Sakurai Shinichi is a seemingly “normal” college student. Uzaki Hana, his longtime “friend” and classmate, is not in his view. As she likes to hang out with him almost every time she sees him, he can’t find any time to himself. However, is it simply him wanting to avoid his buxom friend not because of her annoyance, but because he likes her? Is Uzaki hanging out with him not because she thinks he’s a lone wolf but because she likes him? You’ll have to read between the lines in this slice of life romantic comedy!
And oh does Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! want you to read the lines. The very obvious lines — these two are totally gonna be together. Don’t bother introducing a third wheel (which it does — in its own way) because it’s etched in stone. Sure Sakurai gets annoyed whenever Uzaki shows up and bugs him and then says something that can be misconstrued as sexual. Sure Uzaki believes that her senpai (he’s a year above her at school) just needs a friend to dispel his lone-wolf attitude.
But it’ll all circles back into these two need to stop teasing each other and get together already!
But we’ll have to make do with the build-up, which seems simple on the surface. You have fairly short chapters (also broken up in parts) that have the two engage consistently. It’s usually never when Sakurai wants them to meet up — they end up going to a batting center together; they accidentally meet at the theater; Uzaki unexpectedly shows up at Sakurai’s cafe job; Uzaki tells Sakurai to meet her during lunch break and ends with him faking that he’s been hypnotized by her. So really, it’s simple stuff.
The charm is when these characters (or in some cases those around them) interact. If you think of Nagatoro or Takagi-san, this is that but raunchier…and maybe more mature? The most hilarious one is when Uzaki sees Sakurai playing with a stray cat. That stray cat eventually ends up running into the bushes and Uzaki happily jumps in to grab it. Not surprisingly, she gets stuck, and you can start the sexual hijinks. As in, Uzaki’s underwear is exposed and Sakurai quickly puts her skirt down. He then grabs her waist and struggles getting her out. Combine that with Uzaki’s phrasing, two women pass by seeing this happen and Sakurai’s position, it manages to be hilarious. And the capper? Uzaki somewhat shrugging off what just happened while Sakurai just wants to die.
Before starting the series the big point if you read the summaries revolves around Uzaki’s huge breasts. This manga doesn’t hide it — for example, they end up getting the two trapped in a crowded train. (You can almost predict what happens. Almost!). But two things: one, I was admittedly more taken aback at how tiny Uzaki is compared to Sakurai! That might be why this relationship feels more adorable to me somehow. And two, they don’t focus on her breasts every chapter. There are different scenarios that end up occurring, and despite the limited selection of where these two characters are (home, school, work, and maybe elsewhere), it feels like things just come naturally as opposed to distasteful.
Only a few other characters appear in volume 1, and one is a fourth-year girl that normally would be part of the male lead’s harem. Instead, she teams up with her dad — who is Sakurai’s boss — to hope that these two characters eventually get it together. She even manages to team up with Uzaki and make Sakurai look foolish when they all go look for glasses. If you’re just not into romantic comedy stuff like this — there are your usual ecchi moments — then Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! won’t change your opinion. But it is a shining example of a genre that stands above the rest.