Manga: Hatsu Haru 6

Hatsu Haru Vol 6 
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Summer break has been full of endings and new beginnings for Kai and Riko both. Suwa's wedding saw the conclusion of Riko's long-held first love, but only time will tell if its departure leaves room in her heart for another. Can Kai safely navigate dating when love is involved, or will his uncalculated swing in the dark throw everything off course? 

As you can imagine from the ending of the previous volume, we're dealing with the fall out from what happened as we start this one! I have to say, I do love how realistic their reactions are even if I was screeching "come on" at the same time. This does mean that it's Misaki's time to try and sort things out and nudge Riko in the right direction. I came to a realisation about him this volume, being that he's actually quite subtle when he meddles, which I appreciated more than the 'in your face' approach. 

Perhaps the most important part of this volume is that we finally get somewhere when it comes to the romance, I had wondered how much longer this could be dragged out for but our two characters make some progress. Of course it's still not all smooth sailing, Kai made a bit of an oopsie at one point however rather than drag it out, things are resolved impressively quickly so we don't lose any momentum in the plot, and it wasn't because of anything over dramatic either it was actually a mundanely normal reason! With this volume we see a shift in to the next phase of the story but there's still more fun to be had from this series yet!  

I liked the depiction of a new relationship, as our characters go about getting to know each other. I have to say I was reading like "oh my God", because Kai was insanely hilarious with his planning and his reasoning behind everything, it was slightly ridiculous but in a good way. Of course, he's only ever dated a certain type of girl, and Riko is not that type of girl so his plan doesn't go...well, according to plan. 

As Kai and Riko get to know each other better, we also get to know them better at the same time. They were cute even if they had some problems to overcome as they didn't quite know each other's preferences yet, but like I said...realistic. 

Of course while things might seemingly be resolved with Kai and Riko, we're presented with some more drama this volume. Misaki. Now I ship Misaki and Shimura, and in this volume we can clearly see how close they've become and towards the end of this volume we shift the focus from Kai and Riko to Misaki which was an interesting move and certainly keeps the plot fresh. 

Misaki has always been mysterious and there's a bit of a bomb drop with him which I didn't actually see coming, I'm going to be honest. I am wondering if the remaining volumes of this series are going to focus on him a little more and the fake dating situation, or shift back to Kai and Riko but either way, this volume's a lot of fun as is to be expected from this series! We've got an abundance of humour to go with the cute and fluffy moments, and volume 6 pushes our story in to new territory!