Kiss Me at the Stroke of Midnight Vol 2
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
Hinana prizes her reputation as a serious high school student, too focused on getting into college to pay attention to boys. But she's a secret fairytale romance freak, sneaking away from her studies to see A Roman Holiday and tucking pop idol magazines into her textbooks. When her celebrity crush comes to her school to film a TV episode, she has to pretend to be totally uninterested even as she desperately tries to get close to him. However, she's not the only one who's not what she appears... her dreamboat isn't just a pretty face either!
I'm not going to lie to you guys...there's some juicy drama right from the start of this volume. Rumours abound and Hinana doesn't know what to believe, but it's not long before she and Kaede have everything sorted out...just in time for Hinana to come down sick. Kaede's busy with work but...at least Akira is free to take care of his BFF. I'm sure you can imagine how thrilled Kaede is by this turn of events.
This volume lets us see another side to Kaede as he gets a wee bit angry and snaps for the first time. But it's not long before he's brushed it off and his back to his usual self, still, we do get a glimpse of his temper. He and Hinana are still trying to get to know each other and navigate their new relationship, it's all still new and things need to be worked out and so on. Shige seems a bit gruff, but this volume makes it obvious he really cares about Kaede and he's like a parent to him.
The romance between Hinana and Kaede really starts in this volume, as does a potential love triangle. Yep. Akira is totally on to them...and he's about to embark on his role as "the other love interest" as he makes it obvious as he has a bit of a thing for Hinana and he decides he's going to give Kaede some competition.
Hinana continues to be totally relatable, and it's so easy to empathise with her and you're sitting there like...yep. That's me. I'd totally do that too! She's such a likeable character, and it's really easy to root for her and be on her side.
Along with the start of the romance in earnest...and the love triangle potentially kicking off...we get an intriguing look at Kaede's old band and how they react to him and I'm really curious as to what went down between them all, exactly! It looks like we might get more on that and his relationships with the various members, in the next volume if the cliffhanger ending is anything to go by!
This volume, while still having some silly bits, doesn't have nearly as much silliness as the first volume. But it does have plenty of cute scenes and the art is both gorgeous and cute! I really love the way the artist draws the characters faces for certain scenes and reactions. The plot is moving at a nice pace, throwing in some drama with the cute scenes and setting up a couple of other things to look forward to in coming volumes! I feel like this volume started to be a bit more serious, but it's still got it's funny and odd moments to keep it balanced. There's plenty of Cinderella references to keep an eye out for too, and yeah...there's the odd cheesy bit too...but I mean...we all love a bit of cheese at some points!
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