It’s pretty fair to say A LOT happens in this volume 2. It starts out with Dai coming to terms that he’s falling for Komugi, a.k.a, his brother’s wife. It soon escalates a touch within the family, as Komugi’s past catches up with her, and this threatens to affect her relationship with Dai’s mom.
As it turns out however, maybe her past might catch up to her from someone who has a crush on Dai?
The Delinquent Housewife volume 2 has it all — the forbidden romance plotline (that Komugi is completely unaware of), the biker gang storyline (that affects just about everyone), some pretty funny moments involving Komugi’s cooking attempts or Dai getting into shoujo manga, and yet one of the main stories in this one is the secret romance from afar plotline that caught me off guard. That’s probably because one of the characters, Yoshino, didn’t seem to take much precedence in volume 1. That makes sense since there’s a lot that had to be established between Dai and Komugi — but Yoshino’s involvement came out of nowhere. Maybe a bit of a hint earlier in volume 1 might’ve been nice, but it’s clear she’s going to shake things up, whether Dai likes it or not.
She will have her work cut out for her, as Dai is literally in the soup. He can’t stop thinking about Komugi in just about any way, whether it’s in his dreams or in his classroom as he’s kneading dough. The problem of course is despite all that, he’s falling for his brother’s wife. It’s only worse because his brother, Tohru, is nowhere around to actually be with his wife, which affects Dai more and more as he interacts with Komugi on a daily basis.
Komugi, at this point, is completely oblivious to Dai’s feelings. Makes sense — in addition to her normal worries about her relationship with Dai’s mom and fitting in with the family, she’s also still affected by her past, and whether she likes it or not, she can’t completely let it go. It doesn’t help that even if she avoids it, others finding out (like Dai’s friends) will ultimately affect her. Her finally admitting to Dai’s mom that she can’t do some of the basic chores is a good first step, but it’ll be interesting to see how she can handle why Dai’s mom doesn’t like delinquents now that she knows the truth. For now though, she just needs to learn how to do the basics, which include putting together a salmon bento with tartar sauce and not managing to put an excessive amount of softener into the wash. And maybe not get too down about losing multiple times in an arcade game. (Note: she does get down over losing a lot at an arcade game)
With the art still being really good and some of the comedic timing, The Delinquent Housewife is still pretty solid as it heads to volume 3. I am curious how it is going to handle this relationship dynamic, as Yoshino, after literally taking her time to not mention liking Dai, is now aggressively trying to get his attention. I’m also counting on something surprising to happen in volume 3 that will shake everything up story-wise. Looking forward to figuring out what that will be.