*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.
This is a collection of three stories:
- Down With the Sickness – in which everyone comes down with a cold in the office.
- Mall Madness – where Retsuko is forced to go shopping with Tsunoda
- The Visitor – when Karen from Canada comes to the office to evaluate the team.
To address something I see people saying as a criticism of the first story being tactless due to COVID, I have to disagree with those people. The title is a play on Disturbed’s song, the story has a zombie theme, so naming the virus in the story the C-Virus seems to me like a play from Resident Evil (called Biohazard in Japan) where the first virus used to make the zombies was called the T-virus. It’s very likely the name was picked without knowing about COVID and it became too late to change it but, sorry. Can’t jump on that bandwagon, guys. I believe this is an unfortunate coincidence. And coming from a person who works in an office setting where people get sick and refuse to stay home (or can’t stay home), I get how it feels to watch a cold/flu go around the staff.
That being said, this is a cute volume that is likely useless to anyone not familiar with the original show. The second story had a massive upgrade in art and the third had the most depth story wise. If I were to rate them in order, it would be 3, 2, then 1. The third story gives Retsuko an ally that I feel she really needed. 3.5 out of 5.
