The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten (Manga) Volume 2 Review

At the start of the year, Square Enix Manga began releasing the manga adaptation of The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten. Having proved itself a charming first volume, will it continue in the same vein with its second volume? Let’s find out!

Ever since protagonist Amane came down with a cold and was saved from his plight by Mahiru, the two have become something akin to friends. As his neighbour, Mahiru has realised that Amane is hopeless at caring for himself and has taken it upon herself to share her meals with him. So far that’s simply in the form of giving him a container of food, but here at the start of Volume 2, she’s turned up at his door with a suggestion that could work out much better for both of them.

Instead of giving Amane small portions of her meals, Mahiru suggests that Amane instead pay half the food costs and she’ll come over to his apartment to cook for them both. Our protagonist of course readily accepts this kind offer, but little does he know how much closer the pair will become now they’re sitting down for dinner together every single day…

While they may be growing closer in private, Mahiru is still the ‘Angel’ at school so Amane is desperately trying to keep their friendship a secret from his classmates. However, Mahiru’s birthday is approaching and Amane wants to buy her a gift to say thank you for everything she’s done for him. Having never been friends with a teenage girl before, he has no idea what to pick so he turns to his only friend Itsuki and his girlfriend Chitose for advice.

Unfortunately for him, Chitose has a keen eye and has noticed that Amane looks notably more healthy recently and between that and the gift she’s figured out there must be a lady in his life. Before he can worry too much about Chitose, he’s faced with a surprise visit from his mother while Mahiru is asleep in his bedroom! Before he knows it, Amane’s wish to keep his friendship with Mahiru might be about to go up in smoke.

While this instalment of The Angel Next Door might sound dramatic, its atmosphere is similar to that of the first volume. There’s a great deal of trust between Amane and Mahiru, which is shown through how comfortable they are around one another. They’ll cook, study and generally hang out in Amane’s apartment after school in a way that can only be described as quite cosy. Where other series would come across as quite boring with content like this, the artwork and pacing here help to keep you engaged and turning the pages.

I appreciated the introduction of Amane’s mother since so far we’ve not met any parental figures and these are both teenagers living on their own. It has been hinted that Mahiru has a bad relationship with her parents, but Amane moved away from home for entirely different reasons. His parents are overbearing but only in the sense that they love him dearly and just want to know he’s okay. His relationship with his mother is more like what you’d typically expect of a character at this age than whatever is between Mahiru and her family.

On the whole, Volume 2 does a good job of setting up future storylines while being careful not to move away from what made it so charming initially. Wan Shibata’s art continues to be expressive and depicts the daily lives of our two leads well. The pacing of this remains a better way to experience the anime and even compared to the light novels, since we’re getting to follow it in much smaller chunks.

The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten Volume 2 comes to the West thanks to Square Enix Manga and continues to be translated by Nova Skipper with lettering by Kaitlyn Wiley. The book reads well and comes with colour pages and a bonus short story from light novel author Saekisan as extras.

Volume 3 is currently scheduled for an English release in January, at which point we’ll only be a single volume behind Japan, so I suspect we’ll have a bigger gap before that comes West.

Overall, The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten’s manga moves the story along while keeping the relaxed slice-of-life antics that proved to be charming in its first entry. If you liked Volume 1 there’s no reason not to carry on.

Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).

A free preview can be read on the publisher’s website here.