Ayano can no longer avoid a certain topic when talking to her parents, so she finally reveals the truth to them in the fifth volume of Takako Shimura’s Even Though We’re Adults manga.
This volume contains chapters twenty-one to twenty-five.
Front cover of the fifth volume of Even Though We’re Adults, featuring Akari
Ayano leaves her husband Wataru and moves back into her parents’ home. She’s determined to use this time to really think about what she wants out of life, but Wataru is unwilling to back off and is dead set on fixing their marriage. Akari, meanwhile, can’t help but wonder if she and Ayano might have a future together after all.
Whilst we do get plenty of focus on Ayano in particular in this volume, it is Eri who goes through what might be the most character development this time around. Can’t say that I really like what that development culminates in, though – she finds herself in a situation a lot like Akari’s. She even reaches out to Akari for advice. That perhaps doesn’t quite work out the way Akari expects when Eri turns it back on her.
Ayano, meanwhile, is doing nothing to stay away from Akari. She’s well aware of her feelings towards her, but still they find themselves meeting on the regular. Perhaps that’s actually good for her, though… even if its not exactly the right thing to be doing as things stand.
We also have some more development on the students that Ayano has been counselling. If nothing else, Ayano is at least a good teacher. That’s what everyone else around her agrees upon, too. I don’t think they’re aware of her turbulent love life, though.
This volume is a slight improvement over the previous one, although poor Eri had to be sacrificed for that to happen. She ended up becoming one of the people making an awful decision, although at least she has not come anywhere close to being an awful person. Even Though We’re Adults is proving to be a bit of a rough ride here – hopefully we’re not too far from seeing a turning point where characters can move towards being truly happy. Granted its going to mean suffering for others, but that’s the price that has to be paid.
Rory Muses 