The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl Volume 2 Review
Himuro is a descendant of a snow spirit, meaning he has ice powers, often triggered by his emotions. But aside from that, he’s your typical Japanese office worker, with one massive crush on his co-worker Fuyutsuki. She seems to be an aloof, super-cool girl but secretly has feelings for him too. As the pair grow closer however, other supernatural co-workers in the same office come to Himuro for help, with their own relationship issues! Can he help them out and somehow progress the relationship with his one true love too?
Volume 2 of the office romcom is another thin book that comes with ten new chapters plus three bonus stories, so it’s packed with material showing the couple growing closer and closer together. For the most part, the story and one-off chapters play out in a very similar way to Volume 1: Himuro has a problem (often his snow-spirit clashing with the everyday Japanese office life) then Fuyutsuki comes up with an ‘out of the box’ idea to help make his life better, leading to him falling deeper for her, and she in turn realising another cute aspect of him that she likes. There is some development in their budding romance, but it’s minor, due to the slow-burn nature of the series. The comedy keeps the pace going, but if you read the first volume and found yourself wanting the next steps to happen sooner rather than later for the pair, then you may find this volume a bit unsatisfying in places. The pair are still very cute together and will (eventually) make for a cute couple, but your tolerance for ‘slow burn’ will be tested here. whether you’re a fan of the trope or not.
The volume doesn’t just focus on the frosty pair however, we get introduced to two new characters of supernatural origin, with their human counterpoints that not only make the office environment feel more alive, but also give more characters for Himuro and Fuyutsuki to interact with. First we have Komori, a female descendant of a fox spirit, and her male companion Saejima; the pair have much more rash personalities than the leads we’ve come to know so far which is a welcome introduction. Komori’s powers of having tails and ears appear when she’s relaxed, often lead her to feel embarrassed but she’s not afraid to call out other people in the office as well. Then there’s Saejima who also can be blunt, but has a soft heart which shows when he tries to collect special figurines for Komori so she can own the whole set. The pair bounce off each other nicely, creating a new dynamic and pairing for audiences to latch onto. Admittedly, I did not find Komori’s ‘fox powers’ to be that exciting, considering the author has been so creative with Himuro’s ice powers in how they take shape with his various emotions, and how he’s physically affected by the weather in Japan. Then having Komori just having animal parts popping in and out of existence is rather flat and boring in comparison.
The other co-worker we meet is Katori, who is apparently a descendant of a phoenix (the ‘apparently’ is due to the manga choosing to put a question mark after ‘descendant’ in the manga – hinting that he may be the same phoenix rather than progeny). He and his female co-worker get the smallest amount of time in this book, but I was the most interested in his potential as a character. His quirk so far seems to be that he has mood swings, going from despair (worrying that he’s upset his co-worker) to suddenly being ‘revived’ after a pep talk with Himuro. But the power of a phoenix is also linked to fire, the opposite of Himuro’s ice powers, so it could be good if we get to see more sides of his unique abilities in the future. Katori is also Himuro’s childhood friend, which could lead to some interesting backstories too. Are all the descendants of magical spirits close to one another? Do they all know each other and work in ‘spirit friendly’ environments? So there’s lots to potentially unpack in future chapters.
The manga’s art continues to be stunning; I can’t get over how detailed Fuyutsuki’s hair is, and how beautiful she is when the manga zooms onto her face; you can see why Himuro fell head over heels for her. Julie Goniwich also continues to translate this series, although I was disappointed to see no translation notes, especially as one chapter mentions ‘Golden Week’ and I didn’t know what that was, so had to look it up. Also, it’s clear that the theme park that the gang visit in the last chapter makes many references to Disneyland in Tokyo (the stress of planning in advance, character meet-and-greets, etc) but would have been nice to get confirmation.
The romance between The Ice Guy and The Cool Girl continues to be an easy breezy, enjoyable read. The slow burn of the romance may be grating for some, but the comedy and introductions of the new characters keep the audience engaged enough for this to be an enjoyable volume.
Read a free preview of the volume on the publisher’s website here.
Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).
