Life is complex – humans are complex systems and relationships are complex systems made up of other complex systems interacting. Things are always complicated in Tamifull’s Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 10 ( 付き合ってあげてもいいかな)

Now that Saeko and Miwa are in relationships with other women, the problems that they had in communication became apparent. They’ve matured, too and are attempting to address those issues in a way that they weren’t able to previously. And, really, if there is a single theme in this volume, it would be “communication.” A secondary theme is “sometimes you and you’re partners’ sexual needs…just don’t match up.”

Miwa and Tamaki have a much-needed conversation about Tamaki’s apparent dislike (Miwa thinks) of sex. It’s not that!, Tamaki explains. Meanwhile Yuria is having a bad patch and Saeko is trying to find ways to be supportive, but not always hitting the mark. And, just in case, we’re thinking that Tamifull is beating on the girls remosrselessly, we learn that Mikkun has a girlfriend…and his sex friend Rika is not okay with that.

Just to complicate things a little more, it’s getting to be time for the band’s offsite training session and now it’s their turn to be planning it. Still lost in the hows and whats of building a relationship, Miwa is distracted and Saeko is absent…she’s taken on an internship at a company.

While all of this feels solid and real…I’m ready for something to lighten up. It’s been 10 volumes and neither Saeko nor Miwa have been able to just relax all that much. Just as not every short story needs a twist ending, not every relationship needs to be constantly stressful to give a narrative the tension it needs to keep driving forward.

After the tension of attraction, I’m really ready for Miwa and Tamaki to just unbend a little around each other and Saeko and Yuria to be on the same wavelength for more than a panel or two at a time. Thankfully, as the volume comes to a close, it looks like that’s what we might be heading towards. I hope so, because like listening to that coworker with the shitty spouse, I’m feeling a little worn out here. In my review of Volume 9, I said, “I keep wondering how far we’re going to follow these two, but I’m not bored yet..” Well, Volume 10 pushed me a bit – I’d like to see at least one them make something work positively. The best part of the series is watching how Miwa and Saeko have, really, become good friends to one another.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Yuri – 8
Service – 4 There are some adult scenes, nothing explicit.

Overall – 8

Volume 11 just hit JP shelves this week, and it’s theme is “lack of mutual understanding”….so I guess I’ll get a chance to see what has become of everyone soon enough. ^_^;