So fun story: looking back to volume 1, it didn’t come to my mind that the girls of Kuromi Academy idolized first-year student “Shirayuri-sama” to an utmost unhealthy respect until the start of volume 2. Like ok, we can see she has many admirers because of her public persona. And it’s been clear it’s definitely overblown, but she’s been able to deal with it.
But it’s only now that we learn her name is Mio Yorue? No wonder she can’t get any friends! Now she does have a bit to do with that, but it’s probably like 20% her fault, the rest the fault of her classmates. Thankfully all it took was her choosing to play π4 (Iron Senpai 4) in a isolated classroom for her to find her first friend in Aya. Now they can game when they have an opportunity!
Ok, except the supposedly prim and proper “Shirayuri-sama” wants to play games again with Aya, like pronto!
Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games‘ second volume sees fit to have Aya and Mio continue to up not only their friendship but their competitive gaming egos. Since it was a low chance to ever find someone with the same interests in this school, Mio cries that it’s all a waste if the two can’t find a way to play fighting games a lot. Aya eventually agrees, so they attempt to find a place somewhere where they won’t be caught. After some searching, they discover a vacant room in their dorm to sneak and play games.
Little did these two know that they were careless! The school’s Dorm Affairs members end up catching them in the act, barely even getting anything going. Heck, even Mio didn’t get a chance to hide her fighting stick. So just like that, the two are caught and now certainly will face a suspension or an expulsion. It’s just that, Aya catches onto one odd thing one of them says that makes her suspect these Dorm Affairs members might know more about gaming than a Young Lady should…
So the one who somewhat slips up is Tamaki Ichinose, who feels upper class and set in following rules. The other member, Yuu Inai, actually catches Aya and Mio first but is happy to find fellow fighting game girls. But Mio discovers Tamaki definitely plays games and challenges her to a match — if she loses, she’s out, but if she wins, they can keep this a secret. Pressured by Mio’s challenge, Tamaki scowls and takes Mio on, ready to utterly destroy her and get her expelled.
Tamaki promptly loses to Mio in like, one page. So noble but also a poor fighting game player!??
After that, the rest of this volume is two-fold. The first is now the two discover that being in Dorm Affairs has its perks (like screwing the rules), as Yuu and Tamaki confirm they’ve been finding time to game at night. They still have to make sure they themselves don’t get caught, but it’s easier when you’re in a single room and also have blankets by the door so no one will hear you.
The second is if you thought the lack of fighting game explanations in the first volume was charming, too bad! This second volume is full of technical jargon, which you don’t have to read but you’ll better understand some of the explanations when these characters start talking fighting game mechanics. In addition we even get motivations on why these characters play a certain way (Tamaki for example has been getting beaten often in online matches, leading to her currently inefficient defensive style) or observations due to how much they play.
Thanks to the artwork and the desire of these four girls, it’s quite fun. That said, the real star of this volume was Mio’s past. Yes, we finally got one of my burning questions answered: for someone whose brain is full of games, how in the world did Mio get into Kuromi Academy? I’m personally glad this didn’t take terribly long, but at the same time…I’m just thinking it’s not enough? Without going into full spoilers, I can admit that thinking her parents were terribly proper was a bad move. Her mom appears and she’s ridiculous (she fights her daughter in this volume. The fight in this case is a karate match), but her reasons for wanting Mio to do well academically is sound.
So it’s hilarious to learn Mio actually didn’t intend to go to Kuromi Academy, it just turned out that way. And then of course, despite the reasons for all her studying, she learns gaming isn’t possible at the school. But hey, she sure got some luck in finding Aya and two members of Dorm Affairs that are gamers too. Still have much to learn about these cast of girls, and well, we will soon learn since there’s a tournament occurring in their area. Which means there’s a lot more reading of Young Ladies to go!