Gets better after the introduction of the lame love triangle plot of the previous volume, what with Neko's significance/appearance being toned down for the island vacation arc. There's a bit too much dicking around instead of truly advancing Makabe's revenge, choosing instead the "safe" route romcom manga use by postponing audience gratification to sustain the series's run. Also not a big fan of this trend in fiction in general of setting up a specific plot (here, the "haunted" elementary school) then quickly cutting away from the previous set-up by having the plot fall apart and move in a different direction (it seems Shishou was meant to spook Aki with the Jason mask and chainsaw, but the secretary interfered and we ended up having everyone meet up outside the school, bypassing the lake and gym bits apparently foreshadowed in Makabe's quick rundown of the plan). The secretary character was pretty funny, though, being that stereotypical manga trope of bitched-up Christmas Cake who hates love because she cannot acquire it herself.
In the second half of this volume, we take a hard turn into melodrama with Neko having stolent the "Piglegs" photo, coming on to Makabe, getting rejected, and becoming hospitalized when it is revealed she has a severe illness. The "twist" concerning her frail body is okay enough, as it is retroactively foreshadowed by the care with which she maintains her health (in contrast to Makabe, who takes copious vitamins and supplements in order to maintain peak physicality as part of his revenge plot). The further twist that Neko was a little fat girl who knew fat!Makabe in his childhood seemed like a bit of a stretch, and it seems she is written out of the plot, which makes this twist seem a little more pointless.
The author does well to have Makabe get pissed that Aki shits on Neko after the latter's hospitalization, prompting him to bring up the name "Piglegs," showing that Makabe was so moved by Neko's speech in the hospital that he is almost willing to either throw his plan away to yell at Aki, or is otherwise trying to speed things up significantly by hinting at his true identity. The flaw is that Aki cannot remember the "Piglegs" name, which contrasts with previous hints in the series that she was in love with fat!Makabe and that she still is, subconsciously. One would think she would remember calling her love "Piglegs" in order to push him away out of her fear of being in love. Unfortunately still, the author throws in this fat!Makabe lookalike to further confuse the overall plot, which already went from boy-girl romcom to girl-boy-girl love triangle, now becoming boy-girl-boy triangle.
Overall, the volume is pretty good, especially in terms of its humor, emotional impact, and of course the art. The series's plot has picked up better after the travesty that was Vol. 3 (okay, it wasn't that bad, but I though I was reading a more original story until the love triangle shit came in and made it feel a tad more generic). The ending, however, screamed "what a tweest!," which left a bad taste in my mouth, and now I feel, between this and Vol. 2, that the whole series is going to have curveballs like this every couple volumes, introducing new characters to keep Makabe and Aki apart, and the issue is that such "twists" aren't really good as twists since this shit happens in romcom manga all the time, to the point that it's incredibly predictable. Now that I know from the end of Vol. 2 that a love triangle was to begin, I was expecting eventual harem hijinks. Now I know from this volume that "triangle" is status quo, regardless of its members (so long as Makabe and Aki are present, anyone can be the third leg), I would not be surprised if the new fat guy is later replaced with another person to perpetuate the eternal triangle, and that Makabe will be no closer to the resolution of his revenge until volume 15 or so (though of course the series will inevitably end with Makabe and Aki falling in love for real).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Some thoughts: I actually really enjoyed Neko as a character, so this is one of those moments where I wish the endgame pairing wasn’t so set in stone. Aki is just such a resentful and bitter character; the best thing about her is her character design. It’s just really difficult to support a pairing where one side of the couple is just awful (kinda felt that way about Naru in Love Hina too, no lie). I still love the art and character designs, but I doubt I will revisit this series once I finish it.