Othello, Volume 5 Book

Summary:
While Hano-chan is plotting how to best her enemy Nana, Yaya is just now becoming vaguely aware of the presence of Nana, who she still thinks is another person, but knows she is connected to somehow. Yaya does not yet fully comprehend just how connected she really is as Yaya and Nana are one and the same due to a split personality disorder. As Yaya becomes more and more aware of Nana, Yaya's stress increases and her headaches and memory failure become more frequent which in turn, gives Nana the opportunity to take over more often in order to protect Yaya's feeble mind. Moriyama tries to comfort poor Yaya, but there is only so much he can do when Nana takes over. How much longer can Nana and Moriyama protect Yaya from the truth?!

My Thoughts:
This volume was my least favorite out of the series. The events that took place just all felt so unrelated or disconnected to the previous chapters compared to the other volumes. First there is a skydiving chase, then there is a story about sexual harassment, and finally, the story connects back to Yaya wanting to reach her dream of becoming a singer. I felt like this volume really took away the focus from some of the main themes the series was originally going for.

Besides not being well connected, I also really felt like some of the stories in this volume were really contrived or unbelievable and I'm a fantasy reader, so when I say something is "unbelievable", it means it's really way over the top or ridiculous. A race in the sky while skydiving?! Factually, (and you can check to see if I'm wrong) I believe it only takes seconds, maybe a minute to skydive, how is there even time to have all that drama, the conversations, time for the characters to pass out and for Nana to still get the contract? I just felt like couldn't they have come up with a way that was just as interesting but a bit more realistic?

The whole scene with sexual harassment just really felt thrown in and did not fit in with the overall story. I understand that Yaya was being taking advantage of, which is why Nana needed to take over. I don't know about in Japanese culture, but in Western culture, being taken advantage of in a sexual way and being taken advantage of because someone is too "nice" or "quiet" are two very very different things. Now I give the author kudos for having the balls to write a scene like this because I think young girls need that message early on to stand up for themselves to predators because it is scary and hard to do, but the scene itself truly just did not fit in with the overall plot.

Despite all that being said, I actually really liked the end chapter "An Odd Relationship" because it connects back to an overarching theme of Yaya wanting to accomplish her goals as a talented singer. But of course, this requires Yaya to come out of her shell a little in order to open up to singing in front of others (because usually she only sings in front of others as Nana). This is where we get a little taste of the real Yaya starting to become more confident in herself even without Nana. I liked this because again, the scene with Moriyama and Yaya singing together connects to this overarching theme found in previous volumes and I also believe that Yaya having a dream to strive for makes her a more realistic and believable character despite having this split personality. What's even more interesting is that we meet a new character who acts just like Nana, who Yaya aspires to be but doesn't realize she already is. This character seems really cool like Nana, and is obviously someone Yaya looks up to, but is she going to cause problems for Yaya as she has a very close bond with Moriyama? Guess we'll find out in Volume 6!