#akira tonoume

[animehouse-moe]

The Invisible Man and His Soon-To-Be Wife Volume 2: Equal Opportunity

You want a cute story about an adult romance that incorporates a disability in really thoughtful and detailed fashion? Look no further than this story. The second volume proved it had struck gold with this idea, and this second volume in turn proves that Iwatobineko can in fact make lightning strike the same place twice. Bringing all the same energy and extending upon it, they offer readers a wonderful display of romance with just the tiniest hint of mystery on the side. Plenty to love, and plenty to talk about!

First off: hot Tonoume, we love to see it. Every opportunity I get, I love to shout out the hot guy moments since they're always so few and far between with titles. And lest those sparing moments be tasteful or at the very least creative. The idea of Tonoume being an invisible man, and having only the notion of outlines and clothing to go off of, it makes the experience and understanding just that much more tantalizing. So in short, Tonoume is hot and I love to see it.

Following that up, why don't we talk about Shizuku? I love her character so much, and I love the fact that they show her independence consistently throughout the volume all the while being able to tackle the unique challenges and bumps in the road that comprises her life. Simple things like not being sure if she put a swimsuit on just right, for example.

Even cooler than that though is how they feature Shizuku's cane. It's not an "all or nothing" feature, but is used to convey just how comfortable Shizuku is with a specific setting or environment. It's subtle and very thoughtful in how it's used, and I love the inclusion of it, I really do. This is the first time we've really explored that far outside of the 'norm' in Shizuku's life like this, so the inclusion of it is really important and impactful in regards to how readers understand Shizuku's experience. Also, this super fun panel of Shizuku explaining her reasoning for wearing sunglasses.

Similarly, this little detail from Tonoume. Not only does it show readers how much he cares about Shizuku, it's just the simplest piece of thoughtfulness for him to display in the sequence. Similarly, it really drives home the creativity of Iwatobineko's sense of negative space and how it can reflect on Shizuku's experiences. How the things she interacts with or can experience the most have the most detail, and as her understanding and awareness changes you see stuff like this branch as well.

Speaking of how much he cares! This detail! This date night! Tonoume chose something that Shizuku could properly experience! Sure, she might not be able to see it, but she can certainly feel the pottery under her hands, and I feel like that's just another super important and heartwarming detail to drive home how considerate and hopelessly in love Tonoume is with Shizuku. Also a bit of a steamy moment between lovers, which is fun to see.

Let's just keep the train rolling, shall we? Grumbly and curt, but oftentimes sincere and well meaning Daichi has a boyfriend! Not only that but he's the exact opposite of Daichi and it's so incredibly cute. They have their whole backstory in this manga and it's so fun and works as a great way to tie together some ideas to help expose Shizuku and Tonoume to things they're not used to.

And I mean, the list could really go on and on. With things like how Tonoume's invisibility is continually used to offset Shizuku's blindness so that Shizuku can explore the oddities and idiosyncrasies of Tonoume's life. Or how Shizuku's blindness and Tonoume's invisibility lead her into a slight bit of jealousy when the detective meets with a client. Or about how our cast of characters is steadily expanding at a comfortable rate, meaning we get to see Shizuku's mother. Or so on and so forth ad infinitum.

I really could go on forever about this series, but I think it's pretty easy to summarize. It continues to wonderfully tackle blindness, not as a disability, but as one of the countless types of unique people that stipple this world and bring it color, all the while providing a tantalizingly warm and happy adult romance alongside an excitable and incredibly fun cast.... with incredibly cute, creative, and expressive art too boot.

Phew, bit of a mouthful, but I think I made my point.