What characters are being shipped by the fans should be neither here nor there. Fans will always ship characters they like any-which-way they so choose and damn the canon! Besides subtext to me is more about hope than certainty, the hope of something more wonderful being hidden just out of sight, and so does not need to be addressed in any way. For as long as it remains ambiguous it both is and isn't (is for those who want it and not for those who don't) allowing us all to be happy readers and authors.
The unfortunate thing here is that in (we assume) reacting to this issue the author has upturned the dynamic of the manga in a rather serious way, introducing a range of elements that up until this point had not existed. As a result it has created a slight sense of distance between Pikari and Dotty, where none had existed before, and in contrast to what the story had been about; the growing depth of their friendship with each other. It is extremely jarring!
This was also done in a rather brutal manner so i am unsurprised why people are reacting to it the way they are or how it has been interpreted the way it has. To me it's a shame because the focus here has been so forced that it feels the story has jumped tracks entirely and now going onwards i'll no longer be reading a heart warming tale of this wonderful friendship but now instead it seems it'll be random school and diving stuff with some sort of mediocre romance tacked on.
last edited at Apr 16, 2018 5:50PM