Mysterious Girlfriend X 5

For the first half of this volume, I was somewhat confused. When did this become a bog standard romantic comedy? Admittedly, one where someone had done a find and replace on all normal romantic gestures, replacing them with people licking saliva off each other's fingers, but nonetheless, every single beat of it was bog standard old flame shows up to break up the lead couple stock plotting.
Right until Urabe bursts in on them...dressed as a cardboard robot. From that point on things become spectacularly frothy. By which I mean "lots of nudity."
If he wants to actually progress their relationship, he's got a few challenges to face; the more overtly sexual things become, the harder it will be to leave his bat shit crazy stamp on it. I can't help but feel like the bulk of this volume's plot boils down to Ueshiba Riichi trying to buy time while he figures out how to do that.
It's telling, then, that the single most memorable image in the book is Urabe eating instant ramen clad in a flannel shirt and underwear -- with scissors jammed into the underwear. Like I've said before, the real secret to this book's wonky appeal is the way it replaces the standard vocabulary of sexual imagery with the kind of intimate found moments that keep actual relationships thrilling.