On this Guest Review Wednesday (the 8th such Wednesday in a row!) on Okazu, we welcome back Journaliste/Chroniqueur Laurent Lignon with the second volume of  the French translation of the second volume of Plongée dans la nuit, released in stores by Taifu Comics.)

“I think I’m jealous of their relationship”

It is the second school year for Tsukiko and Aya, whose relationship has taken a further step with Aya’s declaration in the previous volume. Yet, both girls seems hesitant to confess their feelings to each other.

Once again, the volume alternates between different points of view. In doing so, it fleshes out some of the secondary characters. The first chapter is dedicated to Hanano, who hides the teenage love she feels towards one of her teachers behind a long series of useless flirts with other boys. By comparing the emptiness she feels in her relationships with how she sees Tsukiko and Aya acting as non-officially declared couple, she realizes how deep her misunderstanding of love is.

Chapters 8 and 9 deals with the insecurity of Maihara (a girl seen in volume 1), who loves acting but fears being on stage, and her starting a rocky relationship with Shinonome, a girl so good at acting that she resents being the focus of attention when playing. Both girls acts as mirror images of Tsukiko and Aya respectively, with similar characters but not afraid to say what they think to each other.

Aya is the focus of two more chapters, and we see how her relationship with Tsukiko is evolving, as well as how her own state of mind. Aya still has trouble understanding Tsukiko, and wants to get closer to her (as seen in the superb splash page of Chapter 9, when she uses the image a mountain path to compare the expectation of her closeness to Tsukiko with the reality of it), but she starts to understand the concept of personal space.

This is, perhaps, the most interesting feature of the volume, as we discover how Aya defines her own personal space, compares it to Tsukiko’s own and understand her own limitations : the pool in which she spent most of her free time is then used as a metaphor of her teenage years (something with clear boundaries and a sense of safety) and the ocean to which she takes a trip at the end of the volume is representing a metaphor of adult life (vast, endless, unknown and insecure). Tsukiko dislikes the ocean not for what it is, but for what she feels it represents of her future. This is further enhanced by a scene in the pool in which the water surface is drawn as a window, both acting as a barrier between the two girls yet being the window through which both of them can watch endlessly the one she loves the most.

Tsukiko is the focus of a single chapter, but an important one that shows that she truly understands that what she feels for Aya could (and probably will, in her mind,) end when both girls will leave high school to go to different colleges. As she expects the relationship to end, she doesn’t know what to do with such information, or how she should react to it.

Ratings: 

ART – 9 : nothing more to add to what I’ve said about the first volume : this is just beautiful to behold, and full of great detailed panels

STORY – 8 : pretty much the poster for a well written Class S story

CHARACTERS – 8 : finally some characters starts to exist apart of the two girls

SERVICE – 0 : and Goumoto even plays with the expectations of a part of the fan base with some great gags (the rubber duck, the “bath” scene, …)

YURI – 7 : while you won’t find kisses and anguished declarations of love, this is still the story of a blooming relationship. As summed up by this wonderful thought from Aya : “Being in the water and beautiful things are what I like best.”

OVERALL – 8 : Volume 3 will mark the end of the story, and I’m impatient to see which path it will take. For such an unusual couple, I’m expecting the unexpected.