Wash It All Away Volumes 3 and 4 Review

The 2026 Winter anime season is in full swing and has brought with it the delightful adaptation of Wash It All Away. The original manga has continued to come out in English at a quick pace from Square Enix Manga, too, ensuring there’s plenty for fans to enjoy. With another two volumes in hand, let’s check in with the cast.

Volume 3 reunites us with Wakana just as she’s being asked if she has much of an online presence for Kinme Cleaning. Our protagonist admits that she’s not particularly good with the internet, but elementary schooler Nairo Katakuchi overhears the conversation and offers to help Wakana open up some social media and record videos to promote the business.

Seeing Nairo’s enthusiasm, Wakana agrees as long as Nairo promises to keep her face out of the videos. Nairo plans to upload videos that show the cleaning process for items brought to Kinme Cleaning, so this rule is fine with her. The videos prove popular, and it’s not long before Wakana is being sent items to clean from all across Japan, but will her newfound popularity prove too much alongside her regular workload?

And with Wakana finding herself so busy, high-schooler and friend Kyusho is struggling to find an opportune moment to make a request of his own. Since the beginning of the series, Wakana has wanted to clean his school bag, and now Kyusho intends to make good on the promise to give it to her, but there never seems to be a good time! And then Wakana ends up involved with an island tourism campaign, which takes her away from the store.

Things are relatively calmer in Volume 4, where Wakana gets to enjoy some downtime before the busy period begins in September, when there will be a rush of requests to clean autumn clothing. Although that’s not to say everything goes to plan either, Wakana falls ill only to be rescued by her gruff landlady, and then she discovers one of her regulars might be having some health issues…

Compared to the first two books, it feels like these volumes are beginning to hint at Wakana’s history and lost memories. We still have no idea what caused her amnesia or the life she was leading before, but our protagonist is starting to dwell on it more often. Sometimes it even seems as if her memories are right there, just slightly out of reach. Particularly in moments where Wakana is taken out of her comfort zone and presented with something different to the everyday life she’s built running Kinme Cleaning.

The other central theme of these two volumes is getting to know more of the residents of Atami. Showing us their everyday lives and how Wakana interacts with them has always been one of the main reasons it has been so easy to get invested in the series. Even Wakana’s landlady, who is gruff with her, clearly cares deeply for this young girl who is forging onward, despite not remembering her past. There’s such a wide variety of characters, and mangaka Mitsuru Hattori does an excellent job of giving us reasons to care about them.

And of course, all of this is brought to life wonderfully by Hattori’s art, which continues to be a highlight. It perfectly conveys the relaxed atmosphere of the day-to-day narrative, while also ensuring it delivers on the more emotional beats as they come along. Whatever happens in the story to come, I’m confident that Hattori will continue to delight us with an engrossing narrative and visual flair.

As mentioned, Wash It All Away Volumes 3 and 4 come to the West thanks to Square Enix and continue to be wonderfully translated by Sawa Matsueda Savage with lettering by Adnazeer Macalangcom. Both books include colour pages at the beginning and are packed with little extras between chapters from Hattori, detailing more of Akana’s daily life. There are a number of translation notes at the end of both entries as well.

Volume 5 has already been released in English, with #6 scheduled for February. We’re currently enjoying a bi-monthly pace, which should keep existing fans and those who have come in thanks to the anime happy.

Overall, these two volumes of Wash It All Away continue to offer a gentle slice of life series that’s slowly revealing the secrets of the broader narrative. There’s still a lot we don’t know about Wakana, but I’m happy to wait for her past to come to the forefront as part of watching over her and the rest of the cast in Atami.

Free previews for these volumes can be found on the publisher’s website. 
Our review copies from Square Enix Manga were supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).
© Mitsuru Hattori / SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.