Miwa and Saeko continue trying to gauge the distance they should keep between each other in the ninth volume of Tamifull’s How Do We Relationship? manga.
This volume contains chapters seventy-four to eighty-three.
Both Miwa and Saeko have new girlfriends, which means they should be spending more time on their romantic relationships and less time together. But even though they’re trying to give each other space, they can’t help turning to each other moral support when issues arise. Are they actually closer than ever now that they’re apart?
This volume is one of two contrasting halves. For Saeko, she is dealing with the pressure of expectations, whilst Miwa’s story here is focusing in on her sex life.
The volume does favour Saeko a little more, and it is all the better for it. The people around Saeko would tell her that she should be more feminine, or express regret that she wasn’t actually a boy. She’s been surrounded by people telling her she should be “normal”. It even seems her own mother thinks that way, but closer inspection reveals that not to be the case.
But there is someone that Saeko feels she is able to turn to: Miwa. And yes, Miwa does turn to Saeko for advice to her thing, too. It’s interesting to see the shape that their relationship has become after the rollercoaster from the earlier volumes of the manga. Saeko’s girlfriend mentions something about friends she is closer with, and Saeko comes to realise that she may actually have something very similar going on with Miwa. Safe to say that their relationship is in a far healthier place than it has been in the past.
This volume ends with drama being set up, so there’s that to look forward to (or not) in the next volume. But this volume was good, particularly with the focus on Saeko and how she coped with the expectations of people around her.
Rory Muses 