lol, Yes, I am still catching up on uploads from back in the middle of August. Do have to say that after reading chapter 3 and then rereading chapters 1 and 2 (and then chapter 3 again), I am blown away by this series. "Masterpiece" is pretty fair; I'm seriously excited about the potential of the writing and the unity/depth of characterization for the characters.
Although it was a bit much to try to get a handle on them all with just the first one or two chapters, the main cast really is so distinct. You definitely have to pay a lot of attention to pretty much every panel in order to keep up with all of the concurrent relationships and developments, but the writing has been very compact and deftly handled thus far. I also have to say that the variety of personalities and their differing levels of maturity strikes me with such a strong sense of realism it almost makes me think of Girl Friends, college edition.
Ruki, as the main character, is extremely naive. Not only failing to recognize her interest in Sacchan in the first place, chapter 3 was also very interesting in that as far as I can tell Ruki might have fabricated up a "such a nice atmosphere" from her own perspective. Ruki is very interested in Sacchi, but the Sacchi of the current moment seems like she has not the slightest reason to be interested in her.
I find Fue's sleepiness to be rather one-note. But I do figure that her lack of a sex drive probably stems more from not even being in love with Asuna than any actual problems with her body.
I'm presently holding back on moral judgements against Asuna and Meru. Asuna is cheating, Meru is aggressively appealing to Asuna's/indulging in her own base instincts, but if they would both eventually just calm down a little they would probably be good for each other. I think Asuna is or was simply unbelievably attracted to Fue since some time earlier, is used to being and presenting herself as a 'good' person, and got Fue to agree to go out with her based on that. However, she actually has a strong underlying sexual appetite which used to get fulfilled through fooling around with Meru, and through which Meru is fighting to get her back. The issue is that Asuna is so attracted to Fue that until and unless Fue actually outright rejects her, she probably won't be able to give their relationship up. However, Asuna is so preoccupied with maintaining their current relationship that she can't realize or the understand the root problem that Fue doesn't love her.
Remia is mature and experienced, promiscuous but possibly underneath it all a good person. On the one hand she disapproves of Asuna's infidelity, on the other she aggressively and underhandedly tries to chase down 'prey' like Ruki and Sachi. I am rather inclined to like her but sometimes it feels like she uses her obvious edge in experience/maturity over others (i.e. Ruki) for her own gain, not really to help them out.
Masa is pretty much straight up awesome, apparently both smart and naturally gifted (also athletic, but bad at singing) but also coming from a rich family. Her pragmatically careless (but high-achieving) approach to her schooling/college demonstrates a different kind of maturity from Remia. Masa's provided a lot of the greater moments in the manga so far, and her potential pairing with Fue sounds really interesting, but so far she's the primary character about whom I'm wondering whether can actually be roped into this sordid circus of sexuality surrounding the other characters.
Finally, Sachi seems like she's gained a lot in terms of opening up her world and just having friendly advice from her relationship with Remia. Her relationship with her boyfriend and basically way of living up to now have been littered with obvious problems, but Remia's advice and perspective presently seem much more useful than Ruki's could be in helping her get ahead. With regards to Ruki, I think on the one hand she might not appreciate Ruki's obviously critical attitude about her boyfriend, but on the other she might actually want to be friends and privately sensitive about Ruki's entry-exam incident due to Ruki's perceived negative feelings for her stemming from it. Overall I also have to admit that Sachi seems to possess a lot of conventional feminine beauty which makes me want to support an ending with Ruki.
Anyway, the main idea of this post, was to think back to this page from chapter 2, and try to match up the shoes with each character: http://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/the_feelings_we_all_must_endure_ch02#3
From left to right, top to bottom, my guesses are: Ruki, Asuna, Meru, Remia, Masa, Sachi, and Fue. Meru and Remia were the toughest calls for me, with some possible overlap with Sachi's. Also I'm not confident in the basis for my guess for Masa's but it seems like the only pair which would fit.
last edited at Oct 13, 2013 6:41AM
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