"The Delinquent Housewife" Volume 3 is more broad fun (Manga Review)

The Delinquent Housewife Volume 3 (Vertical Comics) continues the broadly delivered fun and romance of the first two volumes. If you liked the series so far, then volume 3 is sure to please.

Summary with some spoilers: Our story picks up with Dai's classmate, Yoshino, having just kissed and confessed to him. Ultimately, Dai and Yoshino go on a date, but Dai keeps bumping into his sister-in-law, Komugi. Dai is crushing hard on Komugi, Yoshino is aware of Dai's feelings, and Dai is just trying to keep those two apart. Dai decides to turn down Yoshino. Ultimately, Yoshino decides to take matters into her own hands regardless of Dai's feelings and pulls Komugi into a plan to expose Komugi's gang-past and force Dai away from Komugi and into Yoshino's arms.

We finally get to see Komugi face her feelings of anger and sadness over her husband being away so long. It's good to see that side of her. But we also begin to get the sense that she may be thinking about Dai a little too much. Again, if this were a more serious series, then I would have trouble with characters' feelings and motivations. But as it is meant to be a very loose comedy, it works because the two leads (Dai and Komugi) are imminently likable. I continue to hope though that they won't get together and instead we will get a bittersweet ending. We'll see.

This is a broad romantic-comedy series. There is nothing subtle about it. It's fast paced, roughly written, but endearing all the same. The art has a very loose, fluid quality. It isn't very detailed, but that works for the overall tone of the series.

Because nuance is not its forte, I have to keep reminding myself that character emotions and motivations shouldn't be dug into too much. Yoshino in particular would bother me in any other series. She's so openly aggressive and her plot to expose Komugi is so intense as to be completely unrealistic. However, realism isn't the point of this series. There are also many over the top situations that Dai and Komugi find themselves in just for the sake of creating romantic tension. Things like this would never happen in the real world, but in the spirit of this series, are completely par for the course here and set up the emotional reactions and humor we expect.

Again, if you like big comedy wrapped in a unique shoujo/seinen hybrid with a romantic plot line, then this is definitely your series. Volume 3 is just as strong as the first two, so if you liked the series so far, you'll like this volume. I'm giving it a 7/10 as it isn't anything profound, but is quite enjoyable for what it is.

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