James Nicoll Reviews

Insomniacs After School, Volume 9 is the ninth tankōbon in Makoto Ojiro’s contemporary manga series. Serialized in Shogakukan’s seinen manga magazine Weekly Big Comic Spirits, Insomniacs After School has been ongoing since May 2019. The English translation of Volume 9 was released in 2025.

Companion insomniacs Ganta and Isaki have contended with official and parental roadblocks to their quest to restore their high school astronomy club, whose observatory is the only place either of them can sleep. Now they face a development outside the club’s previous experience.

The pair have enjoyed considerable success thus far. Despite official suspicion that the pair only wanted access to the observatory for illicit make-out sessions, the club was revived… as soon as its members brought the club into line with the mandated club guidelines. Similarly, despite their steadfast conviction that Ganta debauched their darling daughter, Isaki’s parents have relented and allow the pair to socialize once again.

However, the pair’s track record with club events has been mixed at best. The issue is weather, over which neither of them have any control¹. The dates of astronomical events are fixed. Therefore, there’s nothing to be done in the face of inclement weather except cancel.

On this occasion, however, a meteor-watching event goes off as planned. The key to success appears to be persistence.

It’s good that the pair get to enjoy success. Isaki’s health takes a turn for the worse and once again she is confined to her bed.

~oOo~

A question that should have occurred to me before now: I wonder what light pollution is like in Japan? I know that stargazing in Waterloo Region can be tricky, thanks to the glow of cities like Waterloo, Kitchener, and Cambridge. How does Ishikawa Prefecture, where the manga is set, compare? It has about half the population density of Waterloo Region so it is probably not unreasonable that the light pollution isn’t too bad.

As for cloud cover….

Better odds of seeing the Perseids unimpeded in Ishikawa than in KW. I’d not realized how lucky I’ve been that all of my Perseid events have had the clouds roll away.

The adults are still an interesting mixture of supportive and useless. Isaki’s parents keenly monitor Isaki’s health, while doing their best to tolerate Isaki’s clearly degenerate boyfriend AND limiting opportunities for him to indulge the depraved lusts that they assume compel him. Likewise, the school officials do their best to steer the pair towards constructive use of their teen energy, rather than the lascivious grappling they assume was the purpose behind commandeering the observatory².

On the other hand, nobody except Isaki seems to notice that Ganta’s resurgent insomnia has left him visibly haggard. Presumably, Ganta’s single father is too busy to notice, but the school officials seem otherwise observant… so why do they miss the signs of insomnia?

The art remains as crisp and professional as ever³.

This remains a surprising upbeat manga, given that one of the two protagonists is so pessimistic about the future that he cannot sleep, while the other knows that any time she slumbers, she might not live to wake again.

Perhaps a hint as to how this could be can be found in an exchange between Isaki’s friend Kanami Anamizu and a fellow student Rui Haida. Rui is a better baseball player than Kanami, despite which he quit when he realized he could never go pro. Kanami resolutely persists in playing ball. Rui is baffled, but it is clear which of the pair is enjoys life more. Maybe nobody gets to change the hand they are dealt, but they can control how they use it.

Insomniacs After School, Vol. 9 is available here (Viz), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Bookshop US), here (Bookshop UK), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).

1: If only they knew the protagonist from RuriDragon!

2: I wonder how the parental generation spent their teen years, given how consistently and unshakably they assume that all unmonitored teens in proximity must be having sex. In fact, Isaki, Ganta and their peers are resolutely sensible kids.

3: Save for one panel where it looks like someone’s nose just vanished.

Huh. I didn’t manage to fit this in. USA delenda est.