Run Away With Me, Girl Volume 2 Review

The first volume of Run Away With Me, Girl introduced us to Maki and Midori, two girls who dated in high school and then lost touch before reuniting ten years later. Their lives have changed substantially since they’ve been apart, with Midori now being engaged and pregnant, but it’s not all happiness. Now we rejoin them in Volume 2, to find out what’s next in this heartfelt story. 

Having realised there’s romantic tension between them, at the end of Volume 1 Midori declares that she and Maki should stop seeing each other once more. Maki is understandably devastated by this as Midori also broke their relationship off in high school, but it’s not long before Midori shows up in front of her again. 

The more time Midori spends with Maki, the more she grows uncomfortable around partner Tazune, realising slowly but surely that their relationship is destructive and dangerous. But she has no idea how to approach Tazune without him flying off the handle, nor does she want to fully confide in Maki about the situation. Thankfully, Maki’s friend Komari invites her and Midori to visit her seaside home for a few days which gives Midori the perfect opportunity to leave her cares behind for a short while. 

Maki, meanwhile, is happy to spend more time with Midori, but she’s also looking forward to spending some time away from her family and co-workers. No matter what Maki does, her mother is encouraging her to settle down and get married as a way to lead a ‘normal life’, and her co-workers also find it stranger how little interest Maki shows in finding a partner. Of course, this is all because our heroine dreams of nothing but running off with Midori, but she’s not about to admit that to anyone either. 

Thankfully, Komari is someone who knows all about Maki’s troubles and has lent an ear whenever Maki needed to vent about her feelings for Midori. So at least around Komari, the girls won’t have to hide their relationship or sexuality. This trip gives them a chance to breathe and be themselves while wondering how to be true to themselves and reach the happy ending they each envision. 

Volume 2 of Run Away With Me, Girl is just as captivating as its initial outing. Not only do we finally get to meet Komari, whom we heard plenty about in Volume 1, but we get to spend time developing her story alongside Midori and Maki. She’s not just a character who’s there to support our main cast and help them find their way, but she has problems of her own that our heroines can help her figure out. It slots together neatly in a way I wasn’t expecting at first since the trip came out of nowhere. By the end, the girls are ready to head home with renewed determination in their hearts

Another thing I was happy about in this volume is the fact that we spent less time with Tazune. I do worry that the author is trying to make us sympathetic to his situation and how he’s treated Midori, due to the way some scenes are framed this time around, but on the whole, we don’t spend enough time with his character to know for sure. I hope that we don’t end up in the situation where the author has Midori out to be the bad guy in all this because it’s clearly an abusive relationship and that would not be the right message to send readers. But we’ll have to wait and see how things wrap up next time. 

Run Away With Me, Girl Volume 2 comes to the West thanks to Kodansha and continues to be translated by Kevin Steinbach with lettering by Jennifer Skarupa. The translation reads well with no issues to note and there are several translation notes at the back of the volume. Colour pages are also once again included at the end of the book rather than the beginning as you might expect. 

Volume 3 of the series has just been released in English and is being marketed as the final instalment, so it seems Kodansha are replicating the Japanese paperbacks rather than the four-volume e-books version that also exists. 

Overall Run Away With Me, Girl Volume 2 offers plenty of development for our heroines while also giving Komari a chance to stand in the spotlight. If you enjoyed Volume 1 then you’ll certainly want to continue following the story of these two women as they try to figure out what they want out of life and who’ll stand beside them on that journey.