by Eleanor Walker, Okazu Staff Writer

Volume 2 of There’s No Freaking Way I’ll Be Your Lover! Unless… opens with Mai announcing that Renako is her fiancée at a fancy dinner party, much to Renako’s surprise and horror. Despite this, after that prologue, Mai is almost a side character in most of this volume, as we get to know another member of the friend group/harem. This volume focuses almost entirely on Koto Satsuki, who is featured on the cover alongside Renako, and is called Satsuki-san at this point in the story. In Volume 1 we find out that Satsuki has a crush on Renako, but also that her relationship with Mai is more complicated than it first appears. Satsuki describes their relationship as “toxic friends” and also says that “The number one reason why I stay with her (Mai) is that it gives me the opportunity to see her in distress.” Hopefully, this volume will dive into this in more detail.

We also know that after Mai assaults Renako in volume 1, she confesses everything she’s done to Satsuki in an attempt to soothe her guilt. Satsuki is less than sympathetic, and we still don’t really understand her motivations or why she has a crush on Renako. Is it jealousy or does she simply want what Mai has? It turns out to be a little more complicated than that, she wants to date Renako as a way to get revenge on Mai. In classic harem protagonist style, Renako is manipulated into dating Satsuki for 2 weeks. Never mind the fact she’s still technically dating Mai.

Satsuki though, has a secret of her own. She has an after school job at a fancy doughnut shop which Renako and her sister end up discovering, and it turns out there’s more to Satsuki-san than meets the eye. Satsuki invites Renako back to her house after work, and we find that she’s an only child, raised by a single mother and works to try and support herself and her mother and the perfect facade is just that, a facade. She clearly still doesn’t trust Renako very much, but the fact she’s brought a friend home for the first time since starting high school shows that there’s maybe some cracks appearing in that defensive wall.

Harems of course live and die on the strength of their characters, and I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying this series. Renako is understandably utterly bewildered by this whole situation she finds herself in, and the way things are going so far I could genuinely see this ending up in a poly situation. And if it does, I respect that choice, because why have one girlfriend when you can have many? As long as everyone involved is happy and consenting, bring it on. I’m also looking forward to Volume 3 because Ajisai is on the cover and I hope this means we see more of her and her relationship with Renako as I enjoyed her section of volume 1.

Ratings: 

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 8 The side characters are still more interesting than Mai.
Service – 6
Yuri – 7
Harem – 8

Overall – 7.5 I found this volume more interesting than the first one because Satsuki is a genuinely interesting character and I still have no idea what her true motives are.