Yankee JK Kazuhana Vol 9,10 - Valentine Day! New characters?
I just finished reading volumes 9 and 10 of Yankee JK Kuzuhana-chan after a bit of a hiatus, as I was focusing on other manga series (I only wrote a rather small post in the past introducing the series as a whole). It took a bit of time to wrap my head around the many characters in this story again, but once that was under control, the series went back to being an extremely entertaining romantic comedy.
The focus of these two volumes is Valentine's Day, which is sort of a staple for romantic comedy manga. Each heroine is trying her best to make proper chocolate for Saotome; some are teaming up to learn how, while others are trying on their own. Hanako is an example of the latter before her mother and Kasumi come to the rescue.
There is not much development in the overarching romantic story because most of the focus is on the preparation of the chocolate and its delivery to Saotome. Unfortunately, he ends up sick at the worst possible time, ruining the heroines' very detailed plans.
Speaking of which, I am really loving the personality of Hanako's mother, Irina, and I hope she becomes more of a regular in the story. She wants to support Hanako, but she does not shy away from teasing her endlessly whenever there is an opportunity. Plus, she looks way too young and beautiful to be a mother of that age.
Another interesting part that these volumes delivered was the realization for Kasumi that she might "swing both ways". She noticed that she is becoming extremely interested in Hanako and Mai. Could this be opening a new route for some heroines to move away from Saotome (who is going to end up with Hanako anyway; we all know that) and end up creating their own romance?
The protagonist is, of course, taking all the gifts he received for Valentine's Day seriously. He asks Irina for help to earn some money by working part-time for the inevitable White Day in a month's time. I am curious to see what he is going to do for all the girls waiting for a return gift. It is not a small number of people.
The volume ends with the introduction of another slew of characters who are going to become more important starting in the next volume. Honestly, I have found it difficult to memorize their faces so far, but considering the new school year is starting, they had to add some characters to spice things up.
I am, however, a bit worried about character bloat in the series. The series as it is right now already has a very large cast of heroines (over 10), and adding another five or six on top could make it hard for any of them to get enough screen time to develop properly (aside from the ever-present Hanako, of course).
I am going to tackle this series more aggressively because I am far behind on the released volumes (there are 28 of them so far), so expect more posts about this in the near future.
