Tags: Comedy, Romance, Harem, Slice of Life, School Life

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

After what seems like an age, I’m finally reviewing another romcom light novel series. This week saw the release of The Girl I Saved on the Train Volume 2 and given volume 1 left us with a clear rejection of Torigoe and a better picture of his relationship with Hina, I was really hoping for some good romantic development in this volume, however, this wasn’t really the case.

Volume 2 continues the love triangle status-quo as the novel settles on looking towards the future, whether that be with Hina’s acting potential, the school festival or Ryou’s potential in figuring out the meaning of love. The latter of which shows a genuine spark for the series as Ryou tries to grow as a person trying to figure out what love means to him and whether either Hina or Torigoe make him feel this way. Unfortunately, this really doesn’t save just how dense and annoying the MC can be. I swear Ryou is denser than a black hole and could give even characters like Katerina a run for their money. Although comparing Ryou to her might be doing her a disservice given that her density is shown in a much more pleasing light.

Not all is bad with the novel, however, as Hina and Torigoe continue to be the best part of the series and one of my main reasons to keep reading. Whilst the two of them may be rivals in love and take any opportunity to get closer to Ryou, this doesn’t usually get in the way of their friendship, thus avoiding a lot of the teenage drama I tend to hate in these types of series. Moreover, both of these characters came out of their shells a whole lot more in this volume, with Torigoe managing to make more friends and Hina deciding to take centre stage due to her acting lessons.

As for the character’s romantic developments, this left quite a lot to be desired. Now that the second volume has come to a close, I still feel as though Torigoe is a better match for Ryou than Hina. The way they act with one another, their hobbies and more natural conversations make their potential relationship with one another seem realistic. All is not lost for Ryou and Hina, however, with Hina always trying her best to catch his attention even going so far as to kiss him, though this doesn’t sway him remotely. Furthermore, the end of the volume, for the first time truly showed me that the two of them may end up being good together. The end of the volume address’ the issue of Ryou’s constant thinking that Hina is a protagonist, Hina does well in dissuading Ryou from this thinking allowing him to see her back to the perspective of a childhood friend and potential lover.

Perhaps another reason for the lack of romantic development is the introduction of Minami Shinohara, former three-day girlfriend of Ryou and childhood friend of Torigoe. I’m not quite sure what the author was thinking when adding this character into the fray. Is she just going to be a friend-type character or is she also a potential future love interest? She doesn’t add much to the volume other than cause a silly misunderstanding between Hina and Ryou, which was solved in less than a chapter. To make matter worse, the last chapter of the volume introduced us to Ryou’s other childhood friend as a cliffhanger, so I think we’re heading for more Hina x Ryou misunderstanding next volume.

Overall, whilst it may seem like I dislike the series given the amount of criticism I levelled on it, I still enjoy the series, given its faults, it still comes over as endearing and makes me excited to see where this dumpster fire will crash. As we move into the third volume, I can only hope Ryou’s density improves and that Hina continues her assault to win his heart.