Inokuma Shinobu may be holding to the timeline he set down in the first series after all. This series is set before the flash-forward that ended the first series.

The new series opens with the opening ceremonies for the 10th year. Oda Mari, cover girl once again, is now 25 and teaching at Mizushō. Kurosawa-sensei, Kondō-sensei, Ono-sensei, and the still nameless vice principal with the bad comb-over are all still at Mizusho too, although there is a new principal named Matsumoto. Tanabe-sensei and Yoshioka-sensei moved away to a new Mizushō High established in Sapporo's Susukino district (see Volume 16 of the first series.)

Nagasawa Daichi isn't married to Oda Mari (yet) but he is helping his sister Miwa and her friend Hanao Ayame run the M&A club in Roppongi.

The girl with glasses on the front cover with Oda Mari is Asakusahashi Riko. She's not on very friendly terms with Oda as yet because Oda is a rival for the affections of Kakimura Tatsuki, a student in the Host Group. If you look at the back cover, she's the one wearing trousers. That's right, he's a she, sort of the reverse situation from Teppei-chan in the first series. Kakimura knows Nagasawa; don't know how or why yet.

The other girl on the back cover is Fujimori Ami, Fūzoku Group. (You have got a copy by now, haven't you? Mine cost $10.95, plus tax, at Kinokuniya, not unreasonable, even if it was a special order.)

There's a first-year Manager student named Ozaki, with a Mohawk and a small chin-beard, who looks like he might get some more coverage in Volume 2.