Perfectly Fine on My Own, So My Fiancé Can Twist in the Wind Volume 3 Review

Things went from bad to worse for Nicole and Keios’ relationship in Perfectly Fine on My Own, So My Fiancé Can Twist in the Wind Volume 2. With their lives now taking drastically different paths, is there any way to reach the happy, loving relationship that Keios dreams of? Let’s find out what Volume 3 has in store!

At the end of the previous volume, Nicole set her sights on studying abroad in Iregard, a country that gives women a lot more opportunities to work and contribute to society in a way that’s unthinkable in Levarouge. Of course, Keios is devastated by the idea that she might be moving so far away from him (even if temporarily), but he can’t bring himself to stand in her way.

And while Keios is stuck between a rock and a hard place, Nicole begins the process of taking the required exams to get into the study abroad program. And it is, of course, not simple. The examiners don’t understand why she, as a woman who is already engaged, would want to waste time going to Iregard. And that opinion is shared strongly by one of the other candidates, Claude Basel, who is incredibly dismissive of Nicole.

Still, our heroine won’t be deterred, and she prepares herself for the upcoming language proficiency test to prove that the study abroad candidates can read, write and converse in the Iregardian language. While Nicole has no real problems with reading or writing, she worries about her ability to speak it, having never had any opportunities to do so.

Seeking a speaking partner, Nicole heads downtown, where she’s heard of an establishment where women speak Iregardian. It’s here that she runs into Claude, who is working at a restaurant in return for tutoring sessions with the owner who speaks the language he and Nicole are studying. Although Claude lectures Nicole for wandering around by herself, in order to prevent her from encountering any danger, the owner kindly agrees to let her work there in return for lessons as well. And maybe spending more time together will allow Claude to see her for who she truly is?

As you can imagine from all I’ve summarised so far, this volume doesn’t spend a lot of time on the relationship between Nicole and Keios and is instead focused on the heroine’s future and introducing a new character. This is good from the perspective of story development, but it does feel like Keios has been somewhat sidelined. In fact, Keios spends most of his time trying to figure out how to spend any time with Nicole while she’s so busy studying. And those opportunities are few and far between, so he’s mostly in a corner bemoaning his existence. But he may yet have an important role to play as he gets to know Claude and realises the two of them might be more alike than he first thought…

Still, I think author Yahiro Arase and artist Jun Hareta are setting some interesting groundwork here as Nicole gets closer to her goal. Claude has ended up being a really interesting character too, coming from a very prestigious family and hoping to learn something that he intends to use for the good of his family during his time in Iregard. There’s a lot we don’t know about him, but over the course of this volume we readers get a good grasp of his personality. Which is good, given his initial introduction made him come off as quite prickly! Now I’m looking forward to seeing where his story goes in future volumes just as much as that of Nicole and Keios.

Perfectly Fine on My Own Volume 3 comes to the West thanks to Kodansha under the Vertical imprint with translation by Nicole Frasik and lettering by Mercedes McGarry. The book reads well and has with a colour page to start and a couple of bonus stories at the end, which are always a welcome addition.

In Japan the series is still ongoing, with Volume 4 being the most recent release. Because we’re so close to being caught up, we’re in for a bit of a wait now as #4 is scheduled for an English release in February currently. Still, I’m sure it will be more than worth the wait.

Overall, romance takes a backseat in this volume of Perfectly Fine on My Own, So My Fiancé Can Twist in the Wind as Nicole gets immersed in studying with the hopes of getting to study abroad. And we get to meet an interesting new character, who shows plenty of promise for future storylines. This is another entertaining entry in the series!

Our review copy from Vertical (Kodansha) was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).