Kimi ni todoke volume 3 continues the story of Sawako "Sadako" Kuronuma as she makes new friends and develops closer relations between those she already has. The first part has Sawako hanging out with her three friends, Chizuru Yoshida, Ayane Yano and Ryu Sanada, at Ryu's place when they force her to invite Shota Kazehaya, who willingly comes. After that begins a multi-chapter story about the school's sports festival. Being completely inept at sports, Sawako is placed, along with much of the class, on the soccer team; however, she doesn't even know how to play. After refusing Ayane's and Chizuru's help, Shota comes along and begins teaching her. Finally in the last section, which continues the sports festival storyline, Sawako makes a new “friend,” Ume "Kurumi" Kurumizawa who pretends to befriend her in order to try and get Shota away from Sawako.
Overview:
By volume 3 Karuho Shina has really started to move away from the "Sadako" element as a means to drive the story. While it is still used, it has become more of a background thing that is used either in gags or as comments by side characters. Instead, most of the stories talk about Sawako's insecurity, her lack of social skills and her general spooky appearance. Sawako continues developing her friendship with Ayane, Chizuru and Ryu. With Shota, her development is hampered with the introduction of a rival, Ume. Ume sees the way Shota acts around Sawako and attempts to subtly maneuver Sawako away from him.
This volume of Kimi ni todoke generally has a lot fewer outright comedic moments than the earlier volumes. While Shima still has plenty of gags, especially in chapter 9 where the sports festival storyline begins, they are a lot more interspersed. Instead, most of the humor is remarks by the characters to the situations throughout much of the manga. These remarks are distinguished from normal dialogue by their smaller, more scrunched lettering. The actual storyline is focused more on relationships, especially romantic relationships.
While Shina's artwork has improved since volume 1, this volume tends to have Sawako in her chibi form for much of the manga along with her friends, especially Ayane, to a lesser degree. While this is good for comedic moments, this volume appears to overuse that artform and thus begins to wear the convention somewhat thin; however, that is still not enough to detract from the manga's overall quality and appeal.
Kimi ni todoke volume 3 continues to be a good manga to read. While I believe Shina overuses the chibi art form with Sadako, this isn't so major of a drawback that I'd stop reading it.
ComicsOnline gives Kimi ni todoke volume 3 3 out of 5 new friends.
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