Behind the Scenes!! Vol. 2by Sheena McNeilReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Publisher
Credits Grade: 6 Goda wows others with his attention to detail. Ranmaru unintentionally finds an angle that no one else did that helps a situation. Maasa struggles to find a boyfriend, but chooses her zombies and gore over boys, no question! Soh gets help from the Art Squad, and Ranmaru learns she's as big a pessimist as he is!The story opens with Ranmaru helping Goda set up an otaku room for a production. It's wonderfully insightful regarding Goda and his appreciation for detail and respect of work in other fields that also does well with detail. He schools some other characters, and it's wonderful. Unfortunately, Ranmaru might as well of not been there as he contributed nothing -- we arguably see Goda just as well through the eyes of the background characters. I found Ranmaru very hard to identify with in the first volume. Here, we don't have any time to get to know him better. Even when an event tries to focus on him, it's in a roundabout way. He contributed, which made a difference on a temporary outcome, but he was definitely not a major player. I still liked learning about his paper-crafted animals and hope we get more insights like that. Maasa instantly stood out to me in the first volume, so I'm thrilled to get to know her better here! The way she fits into the group reminds me of Abby from NCIS. I was glad to see that there was one guy interested in her despite her losing sight of the group date when her passion for all-things-zombie took a cue from the conversation, but what I liked more was Maasa confessing that she refuses to suppress her passion despite how much she'd like a boyfriend. Good for her. (Perhaps she should try finding someone with a similar or related passion rather than trying the "typical" method of meeting a "typical" guy.) Ranmaru plays a background character here, too -- probably as the excuse for us seeing this date. Having Soh be like Ranmaru (they're cousins) from the pessimism angle provides humor, but also gives them both a bit of insight -- which allows for some personal development. The volume wraps with Izumi helping Ranmaru get some things for finals, but it ends up being more insightful about Izumi. I have no gauge on Ranmaru. I'm glad to get to know other characters better, but there's no main character to latch onto. We may be seeing some things somewhat through his eyes, but he's so detached that none of it sticks or even seems to matter. The biggest part of this volume was Maasa prioritizing her passion. I'm disappointed that the main character is underutilized and often more of a background character. This series is off to a slow start. Volume one has some humor from Ranmaru getting tossed in the deep end, but now things have become unfocused. I'm giving it a six instead of a five because Goda's and Maasa's scenes are that good. Written: September 2, 2016
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