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Hey, I was kind of mean to this last volume, but I liked this one much more. It’s still entirely too whatever it is, and Ishihara is one of the lamest male leads I’ve read in a while, but it remains eminently readable.

The soft art style really makes this go down incredibly smooth. I may not think any of the romantic options for Tamaki are really good, Ishihara’s probably the best of a bad bunch, but it’s not hard to tell why they’d be interested. The art absolutely loves her.

This is adjacent to the fact that her true calling in life is as a food vacuum, which neatly comes to the fore as she gets the chance to do what she truly loves in life a bit more and share that joy with others.

One thing this story does right at times is land something rather brilliant. Would that it were consistently so, but even these brief moments of stirring excellence make it feel less of an obligatory read.

The whole thing about the bottle of sake starts off as a simple conversation with our leads and the chef at the restaurant who Ishihara is friends with. When it’s revealed that the label that Tamaki finds so appealing is not only done by Ishihara, but based on her looks? Her reaction is really sweet.

It’s nice to have reminders that overall this arrangement has been a positive one, because it does drop that ball at times. Ishihara is entirely too jealous when they’re not even dating and he’s clearly trying, but he’s also clearly trying, if you get my drift.

Sometimes the story does acknowledge that he’s really annoying - he mouths off to Tamaki’s concern at one point and rightfully has to work himself back to her good graces.

That brings Tamaki’s friend into the story, who has the good sense to blow her stack when she learns about the nature of her friend’s side hustle, but who also learns that Ishihara is bringing something into Tamaki’s life that wasn’t there before. Especially if she’s bothering to get mad at him.

The rival guy is a bit of a jerk and I actively dislike his meddling. That whole thing with the sneakers is nice because Tamaki’s so cool, but he just doesn’t do much as far as rivals go.

Really, this story works when it is focused on Tamaki and her growth. It occasionally works with Ishihara, who has his moments and also does not have his moments, and then the rest are okay to useless. It’s getting better as it goes, but it’s sure not perfect. Still, this volume has a slew of worthy moments and the art really grows on you.

3.5 stars - round up if you are fine with the guys and are a huge booster of Tamaki; it’s real close for me but not quite there. Still the top of its class in the genre of women who pose nude for an artist while draped in fish that they eat later on. Take that for everything it’s worth.