uplifting story about broken people, outside the scope of expected society, finding family and friendship and love and a way to belong, without ever having to change the core of who they are.

[Cas ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was slightly more clear than the first one at least. Easier to follow-ish. But it was still confusing as hell and it left me with so many questions. CAN he read minds, or was it a delusion with a side of really good at reading people? And why did the accident make it so he could no longer do it? Why does Ryou seem like the most reasonable out of everyone but also the most affected by their weirdness — like he acts better than everyone / like he can protect them all because he’s “more stable” but he feels like a really unreliable narrator himself. And his claustrophobia is intense, but also seems kinda situational? And it kept setting it up like Ryou was obsessed with or in love with Yuuto but then it kept saying he was like a “little sister”… like, the whole Ryou molesting Ibu unknowingly in his sleep made it seem like Ryou had done that before, possibly with Yuuto? Idk. It’s messy and confusing!! Was not a satisfying read 🥲