Assuming I got the spelling right—yeah, the crabby/kind kouhai with the little sister who Shino helped.
For my money, this series is ambiguity-about-a-character done right. (I’m not going to bash the counter-example I have in mind by title, because this isn’t the place for it.)
Nozomi is incredibly kind, flirty, and cuddly with Shino, and tons of elements of their relationship signal “romance.” But tons of them also don’t, and Nozomi’s behavior can just as easily be explained by the facts that:
- Nozomi has always been fond of Shino as her husband’s little sister.
- They share the bond of the brother’s loss.
- She relates to Shino as a girl who is growing up.
- Shino is the main connection to her lost husband.
My attitude is entirely subjective, but I just don’t ever get the feeling that this is an author who is ship-teasing or inadvertently sending mixed signals, or one who isn’t in control of where the story is going, but is one who is genuinely interested in developing the nuances of a very complex emotional situation.
And who is doing a very fine job of it.
(OK, the sex-bomb cover illustrations my be a bit of ship-teasing, but they’re too much fun for me to complain about.)