Title: All-Purpose Chemistry Club! (Bannou Kagaku Hengeibu!)
Genre: Comedy, Supernatural
Publisher: Sobisha (JP), Digital Manga (US)
Artist: Sho Hidaka
Translation: Neri Wesek
Original Release Date: April 7, 2014
Free Preview >>HERE<<
In the afterword of this volume of All-Purpose Chemistry Club!, Sho Hidaka admitted the changes in drawing style were obvious and probably difficult to enjoy. When I wrote the review of its first volume, I said some people would have trouble with the art style, but thought it was to its advantage with its wacky hijinks and cool characters. Unfortunately, it seems that only held up for one volume. With the art managing to mangle the potential of the jokes and crazy moments, along with said jokes and crazy moments mainly tame and unfunny, I can only be disappointed that a manga I liked maybe more than I should have has fallen so far down the rabbit hole that I doubt it can get out.
Just like Volume 1, the story follows Kaede Ipponsugi in his quest to somehow woo his crush, Momiji, while also dealing with a dude in ninja gear and having to do tasks for the supernatural driven All-Purpose Chemistry Club. Volume 2 continues the episodic nature of the series, with this volume packing a battle between the Occult Club vs the All-Purpose Chemistry Club, a meeting with a wacky superintendent, a battle between two shrines that ends with an old man thrown into a shack infested with insects, the appearance of Kaede's older sister and her status as the school nurse, and a ghost that has the crew take on so many challenges the author had to skip most of them because he didn't have enough pages. (Don't worry, that's part of the joke.)
Now if that sounded funny to you in writing, imagine my surprise that it was not when reading it. I should have braced for this. Since I last read it in January, you can think my expectations have changed since that time, but I was still hoping I'd get the same amount of humor or at least some level of enjoyment out of Volume 2. I eventually got bored before getting to the end. That's never a good thing. The reason why is, aside from the characters, everything is awful. The art reaches a point of no return, where it prevents me from getting any joke or from understanding what the character is going through to scenes where comedy should happen but doesn't. The actual comedy scenes, thanks to the art, is poor. It's never a good thing when naturally laughing doesn't exist for 2/3 of a volume, and that's what happens here.
This is easily the volume that makes me now wish this series had wrapped itself up as a one shot. There is one more volume (It's a three volume series), so it feels awkward to not see if Kaede accomplishes his goal, but the motivation has been sapped. I think I'll just have to live with some memories of the first volume, and ultimately forget I read this one.
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