Just saying... doesn't Maekawa seem a little... abusive? Like, she expects her friend to completely emotionally care for her, never leave her side, and always be there for emotional support. She uses the fact that her friend likes her and blatantly leads her on for the specific purpose of becoming an emotional leech and isolating her from others (i.e getting pissed when she needs to talk to others, even in a work setting). And most importantly she manipulates her emotionally, guilt tripping her into never leaving under any circumstances, even when being toyed with and used, else being an evil monster just like everyone else who's ever left her. Disclaimer: I still don't think Maekawa is a bad person, just has way to many issues to dump on a friend or spouse. This relationship is getting more and more toxic. It's getting kind of hard to read this and ship them together, Shizumu deserves so much better. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive to this because I've been exposed to it tho.
Yes her behavior is not healthy, although I would not go so far as to call it abusive and I think you are probably reading too much malice into her motivations. Maekawa is quite self aware about the harm her behavior can cause those she grows close to. It is the reason that despite having a pretty serious crush on Maekawa she goes out of her way to try and maintain a safe distance in their relationship even going so far as to outright warn Shizumu about her pattern of harmful behavior with past lovers.
The fact Maekawa really cares about and is attached to Shizumu is paradoxically the same reason she keeps her distance and refuses to date her because she is aware of the harm it would do. She doesn't want to end up using and discarding Shizumu the way she has all her past lovers.
Those who suffer from mental or emotional problems that are damaging to the people around them aren't always bad or malicious people. Many are haunted and guilt ridden by the inevitable hurt they cause their loved ones, but are unable to stop it. Some will choose to completely self isolate. Others may just keep everyone in their life at an arms length in an attempt to prevent it from happening again, but the crushing loneliness and fundamental human desire for intimacy gnaws away at their resolve to remain at a safe distance. This is a big part of what we are watching happen with Maekawa.
Shizumu has her own issues that have kept her from ever having an intimate relationship with another human being which differ from Maikawa's, but the end result is similar in that they are both very lonely people that desperately want to be closer to the other but are too deathly afraid and damaged to let it happen. You view the relationship as being very one sided as far as who is hurting who, but if you look back through the chapters you can see how even innocent and kind hearted Shizumu has ended up hurting Maikawa due to her various mental and emotional hang ups.
There is a reason this manga is titled Still Sick.
Also, for the record, this is one of my all time favorite manga on this site. I wish there were more subtle and intelligently written stories like this on here. I think I even put this above Bloom Into You which is basically the gold standard I judge all yuri dramas against.
last edited at Jul 18, 2019 4:04AM
Come to mama!!!
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