Another installment of a strange, silly but likeable tale of awkward friendships. Although I could stand for Kodaka to be a little less central, giving more room to relationships between the other characters, I enjoy the development of tenuous and unnoticed friendships between these very awkward teenagers. They're very much larger than life, of course, and sometimes the urge to slap them is strong when they're being particularly unreasonable and brattish, but then that's precisely why this lot are the friendless losers seeking refuse in the club.

A long-awaited development comes to the fore in this book, which I found genuinely moving despite myself, and I hope the next can live up to it.

On a more general note, I do feel the series could do with some trimming down. It's obviously got a hard juggling act to do between slapstick comedy and (slightly) more serious story, and some characters are more suited to the former. I feel like Maria (10-year-old nun) could be dispensed with; although she sometimes showcases Kodaka's kind heart, she often seems like a distraction to me.

Similarly, Yukimura was very promising to begin with, a wimpish-seeming boy looking to Kodaka as a role model, and that seemed like a relationship that could be very interesting to explore, but he's rapidly turned into nothing but minor comic relief, a role not really necessary considering the rest of the cast - it feels like a wasted opportunity. ( )