Book Review: I Want to End This Love Game vol. 2

The first step to winning the Love Game is saying “I love you.” So how do you lose? By admitting you’re in love!

Let the games begin! Since childhood, Yukiya Asagi and Miku Sakura have played the Love Game, where they try to fluster each other with a simple “I love you.” But after falling in love for real and refusing to admit it, neither of them can afford to lose this battle!

With the burning sensation of love in their chests growing hotter, Miku and Yukiya push the boundaries of the Love Game! Between a scandalous hand-holding competition and an after-school coffee date, it’s like they’re aiming for the world record in a love speedrun!

I Want to End This Love Game vol. 2 by Yuki Domoto will be released on May 14, 2024. VIZ Media provided an early galley for review.

I enjoyed the previous volume of this series, so I was ready to get more of the story this time.

This collection includes episodes 8 through 15 plus some shorter bonus material that fills in between episodes from the first volume. The pacing here starts out slower with our couple realizing that anything is fair play in this game only to then find themselves completely paralyzed by the possibilities. This does mirror in some ways one of the aspects that occur in with the young and inexperienced.

This volume gets a bit more meta too when it starts referring to the Shojo Manga that Yukiya borrowed from his younger sister and was referencing for dating ideas. This started in the last volume but it continues here. Miku also checks them out and at one point states "we are already tons of shojo-manga stuff - why aren't things progressing?". And this might have been a bit of my challenge with this volume. The story has a solid premise (the "love game") but the characters seemed a bit stuck in a rut. There needs to be growth and movement.

Of course, the last few episodes set up the cliffhanger for the volume. Where will it go from here? Time to wait for volume 3.