Don’t get me wrong, this is a fun series I just find my attention wandering a lot when I’m trying to read a volume and I’ve concluded that perhaps this one just isn’t for me!

There are two very specific issues that drag this otherwise lovely title down: Mari and the BDSM angle. The latter is a problem only in that it's not very good representation of the subculture, playing it for laughs when it would be perfectly okay to have it be something none of the other characters understand but shown in a more honest light. The former is a stickier problem. Mari is so remarkably unpleasant that she ruins any scene she's present for. She's clearly meant to be funny, but instead she's abrasive and loud, and given that manga is a silent medium, that's quite something. Without these two caveats, the book is more lowkey, lighthearted fun. But be aware of the problems going in, because they really nearly ruin everything.

Cute continuation about this group of High School boys. I loved that the author threw in a chapter about the girls as well. Can’t wait to see more.

This was a cute volume, but the 1st one was definitely better. As a slice of life manga, it was quirky and cute in enough ways to make it enjoyable. I was happy to see some relationship growth, but in the end, this volume had what felt like a lot of filler, which made it fall flat.

I enjoyed Rainbow Days v1 and was excited to continue the series. I was happy to see a little bit of relationship growth in our characters, but for the most part this volume felt like a bunch of filler. Now I love a shoujo or slice of life about not much of nothing as much as the next person (ie Horimiya or Sasaki and Miyano) but to have a volume like that so early in the series when much more content could have been explored leaves me a bit nervous for the future.

Thanks to #NetGalley & #vizmedia for an e-copy #RainbowDaysVol2 by Minami Mizuno to read and review.

This was a cute volume. I liked that we got to see the characters at a school festival, those are always fun plot points. Looking forward to the next volume!

Rainbow Days is a lovely and fun series ! It's the kind of series I would have LIVED for when I was younger, but sadly right now I'm just not connecting to it as much as I would have. It gives me great vibes, I love the school and the characters and the plot of "kinda no plot just vibes". A series to be in the lookout for.

*ARC provided by NetGalley in return for an honest review*

Let me start off by saying, it was good... but I really wanted more after the first volume. I felt like the first volume left off with a lot of great questions, and none of them were answered. On the opposite end, we did get Rainbow Girls which was fun. Overall, I'm holdin out for volume three, but I fear my expectations are dropping faster than Ohio's temperatures.

Another solid entry for the adventures for the four boys and their quest for love and relationships. The other three boys outside the protagonist get more time to shine this around.

I think Rainbow Days will be of interest to older teenage manga readers. It's a pretty fun slice of life high school setting, which stands out from that crowd due to being centered around an all-boy friend group.

Unfortunately, from my position as a school librarian, I would not include this in my collection. This is largely due to the presence of a character who is a self-identified 'sadist', and who frequently references this. While this is handled in a joking manner, and surprisingly not actually that sexually explicit, I have to err on the side of caution when dealing with this sort of content.

Loved this one just as much as the first! Another cute read with super fun characters! It’s a cute and easy read that always has something interesting going on and we keep learning more and more about the characters

Rainbow Days Volume Two continues to focus on its four male protagonists, although the female characters who were introduced in the first volume also get some focus on them as well.

Rainbow Days Volume Two
Written by: Minami Mizuno
Publisher: Shueisha Inc.
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: February 7, 2023

In my review for Volume One, I commented that it appeared that Rainbow Days has 15 volumes and wondered how the premise and execution of this series could go for so long. It turns out that, in Volume Two, only two chapters of the main manga series are included. According to the author’s note, the three other sections of this manga are actually side stories published for spin-off series. Now knowing this, my guess is that future volumes of the series will likely be a mix of regular manga chapters and side stories, which would explain how Mizuno managed to get 15 volumes for Rainbow Days.

The first section of Volume Two is the fourth chapter of the main manga series. In my review for Volume One, I wondered why Keiichi, the sadist of the four boys, was included in this series since there didn’t seem to be much to him as a character. While the beginning of the fourth chapter establishes that they’re starting a new school year, and that Natsuki volunteers to be part of a committee to get closer to Anna, this chapter actually focuses on giving Keiichi some much needed character development. As part of that development, we are introduced to a new character named Taizo, someone he knows from the basketball team. I appreciated seeing Keiichi being focused on in this chapter, because he finally becomes a character in his own right instead of simply providing humor for the other characters to respond to.

The next section is a side story titled, “Rainbow Weather.” This story provides a little more development for Natsuki, and the backstory from middle school that’s revealed here seems to help explain his timid nature. After seeing this flashback of his and knowing what bullying he endured as part of the tennis team back then, becoming more of a timid character would be a realistic reaction for him to have. But it was rewarding to see Natsuki, with the help of friends, getting the upper hand on the upperclassman who had picked on him so much in middle school.

This is followed by the fifth chapter of the main Rainbow Days series, which is set in the summer during the characters’ school festival. The main plot here sees Natsuki texting Anna to ask her to spend a day with him at the festival, but his plans are thwarted when he’s forced to participate in a cross-dressing contest at the same time he asked Anna to spend time with him. We see Anna reacting coldly to Natsuki when he has to break this off, but they both find themselves wondering if they handled the situation appropriately. The resolution comes through some unexpected help from Keiichi… in large part, due to Keiichi not realizing that Anna didn’t know the reason why Natsuki had to bail. This story also focuses on Anna’s tsundere friend, Mari. By the end of this volume, I still thought that Mari came off as rather annoying. It’s obvious that Mari likes Anna romantically, though she would never admit it. Unfortunately, Mari’s interest in Anna is usually played for laughs, and I don’t find this to be funny.

This is followed by another side story titled, “Rainbow Girls.” This story focuses on the three main girls in the series: Anna, Mari, and Tsuyoshi’s girlfriend, Yukirin. The three girls have a chance encounter at a cake shop, and they try to have a conversation. Through this side story, Yukirin finally gets some much needed character development. While we saw her in Volume One, we really didn’t get to know much about her or her personality. And this story definitely brings out Yukirin’s personality. That’s the main positive of this side story, though. Unfortunately, since Mari plays a more central role here, we have to deal with a lot more of her tsundere personality, and she comes across as being more obnoxious than usual. At this point, I think it’s safe to say that Mari is my least favorite character in the series.

The final section is a side story titled, “I Can Do It All By Myself.” It focuses on a character named Junpei Tazaki, who is in college and has moved out on his own. This was an interesting story to follow Junpei as he adjusts to college life, but as far as I can tell, this character and his story have no connection to Rainbow Days. If this was an extra side story thrown in to add to the volume’s page count, I wish that there was something in this volume to explain that. It’s not a bad story, but I was confused right a first because I didn’t recognize this character and I kept wondering who he was.

After reading Volume Two of Rainbow Days, I can say that I’m glad that the chapters from the main series provided a little more character development for two of the main characters because this starts adding something that was missing from the series. I also appreciated seeing Yukirin getting some focus on her in one of the side stories. It’s becoming clear that I’m not really in the target audience for Rainbow Days, but I can see that overall, the series works for the audience that it was intended for. The only exception I have for this statement is Mari. Yes, the series needs an “antagonist” of some kind, but I find myself wishing that Mari was dialed back a little. There are times when her character comes across as being “over the top” and obnoxious.

If you read and enjoyed Rainbow Days Volume One, then you’ll likely also enjoy seeing what happens to the characters in Volume Two.

Rainbow Days continues to be a chill, breezy read. The friends' adventures are mundane, like sports, festivals, or girls. One of the things I like about this series is how it plays around a bit with the genre conventions. The boys aren't just one-joke architypes. They bounce off each other like actual friends might. It was also nice to see a chapter where it was just the ladies of the series hanging out and slowly becoming friends. It's not racing to break new ground, but I see the little steps it's making to try to stand out.

1.5 stars rounded down.

Thanks NetGalley and Viz Media for this arc, but I really didn't like it. It was better than the first volume by a little bit (hence the half star lol), but the guy who forced himself on the one girl is still teasing her and calling her cute when he offends her, and the guy obsessed with bdsm gets asked out by a girl, but he wants to be upfront with her and asks if she likes pain and bdsm, she gets weirded out (they're in HIGH SCHOOL so no wonder) calls him a freak and runs off, then he gets all sad and his friends try to cheer him up to get him back to being a sadist as they thought he was becoming a masochist.... just weird. This was bad and I absolutely will not be reading any more of this series, or by this author.

I had forgotten that I had an adverse reaction to the first volume, due to the character who seems determined to force himself on a character who had identified herself to be in love with a woman. It's too bad, I generally enjoyed the rest of the characters and their arcs.