because of the need to wrap up the series swiftly in this second and final volume of the series, the flow here is choppy, but there’s still plenty of enjoyment in its escapist, action-movie take on romance.
In the first chapter, we meet Ran’s set up fiancee Rinko, who was picked by his parents because it’s so crucial to the family service that he have the ideal wife. My first thought was, why can’t any individual have distinguishable names? I was already getting confused between Ran and Riko, and now Riko’s rival’s name differs from hers by only one letter.
Rinko is sexier, a lot more outgoing (and open with her emotions and wants), and higher class (although she sure doesn’t act like it). She has it all and wants Ran for his money, considering that she’s also highly materialistic — at one point, they get rid of her by throwing her Birkin bag out a window so she’ll chase it. The clash is quite amusing, continuing in that exaggerated fashion. For example, when Riko takes Ran off privately to escape Rinko’s clutches, Rinko comes through the door with a chainsaw. The excess is funny, but trying to combine it with the message that RIko prefers a gift worth nothing if it has Ran’s love behind it — that’s a hard balance and not ultimately successful.
Riko’s acting like a split personality, wanting Ran, then pushing him away because she’s not sure of her own feelings. That kind of uncertainty can be realistic, if shown over time, but the way she swings back and forth in this chapter, so undoubtedly that other characters comment on it, just seems rushed. Still, there are pieces of adrenaline-fueled fun, once the bombs start exploding and Rinko steals a motorcycle.
Then comes a Christmas story. Ran’s throwing a service party at his snowy country house in northern Europe, and Riko comes along to decorate the tree. After various emotion-packed moments, there’s an crucial revelation — only to be followed by amnesia, so it’s like pushing the erase button. That allows the author to give the readers the moment they want without affecting the flow of the story. I suspect at this point, the end of the series wasn’t known, considering that given how few chapters remain, it would have made sense not to hit reset and a lot more realistically grow their relationship.
In both this chapter and the next, Riko’s class differences and feelings of not fitting in (since she’s not “elite”) are played up, whether at the holiday or on a cruise ship where Ran’s old pal and rival Chiaki shows up to try once again to steal Riko away. In the first book, he was chasing her. now it’s slightly reversed, with her figuring out she wants him even in the face of his service and family responsibilities that goal to keep them apart.
Strangely, she begins to see what she uses him (he’s undoubtedly a good catch; she, less so), although we’ve moved from the appeal of her special abilities (superstrength, exaggerated athleticism) to her virtue being her everyday normalness. Which contradicts the first book, which emphasizes how she’s not normal even though she wants to be, but oh, well, gotta get the romance going quick as we step towards the end.
The exaggerated bits, as when Ran jumps a jetski onto a luxury liner, are still enjoyable, and that’s what we get in the last two chapters. Ran gets kidnapped by various assassins, and after his daddy refuses to rescue him, Riko leads the charge. This gets back to the action motion picture feel of the first, with lots of shootouts and dramatic proclamations about who’s going to kill whom. I didn’t exactly get the ending, because I think it had some cultural implications I didn’t understand. It was certainly unexpected, if a bit unexplained. Wrapping up this book, there’s also a bonus story, the debut manga by Shigeyoshi Takagi, “Warm to the Touch”, about a kid who can’t stand to be touched except by his biology teacher.
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