I received an eARC of this title through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This is a cute manga. You start to really see how much Kubo and Shiraishi have in common and enjoy about the other. At this point, the manga is focusing on showing Shiraishi coming to realize just how close he is to Kubo without understanding it until the end. I thought it was great.

It follows the same format as the first two volumes and the artwork is consistent.

Still a very cute series but it is starting to get to the "middle volumes in the manga series dragging out the plot in a major way" feeling that gets old. Kubo is still very smug and cute (and the fan service is still uncomfortable) and its nice to see Shiraishi thaw out a bit.

This volume was so cute! I always love any volume that revolves around the sickness trope. I really love this series and I'm looking forward to the next volume.

This is a very gentle and sweet series, with moments of humor that I appreciate. I like it enough to recommend and continue with myself. I like the art, the storyline is cute and I want to see how it ends, though I can't keep some of the secondary characters straight, I think that is a me issue and not a book issue.

We are starting to see more of things from Kubo's POV and I am SO GLAD that she is not the type of MC h who is a goddess in the kitchen. All of those MC h's make me feel incredibly inferior, let me tell you. So Kubo and I would most definitely bond over feeling insecure in the kitchen.

3.5 stars, rounded down because after having read this a few weeks ago, not a lot has stuck with me. Again, that's probably more a "me" issue than a book issue. Three stars isn't a bad rating, I liked it and will continue with it.

3, gentle and sweet, stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and VIZ Media LLC for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible Volume Three sees more interactions between Junta Shiraishi and Nagisa Kubo, as well as progresses the characters into a new school year.

Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible
Written by: Nene Yukimori
Publisher: Shueisha
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: September 6, 2022

Volume Three opens with Shiraishi having to stay home from school because he has a fever. When Kubo sees that he’s not there, she tries to act like she hadn’t noticed until the teacher said something, but her friends can tell she did. A lot of this vignette sees Kubo wanting to text Shiraishi and trying to figure out what to say that doesn’t sound silly. When Shiraishi gets her message, his little brother Seita gets a hold of his phone and accidentally sends a stamp. Overall, this vignette was cute, between Kubo struggling with what to text to Shiraishi and Seita accidentally sending the stamp and Kubo’s reaction to it.

The next vignette sees Kubo falling ill while at school, and Shiraishi taking her to the nurse’s office. It was adorable to see the awkwardness of Shiraishi having Kubo lean on his shoulder. And Shiraishi’s final line in this vignette was amusing.

This is followed by a vignette that features the walking home under an umbrella together trope. However, Shiraishi’s awkwardness about the situation, especially his not wanting to be seen by others, adds some humor to this trope. Unfortunately, Kubo wanted this to be an experiment and wanted to be seen by others, but Shiraishi’s decision to change streets wrecked her plans. Even though this vignette replied on a trope, it was still amusing to read.

We then get a series of vignettes that lead up to Shiraishi and Seita going to a cherry blossom viewing with Kubo and her sisters. We learn in this volume that Kubo doesn’t know how to cook, but that her younger sister does. The love interest of the protagonist not knowing how to cook trope makes its appearance here, and I was a little disappointed by that. While a series like Ranma 1/2 was able to pull off this trope with Akane and utilize it for humor, I didn’t think this trope added much in the long run for Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible. While, yes, we do see in the story that with the help of her sisters, Kubo makes Shiraishi’s favorite food and he gets to eat and enjoy it, I wasn’t convinced that this added much to the story.

While they’re at the cherry blossoms viewing, Kubo’s older sister gets drunk and gets a little flirty with Shiraishi. Poor Shiraishi looks uncomfortable, and Kubo becomes angry and walks off. When Shiraishi catches up to Kubo, there’s some awkwardness between the two of them, but in the end, they’re able to settle the situation because Kubo comes to her senses and realizes that Shiraishi isn’t to blame for what happened.

But right before the cherry blossom viewing, Shiraishi’s younger brother meets Kubo’s younger sister, Saki. There’s some awkwardness and shyness right at first, but it seems like Seita may have developed a little crush on Saki.

In the middle of this section, though, we get a vignette of Shiraishi and Kubo in class. Shiraishi gets bored and takes his red pen apart… and then promptly loses the spring. It’s just at that moment that the teacher wants them to do an assignment with a red pen. Kubo lets him have one of hers… which turns out to be cutesy and matches one that she has. This was a fun little vignette, though, even if the main purpose is to show the reader more of Kubo and Shiraishi’s interactions.

There’s also a vignette of Kubo at a slumber party with a couple of her friends, and it’s here that we get our first hint that a new school year is almost right around the corner. This is one of the only vignettes in this volume that doesn’t show or mention Shiraishi at all. It was kind of nice to get a vignette that shows Kubo hanging out with her friends, because it lets the reader start to get to know her two friends a little better. While they have shown up in previous volumes, we didn’t really get to see anything of their personalities or really get anything that shows what they’re like. This vignette starts providing the reader with some of those details.

Right at the end of Volume Three, we see Shiraishi and Kubo starting a new school year. I wasn’t surprised to see that they ended up in the same class or that the teacher set up the seating chart so they’re sitting next to each other again. With the premise of the series being what it is, it wouldn’t make sense to separate the two of them. Kubo makes a comment that since they’re in the same class for second year, that they’ll also be in the same class for their third year of high school. In all the anime I’ve watched and the manga I’ve read over the years, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it mentioned before that the class the students are in for their second year is also their class for the third year. Do any Japanese schools actually do this, or is this something Yukimori came up with for this manga?

There’s a bonus chapter at the end of this volume that focuses on Shiraishi and Seita. It’s kind of cute, and Seita is acting like a child his age should. The ending was amusing, even though Shiraishi was quite embarrassed about being seen by Kubo.

It was interesting to notice in Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible Volume Three that most of the vignettes seemed to be intertwined more than they had in the previous two volumes. I thought this was a good thing, because it starts giving the reader more of a sense of an overarching story. I hope this is something that Yukimori will continue to do as the series progresses.

I was very pleased with Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible Volume Three, and I believe that readers who read and enjoyed the previous two volumes will also be satisfied with this one.

This super cute continuation of Junta and Kubo's blossoming relationship is not one to miss. The series is still holding strong with just enough tension but at the same time allows for some steps to be taken in their relationship.
This series is a fan favorite for sure.
I love the story and can't wait to see what happens next!
Thank you to NetGalley and Viz Media for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.