This is kind of nitpicky and I’m basing this entirely off memory, but I think Touko says (very loosely, mind you, but the meaning is there) something along the lines of: “This life is mine to decide” before the curtain closes, to which Yuu replies with “It’s yours, senpai.”

Yuu needs to learn to be way more selfish. She thought it was selfish to push Touko like this, but really, her selfishness needs to come in the form of her saying she also wants to be with Touko. :| C'mon Yuu. Stop being standoffish.

Come on, just fuck already

And I'm here..just wanting Sayaka to have a girlfriend.. ;_;

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/bloom_into_you_ch31#37 The bottom of this page is so telling on so many levels. On one hand, obviously, there's the subtext that she hadn't even thought about what comes after the play. On the other, that outburst? That's something she would NEVER have let slip when she had her front up.

Ah, that's what it was. I was wondering why that panel stood out to me so much, when in context it seemed to fit in perfectly as comedic Touko.

Must point out that pages 39 and 40 Yuu is holding onto the crutches, the remnants of Touko's weakness in the play. Just more symbolism of how she's afraid of being left behind.

I found the play an odd mixture of satisfying and unsettling. Satisfying because the play by itself, if it were to be performed in reality, is satisfying and hits all of its themes well. Unsettling because, of course, real life is not a story and neither Touko nor Yuu have resolved anything, despite the play's conclusion. I think the play is actually not the climax, none of it, at least not in the way we'd usually think of a climax. It's reading like a subversion of that idea. Hospital-girl couldn't just choose a side of her to live the rest of her life as, and neither can Touko finish the play and perform that part forever, no matter what it was. She needs to choose who she becomes, not have it scripted for her.

Best of all, and I mean that non-sarcastically, nothing is resolved yet change still occurs. Touko's parents come to the realization they could be more supportive, the play director learns an unknown something about the situation, there's the sense of finality and passing with Touko crying, and a reminder that life continues, with Yuu's very understandable fears of losing Touko.

I think I just love that very real feeling of a performance, event, ritual, milestone completed, and knowing it doesn't mean a thing yet knowing it's also endlessly significant.

https://dynasty-scans.com/chapters/bloom_into_you_ch31#37 The bottom of this page is so telling on so many levels. On one hand, obviously, there's the subtext that she hadn't even thought about what comes after the play. On the other, that outburst? That's something she would NEVER have let slip when she had her front up.

Ah, that's what it was. I was wondering why that panel stood out to me so much, when in context it seemed to fit in perfectly as comedic Touko.

Must point out that pages 39 and 40 Yuu is holding onto the crutches, the remnants of Touko's weakness in the play. Just more symbolism of how she's afraid of being left behind.

I found the play an odd mixture of satisfying and unsettling. Satisfying because the play by itself, if it were to be performed in reality, is satisfying and hits all of its themes well. Unsettling because, of course, real life is not a story and neither Touko nor Yuu have resolved anything, despite the play's conclusion. I think the play is actually not the climax, none of it, at least not in the way we'd usually think of a climax. It's reading like a subversion of that idea. Hospital-girl couldn't just choose a side of her to live the rest of her life as, and neither can Touko finish the play and perform that part forever, no matter what it was. She needs to choose who she becomes, not have it scripted for her.

Best of all, and I mean that non-sarcastically, nothing is resolved yet change still occurs. Touko's parents come to the realization they could be more supportive, the play director learns an unknown something about the situation, there's the sense of finality and passing with Touko crying, and a reminder that life continues, with Yuu's very understandable fears of losing Touko.

I think I just love that very real feeling of a performance, event, ritual, milestone completed, and knowing it doesn't mean a thing yet knowing it's also endlessly significant.

I fully agree with your assesment that the play is not the climax, but a moment of realization for everyone yet for Yuu she believes that this is the end of her part. Not just fear of losing Touko, Yuu believes she already has. And from here the story will mostly focus on Yuu.

I don't want to speculate as I think there are many viable directions the story can take here, but I do not think Touko and Sayaka will end up together. Right now I'm just sad due for Yuu and her assumption while hoping that we don't get different romance endings for the anime and manga.

I really can't see Yuu all Gung-Ho playing softball

What does Yuu actually think?

I really can't see Yuu all Gung-Ho playing softball

Wasn't that the point? She doesn't get gung-ho, she gets serious. So like she practices diligently, and has fun with her friends, and works hard for the team, but she doesn't really seem all that invested in whether they win or lose. She never cried after a loss, she was never -invested-, just committed.

I thought the play was pretty amazing.

I agree with the other users who said that the climax is probably what comes after the play. Even before it, it was a source of drama, like when it made Touko have a breakdown, what made Yuu decide to change Touko, all those moments in chapter 22, Touko and Yuu's confrontation in chapter 10, etc. Maybe I'm not disappointed because I didn't expect a huge twist or something of the sort, I guess other users expected Yuu to do something in a stage in front of a lot of people? Yuu didn't do anything because she meant her lines, she wanted this play exactly like this. The plot of the play was interesting for me as well, and I liked seeing other characters reacting to it, like the parents. Yeah we already knew what would happen in the play but this had to be revealed before for obvious reasons.

TLDR I can see the climax being Touko and Yuu deciding how their relationship is gonna be from now on, this was probably the plan from the beginning. Will Yuu's love epiphany be very dramatic and emotional? And the scene when Touko and her talk about their feelings? This will probably be resolved within what's left of this volume, and I hope it will be like this, I don't want to see that tension last one more volume. Just let it explode big time and then resolve it in a great way rather than prolong the tension.

last edited at May 1, 2018 1:29AM

Yuu, Fightto!!

@Heavensrun

I agree with all your points about the significance of the play and how it's an important development for the characters. However, my complaint is towards the execution of the play, which is lacking and you can agree that how the play plays out is indeed uneventful. Sorry that I wasn't clear about what I meant when I said there's nothing to the play but them acting it out. I was referring to how the play is delivered to us. Aside from the fact we already know most of the script already, there are also not a lot of moments of inner reflections/inner conflicts or moments where we get some insights into the real characters as they act, so the whole thing is mostly just us seeing the play acted out exactly to a script we already know the plot and understand the meaning of beforehand.

But honestly, If the play seems anticlimactic, that's because the play is not the climax. The climax of this chapter isn't the the start, middle, or climax of the play, the climax of this chapter is deliberately the -end- of the play. That's when all of Touko's issues come together, and that's when the tension is at it's height.

To me, the play is more like a resolution than a climax, to the Touko's drama, not the story as a whole. There is no tension because Touko was already persuaded by Yuu's words before the play, so we kinda already know what choice she was going to make. There were no conflicts, no revelations, nothing to make the play feel climatic. It simply brings a semi-conclusion to Touko's issues (this would've totally been fine if these weren't resolved so easily in the prior volume). But that's just me going off a tangent. My complaint about it feeling anticlimatic has less to do with me actually expecting it to be the climax of the story, but more so to do with how underwhelming Touko's issues have been handled in the recent chapters.

I found the play an odd mixture of satisfying and unsettling.

This and

Best of all, and I mean that non-sarcastically, nothing is resolved yet change still occurs

this pretty much sums up what I feel about this chapter. In other manga, Touko maybe would've had a breakdown mid-play to up her personal drama and have angst about Yuu feeling guilty for forcing her to face her issues in public, or any other dramatic twist (hell, in some other manga she could've decided to ad-lib that she's in love with the nurse and kiss Yuu on stage lol). I didn't expect anything like that to happen, realistically speaking, but I was still bracing myself the entire time for something else to happen, and I'm loving this feeling.

I'm not sure if this was discussed before as I usually only read the discussion and not participate, but putting Yuu as the nurse was brilliant. The thing about nurses is that they're extremely important while a patient is sick/recovering, but their relationship typically won't last after that. No matter how much they got along, when the nurse's duty is done, so is the relationship. Now the following is obvious: Yuu seems to think their relationship will be like that outside of their play too, but now she needs to figure out if she wants it to be like that, but I like how it was shown in her role in the play.

last edited at May 1, 2018 5:59AM

Now I wonder how much Koyomi's shipping preferences influenced the writing of the play…

I found the play an odd mixture of satisfying and unsettling.

Yes, exactly the same here, and to me the interesting thing is that this particular reaction puts readers in exactly Yuu’s emotional position—her plan seems to have worked out as she hoped it would, yet she feels a bit flat, perhaps even empty inside, and very worried about what comes next.

And as muetokaerou says, the temptation for Nakatani to use the play as the occasion to twist the plot or to jack up the drama onstage must have been almost overwhelming. Yet the storytelling is where it has been all along—as the various narrative paths have been taken, some possibilities are now off the table, but there are still any number of potential outcomes that would be completely consistent with the previous plot and characterizations.

I agree that the play was presented methodically and without surprises, but I’m not let down by its execution at all. I’m mostly just impressed with how this author can create so much tension and narrative uncertainty with such low-key pacing and scene development.

Now I wonder how much Koyomi's shipping preferences influenced the writing of the play…

Did we see Koyomi at all during the play sequence? I would have expected her to be onstage for the final curtain call.

Maybe she had a date with Renma-sensei and couldn’t make it . . .

It's the end ?

Wow... just WOW! Now I am really wanting to see if Yuu steps up and confesses or if Touko has to make some sort of grand gesture to bust through and force Yuu to admit her feelings...

I think Yuu was a little sad at the end, since she feels like she is like her role in the play, the one to help Touko to get on her feet and now that thats 'done' she fullfilled her usefulnes. The thing is, she actually wants Touko now but she is so awkward that I can see the next arc being about Yuu confronting her feelings and being proactive on getting close to Touko.

Wow... just WOW! Now I am really wanting to see if Yuu steps up and confesses or if Touko has to make some sort of grand gesture to bust through and force Yuu to admit her feelings...

Yes, yuu has made her move to make touko "bloom". Now is touko`s turn.

the play was superb.
I'm surprised so many people seems to get lost and not understand something whenever it needs to be able to read into things even just a little deeper than usual.

"Thank you, old me." Isn't that Bright and Cheery Arisa's line?

And I love Nurse Yuu's "tough love" therapy for people with profound cognitive injuries--a karate chop to the head for fibbing.

Then if Yuu is your nurse, maybe you wanna think about taking your medications ON TIME, huh?

I'm glad someone else pointed out her outburst about forgetting the cleanup part of the play, that's definitely something the old Touko would never let people see in fear of breaking that perfect illusion she had going on. Yuu seems to have already given up on her being anything special to Touko now that she's going to be open about herself, like Touko is going to just toss her to the wayside now that she "doesn't need her" anymore, or that she'll just go ahead and start something with Sayaka and forget her.

If anyone else is worried about the anime, Nakatani and Kusunoki (her editor) posted on Twitter that they're going to attend all the production meetings for the anime. I'm going to guess it's to help guide them on directing or animating certain things that make the manga unique. Either way I'm really excited, especially with the scriptwriter they have on board. All of the stuff he's worked on were excellent.

At first, I was a bit irked by Touko's monologuing at at the end of the play: even though I know how theater works, I still think there must have been a subtler way to show the protagonist's character development there, especially given how awesome the author (both in- and out-of-universe) has used Touko's mad acting skills in the previous acts. Then it hit me that Koyomi must have dropped the anvil on purpose, just to force Touko to say those words out loud, for her own good.

I also agree with previous comments that the play was not the climax, but the setup for the climax. While Touko is riding the euphoria right now, I expect a crash to come pretty soon, when she actually gives it some thought what she wants to do now. Still, I would love to see Yuu become the focal character next instead...