Title: Shortcake Cake Vol. 8
Author: suu Morishita
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Digital
Pages: 168
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance
Publication Date: May 5, 2020
The Story
Volume eight of Shortcake Cake takes us right into Riku and Ten’s relationship since agreeing to become a couple! The first half of the volume is all about exploring their relationship which includes Ten taking Riku to her hometown as well as what they end up doing for New Year’s. Throughout it all, Ten wants to know more about the guy that she’s deeply in love with but Riku is keeping things to himself. I made a remark on Volume 7’s review about Rei being sporadically used and not seem like a character that fits into this series or is even necessary to have at all.
Well, this volume made me slater my foot in hot sauce in preparation to have it stuck in my mouth because the second half of the volume brings Rei into the equation in a way that really impacts Riku and reveals a pretty decent-sized chunk of his backstory… although not much is really explained. Still, there is a certain revelation about Rei and Riku that puts things into motion but since this revelation is kind of a touchy subject with Riku, it makes you wonder if Ten’s prodding into his past is going to end up having negative repercussions?
The story aspect of the series is getting interesting as we are taking a bit of a detour from the straight and narrow tale of two young people in love. As the confession arc did its job, it is only right to begin exploring the backstory of one of the main characters and that’s exactly what is happening here.
Characters
Obviously, the big spotlight has been on Riku and (by proxy) Rei for the majority of this volume. Ten did get some development when she gave us a tour of her hometown. We even got to meet her mom and her eccentric brother. Riku got to know Ten just a little bit more because of that so it was a nice, refreshing way to get our newly-formed couple more familiar with each other. Of course, this led to Ten wanting to know more about Riku which set up the back half of the volume.
Ten enlisted Chiaki’s help as they contacted Rei’s personal guardian/bodyguard/companion/shadow/whatever you want to refer to him as. Shingen requested that Chiaki accompany Ten when he offered to divulge information about Riku. It was then that we learned about the connection between Riku and Rei and what Shingen was really after when he invited the two of them to learn more about Riku’s past. I know that’s kind of vague but it is a major story point so I don’t really want to spoil it for you all. I will say that it does open the door to a lot of things but it doesn’t look like the road ahead is going to be paved smoothly.
Final Thoughts
This was a really interesting volume of Shortcake Cake. I really enjoyed Ten and Riku’s time together as a couple. There were a lot of cute moments and a few heated ones… if you get my drift… eh heh. Still, you could definitely tell that there is genuine love between the two of them but we’re not done yet as that’s all just on the surface. Riku is definitely keeping something to himself but he’s not exactly going out of his way to hide it. He flat out told Ten that he was cold-hearted and that there was a deeper side to him. To me, it’s almost if Riku was calling for help but didn’t exactly want to say it. Plus, his decision to withhold that information from Ten shows that he probably wants to open up but just isn’t ready to do so.
Still, there is going to be a point, either by Riku’s will or by Ten’s forceful hand that the information is going to come out. It’s pretty obvious with the direction they are going in that it will be the latter over the former and that could lead to a break-up between Riku and Ten which would open the door for Chiaki to step through. That is… if this series is going to continue with the whole love triangle aspect. Maybe they won’t and this will just be a typical romance series that focuses on one couple? Maybe Ten x Riku is the end game all along and we’re just going through the different phases of that relationship? It’s still a bit too early to tell… even at eight volumes in. I guess only suu Morishita knows the answers!
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media
