An Incurable Case of Love, Vol. 2 (An Incurable Case of Love #2) by Maki Enjoji

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💙 An Incurable Case of Love, Vol. 1

Content/Trigger Warnings: Stalking, alcoholism

Nanase chose to become a nurse to chase after Dr. Tendo, but he’s not as he appears. Although very handsome on the outside, but he kisses her and calls it a medical treatment, he’s good at his job yet he’s incredibly strict. Despite it all, Nanase can’t stop herself from loving him or choosing him.

If you saw my review for the first volume in this series then you already know I have waited for this volume for far too long! I should have known by now that I breeze through manga, but I just couldn’t help myself. So I was left waiting until the 2020 release of the second volume in this series. And it didn’t disappoint! I flew through this volume just as quickly as the first and if you haven’t checked this series out by now, go check out my review for the first volume for a better idea of the series!

“I can’t tell him, but his smile is what attracted me to him five years ago.”

Like the first volume, I loved the tension and banter between Nanase and Dr. Tendo. I love it even more in this book because so much comes to light in this volume to their fellow coworkers. It was fantastic to watch everything begin to slowly uncoil and then there were so many moments that just leave you breathless or dying of laughter. One thing I really loved seeing between these two was Dr. Tendo becoming more reliant on Nanase because of falling ill with a high fever. In the first volume we saw Dr. Tendo take care of Nanase and make sure she was okay, but now the role is reversed in this volume. I really loved that and I loved that we got to see these characters be vulnerable with one another again.

I also really love how the importance of a smile gets emphasized throughout this entire series. In the first volume there’s an emphasis of Nanase just wanting to see Dr. Tendo smile again, but this volume really takes a smile to a deeper level that I truly appreciated. We get introduced to a new doctor and Nanase talks about how his smile makes her feel very uneasy, and how she doesn’t understand why she feels odd when he smiles compared to others when she’s had a positive reaction with them. I also love how she react when Dr. Tendo smiles for her and each reaction makes my heart flutter. Enjoji does an amazing job with showing the importance in a smile in this volume and I hope the author continues with showing the importance in future volumes.

Aside from the good, there were also some things that really bothered me that I felt needed to be addressed. For starters, there was a scene in this volume where Nanase and the new doctor were at his welcome party, and things took a turn for the cringey for me. The doctor kept pouring Nanase drink after drink and even after she told him she was trying to cut back on her drinking, he continued to pour drinks for her and her coworkers were even chanting for her to allow it, there was some cringey joke about how if she passed out or went unconscious that everyone in the room was a doctor, and after all of that it caused the main character to try to force herself to drink and made a quick excuse to leave immediately. It was a very cringey scene and you could feel the main character forcing herself to be there. It also felt a like it could have turned into a date rape situation really quickly. Needless to say, I was not a fan of this scene at all.

The other thing that really bothered me was the stalking element in this volume. Nanase doesn’t tell anyone except one person about her stalker. In my personal opinion, one should be more open especially with their friends, family, work place managers, and even neighbors if you have a stalker. That way you have a network of people who know the situation that’s happening and they can look out for you. What also bothered me was Nanase’s coworkers knew about the guy who has been stalking her and only told her about it until she mentioned something. A stalker is a threat to a person’s safety and well being, if someone is showing signs of being a stalker then the victim and management should be notified immediately. Not to mention, Dr. Tendo takes Nanse out in public and leaves her alone with the knowledge that she has a stalker. With all of this compiled together, I was immensely frustrated with the whole stalker/stalking element. It felt poorly executed and it felt like it was giving all the wrong signals especially as someone who has been stalked, this felt very triggering and frustrating to read about.

Overall, I gave this manga four stars because I truly do enjoy these characters and I love a good hate to love romance. If I had to pick between the first and second volume on which I liked more, I would probably have to say the first one. Mainly due to the first one causing less frustration than this volume. However, I really loved seeing Dr. Tendo being vulnerable and I loved that we got to see more emphasis and importance of the smile in this volume. Of course, I truly wish we had more scenes with Ryuko because she is a delight and she’s such a positive energy in this series! So if you’re looking for a manga series that has a slow burn, hate to love romance and love characters that will hook your attention from the beginning then you have to give this series a try!

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