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Kiyoi and Hira have now been living together for about 1.5 years, they are now much busier in their respective careers: Kiyoi as an actor who just got casted for a stage play by his favorite screenwriter, and Hira as a disciple of famous photographer Noguchi.
I was happy to see that the third installment in the UtsuKare shows quite some character growth compared to the last book. Both Kiyoi and also Hira now show efforts to understand the other (with varying success). Hira has definitely lost some of his きもうざ-ness compared to the previous book, though funnily enough Noguchi now has to suffer his outbursts of Kiyoi-admiration-mode.
The general theme of this volume is self-exploration and growth, dealing with successes and failures, as well as a re-definition of their roles and viewpoints of each other in the relationship.
As previously, I recommend this to fans of the KiyoHira dynamic, the story is not too exciting but it's interesting to see the characters develop if you've grown attached to them like me.