Sunday, October 24, 2021

REVIEW: Play It Cool, Guys (manga, vol. 2) by Kokone Nata, translated by Amanda Haley

Play It Cool, Guys is a slice-of-life comedy series. I got this volume via interlibrary loan.

Review:

It's another volume of the daily lives of four clumsy/awkward good-looking guys. Shun worries about not being able to play with his teammates if he can't pass his exams, and Hayate finds himself agreeing to be Shun's tutor during his first day of work at Shun's older sister's cafe. Souma worries that his older brother is overworking himself, and both Takayuki and Hayate accidentally misjudge people (Shun and Souma, respectively) based on their appearance. The volume ends with the introduction of a fifth "clumsy-cool" guy.

As in the first volume, not much really happened, but the plot isn't the point of this series. It's the kind of thing you read when you need a dose of no-stress quality wholesomeness.

My favorite thing about this series is the way the guys admire and/or support each other. They might occasionally misjudge each other, but there isn't an ounce of meanness in any of the characters and the things they do. At worst, Hayate accidentally made a girl think he'd rejected her, but even that was handled mildly.

I continue to like Hayate the most out of the bunch, although all of the guys had good moments: Shun rushing to help Takayuki's niece, Souma trying to do something nice for his older brother, Takayuki noticing the ways both Souma and Hayate put in a lot of effort, etc. (Okay, so maybe Takayuki is the most boring of all the guys, but I still love the way Hayate looks up to him.)

The worst thing about this series is that each volume is incredibly short. I really wish this were being released in omnibus editions.

Extras:

A page of translation notes.

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