Suzuka, Vol. 3

Rating: 4 / 5
Volume 3 of Suzuka starts with main character Yamato in a funk. As expected, Suzuka rejected him when he confessed his love to her. However, who else should come to the rescue but that drinking lascivious ganguro, Saotome Yuuka. Turns out she was more plain-looking during her high school days and was shot down by a guy she liked. Yuuka dated other guys to try to forget him but couldn’t. Her goal is to someday make him want her.

That revelation brings Yamato out of his funk and onto signing up for the track team in hopes Suzuka will accept him. His friend Hattori-kun is hesitant, and Suzuka is irritated, thinking he would slow down the team. But the bespectacled sophomore Souichi Yamamoto is impressed with Yamato’s old 100 meter dash record to want him on the team, which is what Yamato does.

But being on the team is not a picnic. As Suzuka says, “the whole team practices day after day trying to beat their recordby an extra second… or an extra centimeter. Four sets of 50 meter intervals, at five dashes each,…okay, I’d collapse after the first one. And he’s so pooped Hattori and Honoka-chan have to carry him.

Meet Hashiba Miki, the striking girl with long red hair on the cover. She’s friendly enough, as puts things in perspective for him, that Suzuka is such a perfectionist, she sets high goals for herself. But she and Hattori-kun do not get along, as they get into an argument during lunch. And poor Honoka-chan, who still carries a torch for Yamato, not only decides to join the track team as the team manager to be closer to Yamato, but provides Suzuka Vol. 3’s full frontal moment, which is heaven for the eyes. Hey, it can’t be Yuuka all the time, right? And little did Honoka know being team manager meant providing drinks for the athletes, first-aid, and laundry duty.

Being on the track team does earn him points with his teammates, especially when he makes it to the Tokyo Regionals, but Suzuka continues to be bad-tempered with him. However, Miyamoto touches a nerve when he tells her that Yamato reminds him of Kazuki Tsuda. Nevertheless, Yamato decides to stick it out, even when Suzuka tells him she hates him. Clearly she’s being the “rhymes with witch” here, and there’s an obvious reason that’ll be apparent. Poor Yamato is not the only one being tortured by her behaviour–so too is the reader. Hattori though, has a smart-aleck perspective on it when he says that at least Suzuka has strong feelings for Yamato.

Inspiring moments by Yuuka, Honoka, and of course Yamato make what might be an otherwise drab moment of standard plot devices worthwhile.