I watched the anime adaptation of the original novel recently and enjoyed it very much, and have been picking up manga volumes as I find them. I got this good-condition softcover from the bargain rack at Harrisons Comics in Nashua. This picks up after the events of Volume 1.

The attempts of Misaki to help and guide hikikomori Satou somehow segue into a plan where she'll pretend to be his girlfriend when his mother visits, to reassure Mom that her son's not really as badly off as he is. (This is a typical sit-com move, and usually guaranteed to go wrong, but here it has a poignant note, as Satou's parents are increasingly desperate to find help for him, but are also pathetically eager to believe that he might be able to turn things around himself.) That's not to say there aren't funny scenes - often involving Satou's gonk-faced panels whenever he realizes just how much of a mess he's in.

I also appreciate the gritty details - Satou and Yamizaki trying to write their hentai game during a heat wave, where you can see the sweat and humidity and can almost smell the unwashed-guys-who-eat-a-lot-of-junk-food aroma {wry grin}. There's a short debate between them about how 2D (and fictional) girls are much better than real ones - that's Yamizaki's line, anyway, but it only lasts until he gets a call from a young woman he knows, at which point he's out the door...

This volume also contains one of the more dramatic subplots in the story: Satou, increasingly desperate to avoid confrontation - and responsibility - finds an online group that he thinks is planning a little island getaway, and breaks from his usual antisocial behavior to go along. Turns out it's a suicide-pact group... Yeah. This series features suicide attempts quite often, usually in a way that shows what a bad idea it would be; here, it turns out to be depressed-and-miserable-Satou who finds a way to nudge everyone else into changing their minds, though he does it somewhat accidentally. And of course the dark humor doesn't stop; while all this is going on, Yamizaki and Misaki have found out where Satou went, and are frantic to rescue him - while bickering with each other over who's better for him...

[I selected the anime after seeing its TV Tropes page; lots of entertaining info, but do beware of spoilers.]

I plan to leave this on the book-swap shelf in the Tyngsboro MA post office lobby; hope the finder enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

*** Released for the 2018 Allergic to A release challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2018 TV Series release challenge. ***