It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of gorillas, it was the age of tsunderes, it was the epoch of exams, it was the epoch of confessions…
I’d keep going, but I never realized how long the opening sentence to A Tale of Two Cities is. And if you’re here, you’d probably rather be staring at Abe’s muscles than a lesson on English literature, no matter how good it is.
Akari’s heart is still in disarray after finding out Kozue likes Abe, and although the karate girl is rather good-natured about the fact she’s not #1 in Abe’s heart, the situation causes Akari to admit her own feelings for him. While Abe has been practically shouting his love for Akari from the rooftops, Akari is much less bold. In fact, she’s embarrassed, and it takes a good amount of prodding (and re-prodding) to get a straight answer from her.
And that feeling doesn’t go away when he invites her to his house…or when he tries to kiss her…or wants her to say his given name!
First, though, the confession. Volume 3 of Abe-kun’s Got Me Now! sets Akari trying to summon her courage at the school sports festival. But things don’t slow down since exams come right afterwards, and then Abe must practice for an upcoming karate tournament. So their time together is going to be limited, so Abe takes advantage of an afternoon off to take Akari out to a yakiniku joint, to Akari’s initial disappointment.
A lot of these two volumes are of Akari mentally and/or physically fleeing from Abe. Not too surprising since the author needs to balance out Abe’s pushiness. Akari does attempt to reach out to Abe in her own way at times, like studying up on karate or asking to take a picture in a photo booth. As the series goes on, though, there needs to be more source of conflicts than her trying to hide her red face. Volume 4 ends with some sort of surprise regarding the karate club, and it might be nice for Abe to be freaked out for a change.
Akari’s nervousness is also played for laughs, but almost every other comedy bit outshines her. Abe’s outrageousness means he gets scolded by his teacher, club members, and even his parents in my favorite scene in these two volumes. Unfortunately, the art still tends to take a nosedive during these humorous bits with oversized eyes and awkwardly proportioned faces. It’s one thing to have SD faces, but there’s too many that just seem ugly rather than funny.
However, readers will still get many opportunities to swoon over Abe’s bod, and even though Abe’s immediate goal may be to get Akari to call his name in public, he tells her he’s not going to put the breaks on anytime soon. And for a lot of readers, those things are enough despite the story and art hiccups.