It feels like a filler volume, to the point that you could almost skip over it. I plan to keep reading the series, but this is one of the weakest volumes so far, with little in terms of moving the plot or characters forward. Manga probably has more leniency, as one volume is the equivalent of perhaps 2 chapters in a novel. As I learned studying the romance genre, any conflict that could be resolved with a conversation, like this one, is not a good conflict to sustain a novel. This volume in particular, based entirely on misinterpretation and assumptions in place of simple clarification struggled. So it feels like she’s trying to force them backward in the relationship now. Following a romance plot, she needs to continue to keep them apart until the end of the series, whenever that will be.

The problem is the relationship between the two leads progressed a great deal in volume 7 (maybe she only anticipated 1 or 2 more volumes at that point). By volume 8, she had resolved one main story arc, but with the series continuing, she needed to introduce another with a new antagonist. When the story got picked up as a series, the characters were developed and the plot got more complex (volume 2). Presumably, the other is contracted for just a few volumes at a time. The challenge with manga is the author has no idea how long the series needs to be sustained, and when it will need to be wrapped up with some sort of satisfying resolution. She is socially inexperienced and her self esteem is incredibly low, which is really the source of much of the conflict that sustains the romantic conflict. Hana ni Todoke started as a one-shot, essentially a short story about a girl who is a social outcast because she looks like the scary girl in a famous horror movie, and a popular book who likes her and is kind to her. Manga series are almost the opposite, and this volume is a perfect example of why that’s a problem. I recently attended a lecture by a screenwriter and movie producer who emphasized how important it is to know where your story ends in a screenplay so you can be sure that there is nothing extraneous and everything in your story is driving toward that ending. Manga series like this are interesting to read in terms of storytelling craft.

Kimi ni todoke by karuho shiina