Ryo’s abrupt departure to help her ailing grandfather is met with dismay from her friends. Asuka is particularly hurt but tries not to show it as he and his friends try to make her last few days with them memorable. Each character tries to give Ryo something of himself. Their efforts run from the risible to the beautiful with Juta striving to give Asuka and Ryo some time alone. As always, his efforts don’t quite go as planned.
(On a side note, this reader wonders why Ryo doesn’t have any girlfriends. We know she’s a tomboy but does that alienate her completely from the rest of the female students? Are all Japanese girls so hidebound they simply can’t associate with someone less than traditionally feminine?)
Without Ryo’s presence, the story shifts to the aggressive Tonomine, so domineering in his ways that it would be labeled as harassment in the U.S. Instead, we see beneath his bluster to a slightly tenderer sider, showing that even supposedly one-note characters are capable of depth of feeling.
Of course, this series can’t stay away from its main characters for too long. The focus is once again shifted on to Ryo and Asuka. While I remain unsatisfied by not knowing Ryo’s inner thoughts as I can those of the boys in this story, the frustration is not as great as it was in the beginning. Even without getting inner monologue from her, we learn that she is kind, hard working, determined, decent, honorable, loyal and without artifice. She complements Asuka’s less assertive nature perfectly and they mesh so well strangers mistake them for a married couple.
But the course of true love never did run smooth and a new obstacle is thrown in their way. Ryo’s return coincides with that of Asuka’s browbeating mother. A harsh new world rises and the group of otomen will be sorely tested as they face the threat of intolerance and bigotry. Welcome to the real world.