Aoi House Vol. 2 – Manga Review

The Aoi House antics continue in volume 2, with more parodies, otaku references, and drama! What? Drama!?

Volume 2 of Aoi House is a lot like the first volume, but better. It seems like the characters are a lot more fleshed out, so more time is spent on gags and less on introducing the characters themselves.

The jokes still feel really otaku-centric, so if you’re not up to date on anime lingo and whatnot, you might be left confused. There’s even a few American culture references thrown in. I’m not too sure if the target demographic for Aoi House knows anything about the Rocky Horror Picture show…

I do have to say, though, that any joke having to do with chloroforming someone from behind gets my vote. I mean, seriously, how can you not love that!?

Things get a little dramatic at the end of the chapter when the “NEKO POCKY KAWAII” girl gives Alex a present. But Elle was gonna give him one! Oh noes! I didn’t think Aoi House was going to have some actual plot, so this took me by surprise. Personally, I like Nina and Jessica, but they seem to have better things to do than hit on the otaku guys.

Interestingly, instead of thinking to myself “This is pretty good for an OEL manga,” I thought “This is pretty good.” The art was good enough that I didn’t think twice about it being made by Gaijin, and not actual Japanese people. That’s actually a pretty big complement coming from me.

So overall, Aoi House volume 2 is another solid volume. The manga is still continuing on gomanga.com, and you can read the entire first and second volume for free! I pretty good deal, I’d say. Then again, you could always buy it, too.

Many thanks to Seven Seas Entertainment for sending me a review copy of Aoi House Volume 2!