Bingo 22: In the Wild
Komi Can’t Communicate is set in high school (kind of the wilds) and Komi and her familiar group are separated in the beginning of their last year of high school, so Komi suddenly is faced with the challenge of taming a whole group of new friends (which is likely going to help her with her goal of making 200 friends since she’s only got a year left to do it). That and a good chunk of volume 25 is a totally implausible schoolwide Nerf battle, so everyone is hunting each other down (animals and wildness related activity, kind of). Social wilds it is. Totally counts.
Komi actually faces someone who actively resists her opening efforts to be friends, but it actually kind of is a good thing because it forces Komi to be a little more open about herself to herself (but also to the new classmate). It also turns out that the gang was separated deliberately by a teacher who probably wants Komi out of her comfort zone for personal growth reasons. The other benefit here is that there’s no more (or at least a lot less) Najimi, the most obnoxious character ever, and it’s a chance for some development for the other members of the group like Rumiko because she’s out of her established social group too.
The hunting game has no purpose, not even really in the world of the story, except to maybe showcase various groups of students, several new (and some promising to be interesting) who might not otherwise have a chance to do so. That kind of thing is sort of a high school setting manga/anime trope, but the set up is just dumb and involves a totally superfluous character that no one should be putting up with on account of her total uselessness except as a troublemaker for most anyone around her.
Still, Komi and Tadano are making some progress as individuals and a pair, and now that there’s a chance for more interactions with other folks. I’m guessing Tadano doesn’t change, which is too bad but at least everyone else has a chance to do a little more growing.
