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I just don't have any patience left for these time-skip endings. A time-skip epilogue? Sure, but I'm so tired of these borderline form letter endings where one person leaves for X period of time and then the last chapter is their reunion.
Well it wasn;t really like that. Everything was resolved in chapter 14 without any timeskip. It was just kind of extra to show their future and Kyou changing as well.
I guess I must have hallucinated the part where the two of them were living apart for 3 years. Thanks for setting us all straight about that.
last edited at Oct 16, 2021 9:20AM
So, wait, does anyone know who those two girls from the bonus chapter are? Are they brand new characters, or are they from something else?
So, wait, does anyone know who those two girls from the bonus chapter are? Are they brand new characters, or are they from something else?
They're from this one.
Just re-read this. Cute art, cute-ish story, eye-rollingly overdramatic at times, such as the "ran into traffic" cliffhanger, or the fakeout timeskip (tragedy! no, she went to the US for a year and they had videocalls every night) (which is extra hard between the US and Japan! time zones). I'd give it a +, but not ++ or better.
Also poor Kyouko, displaced while in the bathroom, we don't even see her come out again that night.
Flashback Kurumi with long hair looks exactly like Nikaidou.
I just don't have any patience left for these time-skip endings. A time-skip epilogue? Sure, but I'm so tired of these borderline form letter endings where one person leaves for X period of time and then the last chapter is their reunion.
Well it wasn;t really like that. Everything was resolved in chapter 14 without any timeskip. It was just kind of extra to show their future and Kyou changing as well.
I guess I must have hallucinated the part where the two of them were living apart for 3 years. Thanks for setting us all straight about that.
1 Year after being 2 years together
I just don't have any patience left for these time-skip endings. A time-skip epilogue? Sure, but I'm so tired of these borderline form letter endings where one person leaves for X period of time and then the last chapter is their reunion.
Well it wasn;t really like that. Everything was resolved in chapter 14 without any timeskip. It was just kind of extra to show their future and Kyou changing as well.
I guess I must have hallucinated the part where the two of them were living apart for 3 years. Thanks for setting us all straight about that.
1 Year after being 2 years together
JFC. OK, so reading closely we see that the time skip was not as long as I said. The fact remains that the transition from Chapter 14 to 15 was one of several fakeout cliffhangers in this series.
And while there may be a universe in which Chapter 14 ends with a sequence saying, "As long as we hold on, it'll be okay. . . That's what I thought. Back then . . .", and then Chapter 15 opens with, "Several years later . . ." and that does not constitute a timeskip.
That is not the universe I inhabit, however.
I've reread this manga several times and it remains one of my favorites. I really like Nika's character in particular. Her struggles to understand whether her own feelings count as "love" in the same way everyone else describes the word really resonate with me, and her ultimate conclusion that it doesn't matter and that her desire to be with Kurumi is what's important is very touching.
One thing I'd like to mention on this topic that I haven't seen anyone else talk about. Just about every character in this manga questions whether Nika's feelings for Kurumi really count as "love" or if it's just close friendship. Nobody questions her feelings for Jun in this way -- however, there's strong indication that her love for Jun, too, was wrapped up in a lot of other complicated emotions. This page in particular describes how Jun was basically Nika's only friend and only family for most of her life, which is why when he rejected her she felt like "I'd lost my friend, my family, and my lover, all at the same time." So was her love for him really romantic, or was it platonic/familial? I imagine Nika herself would give the same answer as she does for Kurumi -- it doesn't really matter -- but the fact that nobody questions it while everyone questions her love for Kurumi is a neat, subtle way of showing how heteronormativity works in practice.
On a similarly subtle note, I also really love the subplot of Kyouko's evolving relationship with Nika. She spends most of the manga utterly despising Nika out of a combination of legitimate worries for Kurumi's wellbeing and selfish, blinkered jealousy. But you can see her start to change after New Year's. Kurumi's selfless wish for Nika's happiness seems to have a big impact on her; the next time she meets Nika, while she's kind of rude, she does end up giving Nika honest, heartfelt advice that plays a key role in helping Nika resolve her feelings. And even though we're never shown it explicitly, I can only interpret this scene as Kyouko intentionally leaving Kurumi alone and telling Nika where she is. And then in the last chapter, she's even willing to take a selfie with Kurumi to send to Nika, a picture that matters to Nika enough that she put it in her box alongside the mittens that mean so much to her. The two of them will likely never be friends, but I love the subtle way the manga portrays Kyouko finally accepting her love is doomed and getting over her jealous, irrational hatred of Nika, and I think it's a better conclusion for her character arc than a random final-chapter girlfriend would've been.
While in the end I kinda agree with @schuyguy that chapters 5 and 6 are the highlight of the manga and subsequent chapters never truly attain the same height, and yeah those cliffhangers at the end were some very blatant "make sure the audience keeps reading" bait, I still love this manga overall and always have a great time reading through it. The characters are all interesting and complex, the pacing is tight, and the art is cute. Please give it a chance if you haven't read it!