Krystallina: I said in my part of the Cheeky Brat volume 1 review that at the end of the volume, “Yuki and Naruse are just inches away from being an official couple.” Volume 2 reduced that to centimeters. I think they’re down to millimeters now.
And if that’s frustrating for readers, well, Naruse would certainly agree with you!
The Kanto tournament is approaching, and the team is motivated to beat opponents. But before they can take down Misuzu or anyone else, some of the guys need to take down their exams first. And Naruse’s goal is to take down anyone who gets too close to Yuki. At the top of the list is Misuzu’s Hakamada, as Naruse doesn’t know how he and Yuki know each other.
Author Miyuki mentions in one of her side columns Naruse “really let loose this volume”. He certainly manages to encapsulate all the major shoujo hero personalities: possessive, perverted, and passionate. He repeatedly presses Yuki to just acknowledge her feelings and go out with him, and he’s not about to let anyone else monopolize her because he likes her so much. If you found him too pushy before, well, Naruse is bound to keep becoming more brazen as the manga continues.
Yuki, however, is still digging her heels in. Is she making progress? Yes, but even when Naruse is downtrodden enough for Yuki to give into her desires, well, Naruse tends to both light the flame inside and douse it at the same time. Like giving him her phone number only for him to call late at night and again ask her to go out with him. Two steps forward, one step back sort of thing.
Meanwhile, Hakamada is also in an awkward spot with him both crushing on Yuki and still having some resentment about Naruse’s commitment to basketball. My favorite scene is his confession, which is definitely not what you expect!
Cheeky Brat does add a new element to the story with Yuki recruiting a new manager to eventually take over her position. It’s easy to forget that, unlike most high school manga, the protagonist is in her last year of high school while their love interest is younger. This means that the dynamic we’ve seen here is bound to change dramatically for at least one (in-universe) year.
Anyway, I think a lot of readers will relate to Himiko, a shy, somewhat clumsy girl with no friends who wants to change herself. But considering the main members of the boys’ basketball team still mostly operates as a unit, I hope this means Miyuki is going to work on the extended cast more. Hakamada’s the only other character who has been getting real attention in this series.
Cheeky Brat does give some explanations as to why Yuki and Naruse aren’t a couple yet, but at this point, it’s splitting hairs, particularly when Naruse is already going for some hanky-panky. Even with Himiko’s introduction or additional basketball scenes, Cheeky Brat hasn’t done much to attract new audiences or even change my mind from this being just an okay series, but current fans will delight in Naruse’s even-more-Naruse-y actions even without getting him officially gaining the boyfriend title.
Krystallina’s rating: 3 out of 5
Justin: Throughout Cheeky Brat the general beats have been Yuki having to put up with Naruse’s attitude and aloof nature and her slowly coming around to it due to his looks and whenever he decides to actually act cool for a change. The classic bad boy attitude sweeps up the seemingly sweet girl, or in this case, the strong-willed girl. In volume 3, it sure escalates! Naruse’s even more aggressive in trying to get Yuki’s attention – moments include forcing a kiss on her in the club room and trying to hold her hand in public despite her not wanting to.
There’s never a good time for this to happen – especially when she’s still sorting out how she really feels about him – but especially not now, as the Kanto basketball tournament is here, Ryohoku has gotten better since their practice game against Misuzu, and the results in the tournament so far prove it. But lo and behold, in order to advance in the tourney, they have to beat Misuzu and Hakadama again. Will a fired up Yuki and an actually focused Naruse be enough this time around?
The answer, spoiler alert, is still no.
Volume 3 of Cheeky Brat may or may not be the breaking point for many readers, unless the aggressive bad boy seduces girl by almost any means necessary is something you eat up with ease. You can maybe make the case that with these two knowing each other for so long now and the lack of them still declaring themselves in a relationship, it makes sense Naruse is starting to become impatient. In addition, the way the characters and scenes are drawn still evoke a more comedic tone rather than anything super serious. But man, I can’t imagine a young girl in high school would be accepting of most of Naruse’s suggestive comments, nor his repeated forcing of getting Yuki to do stuff for him (like giving him her number for example, so not just the kissing!). You can definitely see where this series has aged, though if the act of aggression is what you’re here for, this volume has it in spades!
The manga still continues highlighting the Hakadama/Naruse rivalry, which still revolves around basketball, but now continues expanding how Yuki gets involved once Naruse accidentally finds out she’s been seeing Hakadama without his knowledge, and she doesn’t really want to explain she sought him out just because she needed to shoot a basketball. The results so far still favor Hakadama on the court, and Yuki really doesn’t like him like that, but from Naruse’s perspective Hakadama just seems to be an eyesore and a deterrent to him getting together with Yuki. It’s just his immaturity (doesn’t want a boy to see Yuki so much) gets in his way, along with his manners, but we already knew he has awful manners.
While there’s still much to go involving these three, we do finally get a slight break with the introduction of a new character! And funny enough, it certainly gets Yuki to feel some way about it since timid Himiko ends up becoming a manager of the basketball team – after a number of candidates realized the actual work it entails. While yes, their reasoning for becoming a manager might’ve been shallow (to get to know the boys), Yuki spelling out all their duties only makes it wild she ever joined the team just so she could know Kido even better and eventually go out with him. So when she learns she actually motivated someone to try and change their life, it definitely resonated with her.
I’m curious to see how Himiko will grow from her timid self to maybe someone who can eventually take over the basketball team, but for now we’ll be continuing to follow Yuki’s obsession with everything basketball. Maybe though there will be a point where the Naruse-Yuki pairing will actually go somewhere meaningfully, but it just seems like it’ll still be her hiding that she likes him, and him still forcefully trying to get his way, which doesn’t seem compatible nor good in a relationship!
Justin’s rating: 3 out of 5