While not momentous or game-changing, Yamada-kun celebrates it’s 200th chapter with an installment that shows the heart, humor, and characterization that makes it so remarkably endearing.
This chapter is a great showcase of Yamada-kun’s strengths. From its believable teenage couple, relatable character-driven humor, adeptly used ensemble cast, and its ability to intertwine plot and character development with a strong comedic premise, there’s just a whole lot to love and laugh at here.
The chapter could have gone further and stranger with it’s premise, but the execution here felt more retrained and safe. While there are many amusing moments, comedy is rooted in surprised expectations, and the lack of that here meant that there were few genuinely funny moments to be found.
Episodic chapters and short arcs like this are a nice way to bring a few neglected characters back into the ongoing story, and one hopes that Yoshikawa has been doing this as of late to help build them up for bigger roles to play in the next long arc.
This was a lightly amusing chapter, mostly for the cultural misunderstandings making for some fun unintentional humor. It’s purpose was ostensibly to reintroduce Odagiri into the story and develop the plot with Takuma’s witches further, and on that front, it’s effective, though not much more.
This was a funny and cute epilogue to a well done arc, adding a strongly written new character to the permanent roster, as well as giving us some downtime with the club that we haven’t gotten in a while.
While this arc didn’t explore the subject as thoroughly as, say, A Silent Voice, this was still a perfectly believable story, with a great message behind it, and was overall satisfying end to the Hikaru/Hotaru bullying subplot.
