Yakumo-san wa Ezuke ga Shitai (2019)

[八雲さんは餌づけがしたい]

Volume 7

Author/Artist: Satomi U
Publisher: Square Enix

Synopsis:
To work out her frustrations, Yakumo-san decides to make a hundred potstickers for a single meal.

Story/Characters:
There are no significant developments this volume, but what do you expect from a slice-of-life series? I particularly liked the sentou (public bath) chapter, mostly because it reminds me of a chapter from Ranma 1/2 that I liked. The chapter with Yuri is also nice because it builds on her friendship with Yakumo-san. If you're on Team Rui, she gets tossed a bone with the bunkasai chapter. The last chapter in the volume deals with some setbacks on the baseball front. It's one thing I like about Japanese sports stories is that they tend to focus more on dealing with failure rather than winning (and I say this as someone who doesn't like sports and is ambivalent to sports fiction). It provides more fertile ground for character development.

Art:
The art pretty well maintains the standard. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the frequency of fanservice shots are increasing. Maybe it's just that this volume was front-loaded with bath scenes in almost every chapter, to say nothing of the header illustrations. It never feels particularly gratuitous, though. Speaking of fanservice, Rui's class is doing a maid cafe for the bunkasai, so if you like the idea of her and Ritsuko in maid outfits, you can thank Satomi U. And then there's the omake...

Other:
There's a bonus comic where Rui ropes Yakumo-san into helping her with some reference material for one of her authors. I have to wonder if Japanese editors really go to these sorts of lengths.

Conclusion:
This is a decent continuation of the story. There's nothing to shake things up, which is fine if you're satisfied with the status quo. It's worth a read at least.

Rating:
Read It