One Week Friends Volume Two advances the story of Yuuki and Kaori's friendship, as well as introduces a new character into the mix.
One Week Friends Volume Two
Written by: Matcha Hazuki
Publisher: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
English Publisher: Yen Press
Release Date: April 10, 2018
At the beginning of Volume Two, we see that Yuuki is upset with Shougo because their classmates recognize that Shougo is friends with Kaori, but they never did that with him. Yuuki stews over this and vents his frustrations to Kaori on a Friday. Kaori wants to talk about Shougo, since he's Yuuki's friend, but Yuuki misconstrues this as her being interested in him... and this leads to a fight between Yuuki and Kaori. Kaori leaves school, claiming she's not feeling well. As she walks around town, it begins pouring down rain and someone knocks into her and causes the items in her bag to spill out. In her haste to gather up her things, she accidentally leaves her diary behind.
Kaori doesn't feel well when she gets home and doesn't notice that the sign she put on her door to remind her of her diary and Yuuki falls off and slides under her bed. She catches a cold and doesn't return to school until Tuesday. And when she does return, she has no memory of Yuuki or the diary, but does remember Shougo. At this point in the series, this is the most tension that has appeared in the story. Fortunately for Yuuki, he's able to patch things up with Kaori with help from Shougo. Honestly, it makes sense that at some point, there would have to be a fight between these two. When I watched the anime adaptation as a simulcast years ago, I was surprised by how early in the series this appeared, because I had assumed that it would be an event that happened closer to the end. But it actually makes sense to have this happen at this point, and I'm glad that it was written that way.
In the previous volume of One Week Friends, basically every chapter started with normal manga page layouts and then switched to a few pages of the four-panel layouts. In the first chapter, the section leading up to the fight was done in this way, but after Yuuki and Kaori have their fight, the rest of this story arc is told with just the normal manga page layouts. Considering how serious this section of the story is, using the four-panel layouts just wouldn't have worked.
With the next story in Volume Two, I noticed the first difference between the manga and the anime adaptation. At this point in the anime, a new character was introduced before Yuuki goes to Kaori's house to receive some math tutoring before a makeup test. However, in the original manga source material, the new character (who I will be talking about more a little later in this review) isn't introduced until after the math tutoring. This tutoring session is important, though, because when Yuuki is leaving, Kaori's mother slips him a note and asks him to meet her at a park on Sunday.
While it seems odd for Kaori's mother to ask Yuuki to see her without Kaori's knowledge, it turns out that she wants to explain Kaori's memory issue to him with what information she has. This provides some important backstory to both Yuuki and the reader, as well as provides a potential clue as to what causes Kaori to forget about her friends every Monday. This section of the manga utilizes the combination of normal manga page layouts and the four-panel layouts leading up to Kaori's mother's explanation about what happened to Kaori when she was younger. But once Kaori's mother's story gets underway, the manga stays with the normal manga page layouts.
The final story in the volume introduces a girl named Saki Yamagishi, who has wanted to be friends with Kaori for a while. One day, Saki corners Kaori when she's by herself on the roof. It turns out that Saki has regular memory issues, so she isn't the least bit concerned about Kaori's issue because she thinks it's just like what she experiences. And right near the end of the volume, which takes place on a Monday, Kaori does something unexpected... and it might show that perhaps Kaori is starting to make some progression with her strange memory issue.
There are also two side stories included in this volume, and one of them is stuck in the middle of the volume. I'm going to be honest and say I really didn't understand why the side story that was stuck in the middle of the volume was included, because it really doesn't add anything in the long run to the overall story. In fact, it kind of feels like a rehash of what has led up to where the story is at the point it appears in the volume. At the least the other story, which is at the end, shows the reader how Kaori got the key to be able to go up on the roof to eat her lunch, since the door to the roof is normally locked. At least this felt like it added something, unlike the other bonus story.
After the main story was established in One Week Friends Volume One, this volume takes the story and progresses it. The volume also expands the world of the series a little bit, between the characters going to Kaori's house and meeting her mother, Yuuki learning more about Kaori's memory issue, and the introduction of Saki. For the story that's been set up in this series, I thought that its progression felt realistic.
Outside of Saki's introduction being later in the manga than in the anime adaptation, the anime pretty much followed Volume Two the way it was written. At this point, the anime's first six episodes covered the first two volumes of the manga, which was the halfway point of the anime. Since the manga has seven volumes, it looks like the manga will go beyond what was depicted in the anime adaptation. I'm looking forward to reading more of One Week Friends to see how it compares to the anime.
If you've read the first volume of One Week Friends and enjoyed it, but haven't continued past it yet, I would recommend giving Volume Two a try.
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