Is that blonde violin girl new? I'm having an increasingly harder time distinguishing between characters in this...

last edited at Jul 22, 2021 3:58PM

Honestly even after that backstory, I still feel NO SYMPATHY for Shiho. She’s still just the same old stereotypical “I have to be the best or I’m nothing” character we’ve all seen before. I guess once a bitch, always a bitch lol

It's amazing how much less I give a crap about Shiho and her story now... Her insecurities of always being 'the best' doesn't even stem from any interesting origins, such as trying to make her parents happy, but rather from her own pure narcissism. It may be realistic but that doesn't mean it isn't boring. Let's get back in to the shipping lanes already.

Damn I really liked Shiho in the past few chapters but she sure is lil petty bitch, lol need aki to whoop her ass

This manga have so much potential to be an anime

I see no reason to give her a sob story to excuse her current personality, this felt in line with how she's been presented so far. It's not like she's in the right, I don't see this ending with her winning since, you know, one of the main protagonists is on the opposite team. She's going to have to finally learn it's okay not to be the number one.

Is that blonde violin girl new? I'm having an increasingly harder time distinguishing between characters in this...

She's Aki, Yori's bandmate. The little sister she mentions in the flashback is Miki, Himari's childhood friend. Maybe you should give a quick skim to previous chapters as a refresher.

last edited at Jul 22, 2021 6:16PM

I see no reason to give her a sob story to excuse her current personality, this felt in line with how she's been presented so far. It's not like she's in the right, I don't see this ending with her winning since, you know, one of the main protagonists is on the opposite team. She's going to have to finally learn it's okay not to be the number one.

Is that blonde violin girl new? I'm having an increasingly harder time distinguishing between characters in this...

She's Aki, Yori's bandmate. The little sister she mentions in the flashback is Miki, Himari's childhood friend. Maybe you should give a quick skim to previous chapters as a refresher.

The girl in the flashback is named Kyou not Aki

Whoops, guess the reread is in order for me then, lol. She is new then, and Shiho's taking it out on Aki as a substitute.

last edited at Jul 22, 2021 6:39PM

I can sympathize with Shiho, but only mildly. It does hurt to struggle with everything to have to accomplish something, only to see someone who doesn't even seem to care about it blow straight passed you. But that doesn't excuse her ruining her friendships and attacking other people who aren't as focused on being the best.

Aki deserves better than Shiho but even with that now they’ve added ANOTHER freaking girl to
ensure Aki won’t get peace even if they do go that route.

what a salty bitch OMG she literally started playing guitar out of spite, am i suposed to feel empathy for her after reading this chapter?
I used to not care about shiho but now i actually want her to get her ass whoped byt the SS girls.and after that they just leaver her alone

Okay, now that I know her backstory, I like her even less. She's got some ISSUES.

Shiho just needed to PRACTICE 40 hours a day.

Personally, I like Shiho. What she went through with violin is a very real issue. If you've built your entire identity around being good or "the best" at something, it can be incredibly jarring and demotivating to see that maybe you aren't all that. It actually happens a lot in the scene of classical music, musicians will get so much anxiety from just seeing their instruments that they have to stop.

I don't think any of this excuses her behavior, but it does explain it, and I can sympathize with her.
Also, this clearly isn't the only reason she left SS Girls, I'm not sure why some people are treating it like that.

Maybe Himari can start a fund where the whole group pitches in to help pay for a therapist for Shiho, because that’s what she needs.

Her entire identity during early formative years in elementary school all revolved around being the best at violin, and then when she wasn’t able to maintain that identity she crashed and burned, only to come back with a slightly altered version of her initial identity, just with guitar instead. Where were her parents in all this?? Why did they let her go through this, she’s clearly miserable.

Where were her parents in all this??

Probably basking in the "our daughter is a brilliant musician" fame among all the neighbors and gossipmongers and completely failing to even consider that this might be doing fucked up things to her mental state.

I can't tell if it was her hubris or her arrogance that brought her to where we are now.
I feel like her parents should've given her a lesson in humility before this all came about. Just tell her that she shouldn't let the praise and accomplishments go to her head for the world is vast and there will always be someone out there who is better than she is at violin. In this case, Kyou, though Kyou's want to do guitar instead of violin probably rubbed more salt than needed into Shiho. Poor lass just wanted to be friends again but we all know what happened.

Oh wow, somehow this was the chapter I needed to finally give a damn about Shiho and this whole arc. So it turns out that she only took up the guitar out of spite?! "I couldn't have what I wanted because of you, so I'll take what you wished for but couldn't have instead"?

So she's always been such an incredibly selfish and arrogant and petty person! I'm really, reaaaally happy to see that. I'm just so tired of authors giving sappy backstories to antagonists in order to justify their actions, that it feels so refreshing to finally get a story where they remain incredibly selfish and arrogant and petty.

Yes, it is understandable that a child who has been made to believe that they will forever be the best would crumble at the realisation that they are not. But that doesn't change the fact that Shiho was never able to let go of this grudge. She's still prideful and arrogant. This chapter really gave us a more complete image of who Shiho is and why she does what she does. Even her lashing out at Aki and quitting the band takes a new perspective: the reason clearly involved jealousy towards Yori, but while I used to believe that she was hurt because she likes Aki (which is still a possibility), now we also see where her inability to accept defeat stems from. Shiho felt like she was losing to Yori, and she couldn't accept that.

This chapter reignited my dislike for this character, but it also managed to finally spark some genuine interest towards her in me.

I can't skip on mentioning THE ART here. I really liked the couple of pages with Shiho struggling to surpass Kyou: Shiho's anguish, as well as the hurt in Kyou's expression...
Also, Shiho's expression here was gorgeous!
The sort of "villainous" expression that we often got in the past felt artificial to me, like the author (or maybe Shiho herself...?) was trying a bit too hard to show that she was the antagonist. But her expression here shows so much more than that. It maintains an air of arrogance, but at the same time it gives a sense of distance and loneliness, like she has a lot more in her heart than she lets Hima know.

last edited at Jul 23, 2021 7:59PM

Oh wow, somehow this was the chapter I needed to finally give a damn about Shiho and this whole arc. So it turns out that she only took up the guitar out of spite?! "I couldn't have what I wanted because of you, so I'll take what you wished for but couldn't have instead"?

So she's always been such an incredibly selfish and arrogant and petty person! I'm really, reaaaally happy to see that. I'm just so tired of authors giving sappy backstories to antagonists in order to justify their actions, that it feels so refreshing to finally get a story where they remain incredibly selfish and arrogant and petty.

Yes, it is understandable that a child who has been made to believe that they will forever be the best would crumble at the realisation that they are not. But that doesn't change the fact that Shiho was never able to let go of this grudge. She's still prideful and arrogant. This chapter really gave us a more complete image of who Shiho is and why she does what she does. Even her lashing out at Aki and quitting the band takes a new perspective: the reason clearly involved jealousy towards Yori, but while I used to believe that she was hurt because she likes Aki (which is still a possibility), now we also see where her inability to accept defeat stems from. Shiho felt like she was losing to Yori, and she couldn't accept that.

This chapter reignited my dislike for this character, but it also managed to finally spark some genuine interest towards her in me.

if you put it like that i gues shiho does work wonders as a twirling mustache villain if she had more personality and style she might as well be a clasic disney villain

Maybe aki is the little sister from Kyo?

if you put it like that i gues shiho does work wonders as a twirling mustache villain if she had more personality and style she might as well be a clasic disney villain

Hahaha, you think so?
To be honest I thought she felt very much like a twirling mustache villain at the beginning, when she first appeared just to stir up trouble. I don't think that having her be a not very good person means that she doesn't have a personality...? Either way, I'd say that the depth of her character is within my expectations for this manga.

Shiho just needed to PRACTICE 40 hours a day.

But she can never be Ling Ling

I see no reason to give her a sob story to excuse her current personality, this felt in line with how she's been presented so far. It's not like she's in the right, I don't see this ending with her winning since, you know, one of the main protagonists is on the opposite team. She's going to have to finally learn it's okay not to be the number one.

Is that blonde violin girl new? I'm having an increasingly harder time distinguishing between characters in this...

She's Aki, Yori's bandmate. The little sister she mentions in the flashback is Miki, Himari's childhood friend. Maybe you should give a quick skim to previous chapters as a refresher.

The girl in the flashback is named Kyou not Aki

Japan uses last names, not first names.

I see no reason to give her a sob story to excuse her current personality, this felt in line with how she's been presented so far. It's not like she's in the right, I don't see this ending with her winning since, you know, one of the main protagonists is on the opposite team. She's going to have to finally learn it's okay not to be the number one.

Is that blonde violin girl new? I'm having an increasingly harder time distinguishing between characters in this...

She's Aki, Yori's bandmate. The little sister she mentions in the flashback is Miki, Himari's childhood friend. Maybe you should give a quick skim to previous chapters as a refresher.

The girl in the flashback is named Kyou not Aki

Japan uses last names, not first names.

Doesn't change a thing tho, her last name is Mizuguchi.

Sigh. I really loved Shiho as a character but that backstory and now this shit is kinda making me lose interest in the story all together wish the author would take some different route or execute it differently