I think this was just less funny than the first volume. A higher % of the jokes have aged really poorly, mostly the ones about the pedophilic male teacher, or about eating disorders, so it was a bit more disturbing. There's also less stories about Sakaki, who I find to be the most compelling character. There is a new character though, named Kagura, who I wasn't really sure what they were trying to do with her. One thing I liked in this volume was there were two segments where Azuma breaks out of the 4-panel format, and it's effective for longer gags (reminiscent of his other series, Yotsuba). Of course I'm very attached to all the characters because this series is super nostalgic for me, but if this was the first volume instead of the second I think it'd put off a lot of new readers because of the frankly disturbing content. ( )