In Volume 1 of Noboru Segawa’s series about a rap battle club at an all girl’s school, we focused solely on painfully shy Satsuki. In Catcher in the Rhyme, Volume 2 (キャッチャー・イン・ザ・ライム), we spend time with her fellow club members.  

Rich girl Anzu and the girl who got her into trouble, Ren were enemies, until they were friends We meet Ren’s childhood friends, and learn her troubled background  and the meaning rap brought into her life. 

We spend a lot of time with Utsuki, our transgender club member, and help her learn to be better at being herself, even as she meets a former schoolmate whom she had a crush on. He turns out to be a really nice guy and we are able to forgive the fact that he has what seems to be a lovely girlfriend. We get to see him be very encouraging of Utsuki.  Utsuki is allowed to be transgender and female freely in the context of the story, without either of those being awkward, although she has a couple of truly awkward scenes, In the end we watch her walk away with her pride intact.

And finally, we learn about Kaede and her history, and help her walk away from the family that is her club – and welcome her back when she’s free to do so.

Throughout the volume, we learn about bringing rap into normal everyday conversation – how the rhyme and rhythm of words exist with or without structure. Rap is poetry and poetry can be rap. From common phrases to Hyakunin Isshu verses – it’s all rap.

This was a lovely manga, much finer than I expected. Segawa-sensei does an exceptional job of uncovering the inner lives of young women without fetishizing them, always focused on the words; the feelings, the meter and sound and how rap allows them to express themselves when they have no idea what to say or how to say it.

Ratings:

Art – 6 
Story – 8  
Characters – 9 
Service – 2 
Yuri – 0
LGBTQ – 8

Overall – 8