Yakumo-san wa Ezuke ga Shitai (2020)

[八雲さんは餌づけがしたい]

Volume 10

Author/Artist: Satomi U
Publisher: Young Gangan Comics

Synopsis:
Yamato-kun and Yakumo-san spend New Year's together.

Story/Characters:
We open on a simple chapter that has Yamato-kun invite Yakumo-san onto the roof of the apartment while he's cleaning the gutters. I was amused that Yakumo-san had never been on the roof of a building before. We follow that with a New Year's episode with the two of them going on a shrine visit. Then we have a Yakumo-centric chapter where she's used up the last of the savings she'd been living on since her husband died, complete with flashbacks to her married life, fleshing out her backstory more. Yakumo-san goes to work at a bento shop, which influences how she prepares food. I like her relationship with her boss. This leads us into the next big issue in the story, which is Yamato-kun's plans to move into the dorms when the new school year starts. Now, while there have been ship tease moments, the relationship between Yamato-kun and Yakumo-san has been portrayed as almost entirely platonic, but with the prospect of them going their separate ways, it's not treated as a simple matter of two neighbors not getting to spend time together. This is highlighted when Sakura comes by to help Yamato-kun pack. It's always nice seeing her interact with Yakumo-san. After that, we have Rui ask Yamato-kun out on a date, which he agrees to. As always, compare and contrast Yamato-kun's relationship with Rui to his relationship with Yakumo-san. I can appreciate Rui's tenacity.

Art:
The art is consistent with what we've seen thus far. As always, happy Yakumo-san is adorable, but it's not all happy times this time around.

Other:
We have a bonus chapter with Yakumo-san taking inspiration for her latest dish from the snow piled up outside. We also get an extra one-page illustration that came from the winning user request from a DMM campaign. It's cute.

Conclusion:
It would seem that our slice-of-life times are coming to an end. It remains to be seen if we'll be moving toward some sort of endgame or if we'll just be entering a new arc of the story under the new paradigm. If you're invested in the characters, and I can't imagine how you wouldn't be if you've gone this far, there's a lot of good stuff here and well worth a read.

Rating:
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