How did she know her ring size?

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Hiyama knows all of her sizes by this point.

There was even a series sometime back that featured characters who were aware of the fact that they were side characters in a romance manga (sometimes characters drifted in from other genres and experienced severe culture shock)—I think it got axed or dumped by the translators just as it was really getting going, IIRC.

I believe you are refering to the one-shot I mentioned in last chapter's discussion, "The Fourth Heroine". It fits your description, aside form the fact that it was never intended to be a series. That was exactly what I was thinking of myself.

You're quite right--I would have sworn there had been more chapters, though. And been quite wrong.

My point is that there’s no evidence that most of the characters, including the main ones, have much if any recall of occurrences in previous episodes.

Perhaps, although evidence is tipping the scales into the opposite direction slightly. In the first chapter the protagonist already implied this has been going on for a while after all, meaning she does remember. And in the bonus page of the current chapter the friend points out Hiyama being broke again after buying the ring, which is a reference to her spending all that money on the lavish presents in a previous chapter.

I'm wondering how much of that is just authorial wavering (or maybe even indifference) about the degree of continuity there's going to be.

As I mentioned, in shoujo comedy manga there's often a degree of continuing cluelessness that would be psychologically dysfunctional perseverance--a damaging failure to learn from experience--in real life.

So it's easier to imagine this as simple adherence to trope conventions rather than indicating, say, profoundly deep self-esteem issues on MC's part. If this were an actual shoujo manga, we'd expect Low-Self-Esteem Protagonist to continue to be that way until some transformative epiphany would indicate the final turn toward the series conclusion. But here it's as if Hiyama's confessional interventions (which would constitute the epiphany if this were a yuri manga) short-circuit the trope machine, so poor Kimura has to keep starting over, desperately trying to get Hiyama back into her proper "popular rival" position so the tropes will work.

last edited at Jan 9, 2022 1:20PM

Why are you guys trying to treat this as some sort of meta series instead of a funny comedy thingy?

Why are you guys trying to treat this as some sort of meta series instead of a funny comedy thingy?

I’m sorry—does speculating about the relationship of this series to continuity—i.e., talking about how its comedy works—cause some sort of problem for you?

^Nah I just think you're thinking way too hard about this lol

^Nah I just think you're thinking way too hard about this lol

It may surprise you to learn that some people find thinking to be pleasant.

I'm not sure if it's just me, but I'm not really feeling any chemistry between the lead characters here.

^Nah I just think you're thinking way too hard about this lol

It may surprise you to learn that some people find thinking to be pleasant.

No need to be passive-aggressive

Why are you guys trying to treat this as some sort of meta series instead of a funny comedy thingy?

It is not that I believe this manga to be anything but a one-note comedy as my earlier comments make abundantly clear, but I rather find the notion of a deeper meta commentary more entertaining than the alternative of it being as basic as it seems.

Overthinking things is my speciality.

I'm not sure if it's just me, but I'm not really feeling any chemistry between the lead characters here.

That is truly the point, is it not? Kimura already has a (rather dull and unsupported) crush on some meaningless boy. Hiyama's single-mindedly pursuing our protagonist whether she likes her back or not. With their feelings so at odds the chemistry can't be anything but turbulent. Nontheless, Kimura has given positive reactions to Hiyama's advances a couple of times, so don't count them out just yet.

last edited at Dec 27, 2021 10:48PM

^Nah I just think you're thinking way too hard about this lol

It may surprise you to learn that some people find thinking to be pleasant.

No need to be passive-aggressive

Lol. That's a super weird thing to say considering you were the one who started it.
Maybe ... let people have conversations about what they want to have conversations about and ignore it if you're not into it?

I always find meta commentary incredibly interesting, whether it's purposely part of a story or not.

OMG I have been searching all over for this series and couldn’t seem to find the raws. Thank you so much for picking this up Cuetie Scans.

For anyone who is wondering about the het tag and don’t know if jumping on this ship is a waste of time, please DO NOT WORRY, Hiyama and Kimura are both cute af and it’s definitely not yuri baiting xD (dunno whether if this’ll be counted as spoiler but I think Im gonna try my luck)

last edited at Dec 28, 2021 9:41AM

I nearly missed her putting the ring on. I'm not sure if that counts as smooth but it sure is brazen.

The protagonist and the rival are now engaged. :D

She puts the ring on casually here, but when it's the other way round though. Heheheheh.

^Nah I just think you're thinking way too hard about this lol

It may surprise you to learn that some people find thinking to be pleasant.

No need to be passive-aggressive

Lol. That's a super weird thing to say considering you were the one who started it.
Maybe ... let people have conversations about what they want to have conversations about and ignore it if you're not into it?

I always find meta commentary incredibly interesting, whether it's purposely part of a story or not.

Well, I started it but I wasn't being rude. I also wasn't stopping anyone from having discussions.

last edited at Dec 29, 2021 9:28PM

I remember reading the last few chapters in gangan joker when they published, since the translation for it stopped at 10 for a long while (last published chapter in magazine is 16 in gangan joker 2021/09 issue, which dunno what chapter would be in the last volume 4, probably like 46 with 47 being the new extra chapter), then seeing how this was done in the volumes, just gave me a headache, if there was people that only followed the magazine chapters for this but never checked the pixiv version, the order was all weird, there was so much context and in-between stuff missing between magazine chapters, because then all that context was all put together when compiled in the volumes, don't know the reason why it went like this, but yeah

magazine chapters 11 and 12 were released in mangadex, but i wouldn't recommend to read them and just stick with this, since chapter 12 is already 39 from volume 4, so is nearly the end with 4 left from magazine

last edited at Jan 4, 2022 11:45PM

As an accountant, i’ve had less issues understanding tax codes than understanding what the hell is going on with this series’ chapters. Are they a remake of the web version? Are they an alternate universe? That chart at the beggining of the thread didn’t help at all lol.

Anyway, is still cute and funny

Hiyama, sweety…honey. She is STRAIGHT. Please move on, there is no hope with this one.

Most people feign straight until they get a little wet

Best reaction. :D

Hiyama, sweety…honey. She is STRAIGHT. Please move on, there is no hope with this one.

Most people feign straight until they get a little wet

That maybe true, but All evidence, so far, points to the fact hat Hyama is barking up the wrong tree. In fact if this was a trial, it take the jury less then 10 minutes to return the virtdict that Kimura is straight as an arrow.

last edited at Jan 31, 2022 1:10AM

Hiyama, sweety…honey. She is STRAIGHT. Please move on, there is no hope with this one.

Most people feign straight until they get a little wet

That maybe true, but All evidence, so far, points to the fact hat Hyama is barking up the wrong tree. In fact if this was a trial, it take the jury less then 10 minutes to return the virtdict that Kimura is straight as an arrow.

Only if they haven't been presented all the evidence we've been shown.

Hiyama, sweety…honey. She is STRAIGHT. Please move on, there is no hope with this one.

Most people feign straight until they get a little wet

That maybe true, but All evidence, so far, points to the fact hat Hyama is barking up the wrong tree. In fact if this was a trial, it take the jury less then 10 minutes to return the virtdict that Kimura is straight as an arrow.

Only if they haven't been presented all the evidence we've been shown.

Quite right. Pending further evidence, I’m sticking with my theory that Kimura is failing to drag Hyama into her planned shoujo manga and is slowly being absorbed into Hyama’s yuri story.

Because of the power of love.

Hiyama is a massive dork that just wants to show off a bit to try and appeal to Kimura but often goes a bit overboard.

Hiyama is a massive dork that just wants to show off a bit to try and appeal to Kimura but often goes a bit overboard.

She's acting as she was directed to do. The only thing she's managed to break away from is her chosen target. They don't have all that much free will, either of them. Hopefully, Kimura will slowly develop her own feelings. But they may not be for Hiyama.

Hiyama, sweety…honey. She is STRAIGHT. Please move on, there is no hope with this one.

Most people feign straight until they get a little wet

That maybe true, but All evidence, so far, points to the fact hat Hyama is barking up the wrong tree. In fact if this was a trial, it take the jury less then 10 minutes to return the virtdict that Kimura is straight as an arrow.

Only if they haven't been presented all the evidence we've been shown.

Quite right. Pending further evidence, I’m sticking with my theory that Kimura is failing to drag Hyama into her planned shoujo manga and is slowly being absorbed into Hyama’s yuri story.

Because of the power of love.

My yuri goggles wants that to true, but my inner yuri sceptic tells me this is just a gag comic that will just be discontinued when the writer gets bored of the joke. Man my inner yuri sceptic is a real downer. Lol.