Another week rolls around and I am still behind! (Though not any further behind than I was last week, so there’s that!)
We’re on to chapters 15 and 16 this week!
Finished chapter 14 after posting. So good! I had actually forgotten about Wakamatsu, so that was really fun. Him and Seo are so funny together. 
I had some questions about a few pages, but I will have to post those later, since I didn’t actually type anything up yet, just noted the page number.
You are not the only one behind 
I am hoping to read chapter 15 this week, but I don’t think I’ll make it to 16 this week still. Oh well, excited to start ch 15 either way!
I was delayed a bit due to my grad school thesis, but I will catch up tonight!
Wow! Super surprised by two things in particular!
Story wise: I did not realize how early in the story Seo and Wakamatsu’s dynamic appeared. I could have sworn it started much later!
As for my general thoughts: I think I’m laughing out loud more than when I read it in English. Now I don’t get every joke, but I think that since I read slower in Japanese, I spend more time building up to the joke, so the punchline lands even harder. For example: The bit with Nozaki reacting to Wakamatsu comparing Seo to Lorelai had me in stitches.
Now, I’m really really really looking forward to chapter 16, which I’ll probably read tonight if I get the chance, Because my favorite couple is going to show up!
This week I will be a little early instead of a little late …
We’re up to chapter 17 and 18 now!
Finished chapter 17 aka ....
the 相合傘 chapter! Yuzuki stole the show in all of two panels.
I feel like I can actually hear her laugh from the anime when I read those panels. 
I love her so much and I ship her with Chiyo so hard! * Waiting patiently for Chiyo to realize she’s gay and fall in love with Yuzuki! *
Also, I started using my monolingual dictionary as my first reference when I need to look words up, and realized that in some cases it is actually way easier to figure out something that’s confusing me using the monolingual dictionary … I’m excited to continue with that, hoping it will help me with retaining vocab!
I got delayed for a few days, but finally started chapter 16 today 
I hope to finish it by tomorrow and catch up at least with 17/18 during easter break.
Finished chapter 18! I love Miyako-sensei and her tanuki problems. Also, I feel like this week is the first time that we’ve seen signs that Nozaki might like Chiyo (romantically). Particularly on the very last page of chapter 18 …
I can’t believe we will be finishing the volume next week already! Hmm, I guess I should put up some polls.
I still have a backlog of questions I’ve been meaning to ask … might end up giving up on most/some of those. Here’s an easy one to cross off the list, though!
chapter 13, page 35
Can anyone explain panels two and three? I have to assume there’s a cultural reference that I just don’t get.
Oops, just accidentally deleted my list of backlogged questions, so I guess that decides that. 
So this page title is 想像力 (power of imagination). Since Nozaki-kun knows that the singer is Yuzuki, he starts associating her twisted personality to each song that she is singing in the panels 2 and 3.
ちいさい秋みつけた is classic japanese song from 1955, with a melancholic tone about the changing of the season. So here Nozaki imagine Yuzuki not being melancholic at all but happily harvesting fall mushrooms instead.
ドナドナ is a Yiddish song from 1941, that also has a japanese version. The song is about a calf that is being led to slaughter. Here, Nozaki imagines Yuzuki happily sending the calf to slaughter in exchange for money.
Now discussing chapters 19 and 20!
Also, if you haven’t voted in the polls for volume 3 yet, please do so!
Thanks so much! This sent me down a rabbit hole (looking for versions of the songs that could be sung by Yuzuki) and
tada 小さい秋見つけた! (It doesn’t actually start 'til 1:20.)
and ドナドナ
Horikashi are the best, I can’t wait for more development for them
Just finished chapter 17, I enjoyed the plot overall and in particular the ending where Nozaki wants Chiyo to cover for the magazine cover, and the fact that he went with what Yuzuki did in the end (and how she has no idea what’s going on, lol)
Also just started chapter 18, and I have to say I love this panel:
I thought I was already in chapter 19 but I still have a bit more to go then expected - gotta catch up with you guys!
A little late, but finally done with Chapter 19! I love the part where Nozaki puts everyone together for his reference drawing, but also the part where the random girl asks Mikoshiba to pose like a guy who got rejected by his lover, lol. And also, the extra panel… is this going to become BL? Hahahaha
Now only one more chapter to go and I’ll be done with volume 2! These volumes are more text-heavy then I expected, so I’m happy to be almost done with 2 of them
General future spoilers since I don’t know when exactly it becomes relevant since the anime didn’t quite get that far and I didn’t get that far when I started reading in English years ago either: Nozaki has a younger sibling who will be introduced within the next couple of volumes I believe, who was originally going to be his younger sister and would be “paired up” with Mikorin the way Nozaki & Chiyo, Hori & Kashima, and Yudzuki & Waka are… until sensei remembered Mikorin isn’t very good with girls and made the younger Nozaki a guy instead, but still kept him paired with Mikorin and kept all the romantic undertones that were originally going to be there had they been m/f like the others. So the “official”/intended couple for Mikorin is m/m.
