My love story!

So, digging into this second volume the goodness only seems to continue and perhaps even gather momentum! Because in this volume we not only get to follow on with Takeo and Yamato as their love continues to bloom but we also get to meet a few more side characters, including Takeo's mother.Takeo's mother, Yuriko Gōda, was a real breath of fresh air for me because, despite the fact that she resembles her super manly son in many ways, she is also a very recognizably good mother - plus she's pregnant - juxtapositioning manly and feminine in playful easy going ways. In contrast to Yuriko we also meet Makoto Sunakawa's father who has apparently always been a very gentleman who is also very fragile and sickly.And while Takeo and Yamato's relationship is still overflowing with naive new relationship energy Kawahara effortlessly (obviously) manages to keep my own person cynicism in check. This is certainly not because Takeo and Yamato somehow manage to avoid every single romantic cliche and trope, but rather because Kawahara has them make mistakes and then has them learn from them in a way that (at least for me) did not come across as overly preachy. They spend time apart and Takeo has to balance his enthusiasm for his first girlfriend and loyalty to his old friend - and no one gripes about missing out.And it certainly doesn't hurt that the overly dramatic poses that Aruka keeps drawing Takeo in are hilarious. I can only pray that something queer does happen and the whole series doesn't turn out to be entirely oh so tragically heterosexual. But such is life I suppose.

Race and class don't come up, except that bare minimum when Takoe has no money and has to get a job to earn money to buy Yamato a birthday present.