Tonari no Kashiwagi-san

78 chapters later and he finally got somewhere

There truly is a god 

/me collapses in a puddle of goo from all the sweetness

It's sooooooo nice to have this series back again! XD

last volume! thanks vhirx!

don't be hasty man, 'cause you already said it. deserve it boy, but it won't be long to taste your fruit of love

I was legit fist-pumping when i saw this updated. 

Work on volume 12 commenced. next two chapters will be released together.

I have some answers to your questions,
1. Because the author submit it to that particular publisher, and hey, it apparently sells! No problem there,
2. There are some shoujo romance with shounen-ish feeling and vice-versa, especially if the MC is the opposite gender and the art is not typical.

Needs more Tina. Fuck all these other guys.

Still hoping for a Tina spin-off.

Looks like this is going to end soon, if graduation is the stopping point like it usually is.

 

Personally I would like it to continue with university slice of life and further couple progression (first lewd etc.) but considering they're going to different universities it would be rather difficult to pull off.

Looks like this is going to end soon, if graduation is the stopping point like it usually is.

Personally I would like it to continue with university slice of life and further couple progression (first lewd etc.) but considering they're going to different universities it would be rather difficult to pull off.

what the fuck is going on in this comment section

LEVEL UP!!!

Silly response to the mechanical pencil ninja people and ye of little faith in the merits of footwear:
 

Spoiler

Looks like fewer of you than I expected understand my writing style to see all the little jokes.  Sigh.  Here's a rant about how stupid the mechanical pencils are and how amazing socks are.  Ahem...
 
Yes, anything can be expensive.  I used to work in New York next to a place that sold $300 ties and down the street from a place that sold $75 cigar cutters.  I know where you can get $100+ chopstick sets, $200 cufflinks, and all manner of ludicrously expensive tchotchkes, doodads, and whatsits.  Hell, you can go to Coach and get a CARBINER for $150.  Yes, I understand that anything can be high quality, can be made of superb materials, etc. Unless you're giving that tie to someone with a peculiar bent towards that particular item, they all make shitty gifts, regardless of their price.  (Get a gift receipt for that shit.)  Do we know that either of them are stationary fiends?  No.  We know that Kotone's a digital artist (though that hasn't been brought up much in the last, I don't know, 40 chapters or so) who draws on her computer.  So maybe there's a thin link there.  Maybe.  But that's a huuuuge stretch.  But maybe.  MAYBE.  Yuuto though?   No, dumb, bad gift.  
 
Socks, on the other hand, keep your feet warm.  That's important.  Sergeant Dan was all about socks.  Remember?  Ever try walking around in freezing cold or sopping wet feet?  How about a hanging toenail?  Miserable, right?  Now, imagine frostbite or infection.  And socks are even more important in Japan, where many homes don't even have real central heating, where you're relying on space heaters and kerosene stoves for warmth in the winter, where the refrigerator is for keeping things warm and making sure they don't freeze.  Japan taught me about socks.  Oh yeah.  Since I NEVER knew when it was gonna rain, I always carried around a collapsible umbrella...  and a second pair of socks.  So socks are important, socks can be useful to anyone, and premium socks can get ludicrously expensive for items we all know will eventually wind up in the hands of the fiendish sock monster.  Trust me.  I know.  I'm a sock guy.  Not because I buy the ludicrously expensive ones but because Japan taught me the importance of socks.  Thus, I buy thick, warm, comfy ones that will keep my feet warm on the coldest, most frigid day.  And they're pricier than what you get at Target or Walmart.  
 
But you know what? 
 
However utile, however much I adore socks, however much I'm willing to protest their value to the world, unless those Christmas socks were meant to be ironic and came attached to a coupon for nookie, a ticket to Space Camp, etc. or perhaps contained at their bottom keys to a Tesla (hell, even a nice Vespa), a new Skagen, or something along that line, if I'm 17 years old and the love of my life is giving me just socks for Christmas, I'm going to be pretty fucking pissed.  And remember... I'm a sock guy! 
 
Of course, now that I'm somewhere around double that number in age and no one buys me Christmas presents excepting bottles of delicious liver poison or weird fucking cheeses I give to my idiot of a brother-in-law, I might be thrilled if someone bought me a pair of socks.  Heck, they've just saved me enough bucks to supersize my coffee.  At the very least, they've made me temporarily less wary of the approach of that nefarious sock monster.  Maybe they've postponed laundry day.  Huzzah! 
 
But that's neither here nor there.  And neither socks nor mechanical pencils make for fucking Christmas presents in this man's book.

 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 
More serious, structural discussion on the impact and import of gifting:
 

Spoiler

The fact that a pivotal scene in this manga revolves around a shared Christmas present as an expression of their mutual feelings is nice-ish.  It's not bad.  The fact that a mechanical pencil was chosen when neither mechanical pencils nor stationery in general have any relation to any previous development is weak.  Yes, they're "for exams."  Utile.  More on this in a second.
 
If Kinusa had this scene mapped out in his head, then why not take the time to lay some groundwork amidst the plethora of fluff filler that's plagued the rest of this series?  With even a LITTLE bit of planning, even a little bit more work, this scene could have hit home in a way it simply doesn't here.  I'm not talking about 40 chapters worth of planning.  Even one or two one-page scenes or minor hints dropped around chapter 65 or 70 or so could have worked.  Look at how something like Magi no Okurimono handles each and every item, else how Kodomo wa Wakatte Agenai turns a minor gift given from a character with all of two pages worth of lines into something that you think about for the rest of the series. 
 
But this is a throw-in.  They both say that they're utile gifts with no further purpose behind them.  Okay.  Yes, exams are important.  Yes, they're both somewhat obsessing about these exams.  Yes, pencils are one of the few items that an exam student can carry with him or herself into the exam room.  Oh, wait.  That's interesting.  Imagine if Yuuto had a line like that.  "Kashiwagi-san, I want to walk with you everywhere.  I want to stay beside you.  I know I can't be in that exam room with you, but I hope my feelings can. Here's something you can take with you, something that can remain tonari, my Kashiwagi-san." (Tonari meaning "next to."  See what I did there?)  Yeah, it's corny, but even something like that invests the gift with some real emotional significance.  Maybe Kinusa pulls this rabbit out of the hat later on down the line. 
 
But as of right now, the meaning of the act of gifting is in the match, in the "evenness" of their feelings.  But then that match itself is immediately downplayed. There's not even any roller coaster here. 
 
Look, I clean, typeset, and translate this series.  It's uniquely enjoyable for technical reasons you probably wouldn't find very interesting.  I do my best with this thing.  I really do.  There's a reason I take a few weeks to work on each of these.  The word play, puns, little details as far as tweaks in typesetting, emphasis, etc., are all there.  I'm desperately trying to bring out the best in this series (and that technical challenge itself is one of the reasons I enjoy working on it), but the missed opportunities in this series absolutely drive me up the wall.  As far as I'm concerned, this whole chapter Yuuto and Kotone-wise is a disaster.
 
Meh.

To be fair, technically Mugi isn't in the friend zone any more, although he was for a long, long . . . long, time.  Now he's in the sexless zone.  Has a girlfriend, lives with her, he wants her, theoretically she wants him (for reasons unknown), but has now been stringing him along for uncounted years anyway just because.

Apologies in advance if it seems like I'm being sarcastic, I'm not: I have trouble seeing a difference.

(The following isn't a spoiler, just following policy.)

Jesus fucking christ man

Not going within several miles of evaluating whether posts are trolling, meta-trolling, deconstructed trolling, etc. But whether it applies here or not, this is virtually always a true point to make (no spoiler, just following image policy):

Spoiler

If she says no...

I agree with vhirx all the way.

Also, now that we're reaching the conclusion, I'll add that I'm disappointed in how the development of the two main characters just plateaud at some point and never went anywhere. I have always been ok with the really slow pace of the manga, but that's true as long as it was actually going somewhere. And by "somewhere" I don't mean the two of them dating, but the two of them growing up to the point you could go back to the first chapters and say "wow, we went a long way from here". That didn't happen as much as I would have liked.

I view the side characters/couples as the real story and the mc/s as the filler. I hope they enjoy many more years on the plateau since that's probably the only reason it hasn't been axed.

When your main ship just landed, but you have to wait for the next chapter.

Spoiler

The pencils are symbolic of the wish to go to the same university.

I agree with vhirx all the way.

Also, now that we're reaching the conclusion, I'll add that I'm disappointed in how the development of the two main characters just plateaud at some point and never went anywhere. I have always been ok with the really slow pace of the manga, but that's true as long as it was actually going somewhere. And by "somewhere" I don't mean the two of them dating, but the two of them growing up to the point you could go back to the first chapters and say "wow, we went a long way from here". That didn't happen as much as I would have liked.

Saya and Kazu continue to be too damn cute for me man

I love them

Also holy shit he finally made a move. AFTER 67 CHAPTERS I GET WHAT I WANT.

That's the whole point.  Trolling on purpose.  Trying to create that Kiss Manga or 4chan comment feel.  I upped the reading level a bit for the second joke and pushed it a bit out of troll range since the first one was lost.  Go read the One Snowshoe blog, my comments on /r/manga, etc., and you won't find curse words, superlatives, etc.  Generally, I have a capital-R rep for pedantic verbosity and another one for being an "SJW"... as if that's a bad thing.  Ha. 

 

Guess none of that has filtered through to some of the crowd that reads this thing.  Oh well.  Hope the second one gave you some chuckles. 

Jesus fucking christ man

Well to be honest your joke doesn't feel like a joke to me.. It's probably because you're using some superlatives words like "the worst", "the most boring", "f words" making the tone somewhat rude and trollish in text.. Though with your current argument I got your point, it's just I can't link between your well thought argument and troll like jokes when I read your first comment. It's kinda weird but I'm sorry that I misinterpret your joke.

That's the whole point.  Trolling on purpose.  Trying to create that Kiss Manga or 4chan comment feel.  I upped the reading level a bit for the second joke and pushed it a bit out of troll range since the first one was lost.  Go read the One Snowshoe blog, my comments on /r/manga, etc., and you won't find curse words, superlatives, etc.  Generally, I have a capital-R rep for pedantic verbosity and another one for being an "SJW"... as if that's a bad thing.  Ha. 

Guess none of that has filtered through to some of the crowd that reads this thing.  Oh well.  Hope the second one gave you some chuckles. 

Silly response to the mechanical pencil ninja people and ye of little faith in the merits of footwear:

 

Spoiler

Looks like fewer of you than I expected understand my writing style to see all the little jokes.  Sigh.  Here's a rant about how stupid the mechanical pencils are and how amazing socks are.  Ahem...

 

Yes, anything can be expensive.  I used to work in New York next to a place that sold $300 ties and down the street from a place that sold $75 cigar cutters.  I know where you can get $100+ chopstick sets, $200 cufflinks, and all manner of ludicrously expensive tchotchkes, doodads, and whatsits.  Hell, you can go to Coach and get a CARBINER for $150.  Yes, I understand that anything can be high quality, can be made of superb materials, etc. Unless you're giving that tie to someone with a peculiar bent towards that particular item, they all make shitty gifts, regardless of their price.  (Get a gift receipt for that shit.)  Do we know that either of them are stationary fiends?  No.  We know that Kotone's a digital artist (though that hasn't been brought up much in the last, I don't know, 40 chapters or so) who draws on her computer.  So maybe there's a thin link there.  Maybe.  But that's a huuuuge stretch.  But maybe.  MAYBE.  Yuuto though?   No, dumb, bad gift.  

 

Socks, on the other hand, keep your feet warm.  That's important.  Sergeant Dan was all about socks.  Remember?  Ever try walking around in freezing cold or sopping wet feet?  How about a hanging toenail?  Miserable, right?  Now, imagine frostbite or infection.  And socks are even more important in Japan, where many homes don't even have real central heating, where you're relying on space heaters and kerosene stoves for warmth in the winter, where the refrigerator is for keeping things warm and making sure they don't freeze.  Japan taught me about socks.  Oh yeah.  Since I NEVER knew when it was gonna rain, I always carried around a collapsible umbrella...  and a second pair of socks.  So socks are important, socks can be useful to anyone, and premium socks can get ludicrously expensive for items we all know will eventually wind up in the hands of the fiendish sock monster.  Trust me.  I know.  I'm a sock guy.  Not because I buy the ludicrously expensive ones but because Japan taught me the importance of socks.  Thus, I buy thick, warm, comfy ones that will keep my feet warm on the coldest, most frigid day.  And they're pricier than what you get at Target or Walmart.  

 

But you know what? 

 

However utile, however much I adore socks, however much I'm willing to protest their value to the world, unless those Christmas socks were meant to be ironic and came attached to a coupon for nookie, a ticket to Space Camp, etc. or perhaps contained at their bottom keys to a Tesla (hell, even a nice Vespa), a new Skagen, or something along that line, if I'm 17 years old and the love of my life is giving me just socks for Christmas, I'm going to be pretty fucking pissed.  And remember... I'm a sock guy! 

 

Of course, now that I'm somewhere around double that number in age and no one buys me Christmas presents excepting bottles of delicious liver poison or weird fucking cheeses I give to my idiot of a brother-in-law, I might be thrilled if someone bought me a pair of socks.  Heck, they've just saved me enough bucks to supersize my coffee.  At the very least, they've made me temporarily less wary of the approach of that nefarious sock monster.  Maybe they've postponed laundry day.  Huzzah! 

 

But that's neither here nor there.  And neither socks nor mechanical pencils make for fucking Christmas presents in this man's book.

 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

More serious, structural discussion on the impact and import of gifting:

 

Spoiler

The fact that a pivotal scene in this manga revolves around a shared Christmas present as an expression of their mutual feelings is nice-ish.  It's not bad.  The fact that a mechanical pencil was chosen when neither mechanical pencils nor stationery in general have any relation to any previous development is weak.  Yes, they're "for exams."  Utile.  More on this in a second.

 

If Kinusa had this scene mapped out in his head, then why not take the time to lay some groundwork amidst the plethora of fluff filler that's plagued the rest of this series?  With even a LITTLE bit of planning, even a little bit more work, this scene could have hit home in a way it simply doesn't here.  I'm not talking about 40 chapters worth of planning.  Even one or two one-page scenes or minor hints dropped around chapter 65 or 70 or so could have worked.  Look at how something like Magi no Okurimono handles each and every item, else how Kodomo wa Wakatte Agenai turns a minor gift given from a character with all of two pages worth of lines into something that you think about for the rest of the series. 

 

But this is a throw-in.  They both say that they're utile gifts with no further purpose behind them.  Okay.  Yes, exams are important.  Yes, they're both somewhat obsessing about these exams.  Yes, pencils are one of the few items that an exam student can carry with him or herself into the exam room.  Oh, wait.  That's interesting.  Imagine if Yuuto had a line like that.  "Kashiwagi-san, I want to walk with you everywhere.  I want to stay beside you.  I know I can't be in that exam room with you, but I hope my feelings can. Here's something you can take with you, something that can remain tonari, my Kashiwagi-san." (Tonari meaning "next to."  See what I did there?)  Yeah, it's corny, but even something like that invests the gift with some real emotional significance.  Maybe Kinusa pulls this rabbit out of the hat later on down the line. 

 

But as of right now, the meaning of the act of gifting is in the match, in the "evenness" of their feelings.  But then that match itself is immediately downplayed. There's not even any roller coaster here. 

 

Look, I clean, typeset, and translate this series.  It's uniquely enjoyable for technical reasons you probably wouldn't find very interesting.  I do my best with this thing.  I really do.  There's a reason I take a few weeks to work on each of these.  The word play, puns, little details as far as tweaks in typesetting, emphasis, etc., are all there.  I'm desperately trying to bring out the best in this series (and that technical challenge itself is one of the reasons I enjoy working on it), but the missed opportunities in this series absolutely drive me up the wall.  As far as I'm concerned, this whole chapter Yuuto and Kotone-wise is a disaster.

 

Meh.

Well to be honest your joke doesn't feel like a joke to me.. It's probably because you're using some superlatives words like "the worst", "the most boring", "f words" making the tone somewhat rude and trollish in text.. Though with your current argument I got your point, it's just I can't link between your well thought argument and troll like jokes when I read your first comment. It's kinda weird but I'm sorry that I misinterpret your joke.