Title: Mint Chocolate Vol. 7
Author: Mami Orikasa
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 176
Genre: Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy
Publication Date: February 21, 2023
The Story
Volume seven of Mint Chocolate does a lot of character development while wrapping itself around the classic school trip to Okinawa.
We start things off with Andou helping Nanami and Kyouhei patch things up between each other. After that, it’s off to Okinawa but not before they are rudely interrupted on the street by the class president. He walks right between them on purpose for a reason that we’ll learn later on in the volume. Once they are in Okinawa, Nanami wants to sneak over to Kyouhei’s room when she runs into the president again. He says some pretty disparaging things that act like a dagger to her heart. When she tells Kyouhei about it, he just brushes it off because he’s the type who doesn’t care about what others think about him.
This also plays into Andou’s backstory. We learn a little bit about Andou but not the full truth… we get to that a bit later but it does give us a nice picture of how Andou and Kyouhei became friends. As the trip continues, Andou ends up meeting a girl named Kawai from his old school. Kawai and Nanami hit it off as friends and this is where Kawai opens up and tells Nanami the truth about Andou’s past.
The trip ends and we go right into the School Sports Festival. The president still has a bone to pick with Kyouhei and pressures him into doing the relay race. The preparations have begun for Kyouhei to participate!
Characters
The biggest star of this volume was Andou. As a kid, he was kind of gloomy and was made fun of a lot. We see an example of Andou in art class. None of the other kids want anything to do with him so he ends up sitting next to Kyouhei. When Andou tells him that the other kids will make fun of him for associating with him, Kyouhei says that he doesn’t care about that stuff. This also is an indirect development for Kyouhei as we see that he’s had that attitude his entire life.
This is also where Kyouhei and Andou become friends but the feel-good moment turns a bit dark when Kawai explains something that happened to Andou at their old school. I won’t spoil it but I will say that it answers the questions surrounding Andou’s unrequited love as well as it being something that caused him to transfer from his old school. Nanami is a trooper here for sticking with Andou even after learning the unsettling truth about him. That’s just the kind of person she is.
The president, Sakuma, is simply just a jerk. For an unknown reason, he has an intense hatred for Kyouhei and he seems to be taking it out on Nanami. The motives are not yet unknown but it’s pretty obvious that he’s insecure over things about himself. Even after a coming-to-Jesus confrontation, he didn’t really seem to change much. I’m sure we’ll get some more answers as time goes on.
Lastly, we have Kawai. She used to be Andou’s classmate at their old school and seems pretty friendly. When she befriends Nanami, they hit it off pretty quickly. She obviously still cares about Andou (as a friend) and that’s why she decided to tell Nanami the truth about him. Not sure how much we’re going to see of her again since she does go to a different school but, so far, she seems pretty harmless. Plus they all made a new friend.
Final Word
After the last volume’s staleness, things picked up once again. Introducing an antagonist like Sakuma was a good change of pace but between this story and Love and Heart which I’m also reviewing, it makes you wonder why all presidents, either class or student council, are suddenly being depicted as evil. I wonder if this is a new trend starting or if it’s just a coincidence.
Either way, learning about Andou breathed some new life into his character… even though his goals could be questionable after everything was said and done. Still, he’s just trying to move on with his life while wearing a smile on his face. He even admitted that even though he boils with anger sometimes, he hides it behind a smile (to which Kyouhei noted how scary that is!). He’s definitely a more interesting character and something like this was needed to pull him out of the background and make him more prominent.
Despite the cliché school trip aside, things turned out a lot different. There was no need for the typical “get closer to your love interest” angle because Nanami and Kyouhei are already together. Instead, we use this to establish Sakuma as the antagonist and stir up a bit of drama… drama that actually doesn’t get resolved at the end of the trip! Oftentimes, issues are resolved by the end of the trip arc, and the cast moves on to something else. Not this time as the effects spill over and continue. This will freshen things up and keeps thing interesting for a little while. After how dull the last volume was, this was the shot in the arm this series needed to get back on track!
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Just wish it wasn’t at, yet, another school sports day. Japan really needs to mix things up and try some new things, I swear!
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This item was purchased for review.
