Weird tragic backstory out of nowhere for a side group I care nothing about

You're misunderstanding Shiho's character flaw. It's not like Shiho runs away from adversity out of angst. Her character flaw is her inability to except she's not number one, and the fact she keeps antagonizing Aki and Yori proves she hasn't changed.

The real tragedy of this chapter is that it showed Shiho starting to grow out of this during her montage of Grave visits. She starts talking about not stressing over missed notes and having more fun and enjoying spending time with the band. She had decided to stop visiting the grave and living in Kyou's shadow. Then whatever it was between her and Aki happened and that all went away. She found out that Kyou thought her music was the best and started up her new band with everybody else who loved Kyou with the express purpose of being the best and living in the past.
So really there was a lot of character development in the chapter. It was just all erased in the same chapter. At least now we know that if Shiho isn't constantly reminded of Kyou she might eventually become a halfway decent person.

On a mostly unrelated note Hima could use with some character development herself so she stops agreeing to ridiculous demands. Her immediately agreeing to be their band manager for life was very cringe worthy after all the trouble her original agreement caused her. Luckily it was a joke since I'm not entirely sure that Hima wouldn't have followed through on her agreement if pressed.

Last couple of volumes are total mess, can we just get our MC pair back?

EnjoyTheNoise posted:

Last couple of volumes are total mess, can we just get our MC pair back?

Come on, we just had that and plenty

Last couple of volumes are total mess, can we just get our MC pair back?

Chapters 30, 31 and 32 were totally focused on them, and last chapter we had the band spending time together + more interactions between the main couple.

last edited at Aug 23, 2022 11:01PM

Looking forward to Laureley losing the challenge so Shiho can finally just be honest about everything. Maybe I'm not a teenager anymore or my personality is just the complete opposite, but everything going on w her seems like it could just be resolved w a simple heart to heart w her former bandmates? I guess the one thing is that she's so clearly into Aki and wouldn't want to admit that. I don't even recall Hajime and Momo caring about this rivalry?

Okay, loved the backstory and all but why is Shiho being a bitch towards Aki then? :0

Probably because she fell in love with her at some point, only to find out that Aki had a crush on someone else.

Lol that’s just me being sarcastic, I knew from the beginning that was the case but hey, there’s still the possibility that it’s something else other than sexual frustration... right?

last edited at Aug 23, 2022 11:01PM

EnjoyTheNoise posted:

Last couple of volumes are total mess, can we just get our MC pair back?

Come on, we just had that and plenty

Yeah, and that wasn't enough at all lol

Doesn't help that pacing is all over the place and with every new chapter I have to remind myself who is who in side cast. Judging by replies here, I'm not the only one.

i know this chapter is supossed to make me feel bad for shiho but damn i´m at the verge of criying for kyo, she was such a gentle person, she never had any bad blood with shiho despite everything, she was rooting for her despite shiho´s twisted reason for playing the guitar and above all she and shiho never patch things up. I couldn´t care less for shiho but god damn it this chapter made me feel really sad

i know this chapter is supossed to make me feel bad for shiho but damn i´m at the verge of criying for kyo, she was such a gentle person, she never had any bad blood with shiho despite everything, she was rooting for her despite shiho´s twisted reason for playing the guitar and above all she and shiho never patch things up. I couldn´t care less for shiho but god damn it this chapter made me feel really sad

Ikr I actually feel so bad for Kyou dying and she wasn't even a regular side character, so props for that to the writer. I see some people complaining but I like this side band's story, I don't mind reading their arc for a bit

I actually quite liked this chapter, Kyou is a very sympathetic character and contrasting her and Shiho did a lot I think. There's definitely something in Shiho's character that leads her down a dark path, even before becoming so obsessed with beating Kyou and I disagree with those who say this chapter is supposed to somehow justify her being bitchy etc. It certainly gives context and I feel like I understand her better, but it doesn't fundamentally change anything about her actions, no character who she hurt before suddenly forgave her or anything. Sure, Hima is all crying and touched, but she was already convinced that Shiho is actually a good person before, so that's nothing new really.

To me, Shiho is a great tragic character who is deeply flawed, often unlikable, but who gives you the feeling that maybe under different circumstances or if they'd taken some different decisions, they could be a very different, much more happy and likeable person.

These two pages were cool. I really liked how the author conveyed the passage of time and her one-sided rambling with the use of the scenery and the clustered speech bubbles.

I quite enjoy these "tragic background" chapters of Shiho that absolutely do not justify her actions and basically show how petty and egocentric she's always been. Now, if the author's intent was to make her appear sympathetic to the audience... Well.

The twist(?) about what's-her-name dating Kyou was quite unexpected, now I'm curious to see whether there is really something going on between the senpais (as I thought before) or not.

So that was why Momo said she "maybe never will" fall in love. I have a feeling (it's pretty obvious tho) that the little sister (Hajime?) has a crush on her but as we know in this chapter, sadly would not be reciprociated.

It's quite a suprised open the comment section and saw quite an argument going on here lol. Shiho to me was a flawed, self-centered, quite unlikable yet somewhat very humane. In short, she's an interesting character, I would like to see how her story would lead too, and her other band members' story as well.

i feel like in the end the SS girls are gonna crush lorelei the same way kyo did when they were kids, shiho is gonna all be salty about it and before her breaking point, she´s going to realize that the reason she drifted apart from kyo and started hating music was her pride and ego and that she´s been using kyo to justify her sick relationship with music
After that she going to finally see that she´s losing aki the same way she lost kyo and hopefully stops being such a bitch. Momoka and hajime will probably realize that obsessing over music like that is not what kyo wanted for them and decide to take it easy and enjoy music

benja posted:

i feel like in the end the SS girls are gonna crush lorelei the same way kyo did when they were kids, shiho is gonna all be salty about it and before her breaking point, she´s going to realize that the reason she drifted apart from kyo and started hating music was her pride and ego and that she´s been using kyo to justify her sick relationship with music
After that she going to finally see that she´s losing aki the same way she lost kyo and hopefully stops being such a bitch. Momoka and hajime will probably realize that obsessing over music like that is not what kyo wanted for them and decide to take it easy and enjoy music

That sounds very accurate, it's almost a spoiler...the first part, I don't know about the second.

That sounds very accurate, it's almost a spoiler...the first part, I don't know about the second.

just wild a guess my friend , unless......
but jokes aside i feel like the author has made a great job to keep the story and characters consistent, so far there´s been really few unexpected things happening. If you pay close attention to the story you can make educated guesses on what´s probably going to happen

Nah, but Shiho it's so real, as a classical musician I can relate and yes, she's my favorite character.

I understand why people don't like her but to me it's the day to day in uni, but at least she knows her flaws and she's working on it and find people with her high standards. searching perfection and comparison with classmates it's so relatable, now imagine in a competition.

Also this manga as a whole it's getting a lot of hate for no reason, like it's so easy just to drop it or to don't read it if this is not your kind of story.

Well, i like Shiho and I hope she can get the girl cause, pain.

The issue I have with this particular chapter and with the character of Shiho in general is that they feel like they are from a totally different manga and dropped in here. This is the kinda shit you'd expect to see in a overwrought and moody manga where characters say such profound things and then stare off into the distance whist a massive thunderhead gathers above them. Like, this manga has a protag who constantly looks like this!

This feels like the wrong manga that Shiho should be in and that the problem with her is....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUFT35S7Jb4

last edited at Aug 27, 2022 1:17PM

I'm so confused right now. I thought the girl she cared about was one of the other characters but suddenly it's some character they've never mentioned until now? What is with this writing.

I'm so confused right now. I thought the girl she cared about was one of the other characters but suddenly it's some character they've never mentioned until now? What is with this writing.

She was mentionned, although it was only one chapter as far as i remember

I'm so confused right now. I thought the girl she cared about was one of the other characters but suddenly it's some character they've never mentioned until now? What is with this writing.

We had a whole chapter dedicated to Kyou and Shiho, where we got to see why she's so important to her.

Just because I can't have her, so I hate her. Oh and also I hate your lover as well because your love at first sight worked out but not mine.

what.

Oh on the other hand, I'm glad Hima actually talked about this to her, it's like hating someone just because they are there. It makes no sense.

Spoilers, chapter isn't here yet

Fucking finally...!
After all that painfully slow buildup and rather weird tragic backstory bit the truth is finally revealed and it's...
...exactly like we thought for like eight chapters ago.

OMG I DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING!!!

NOT

Yeah, the secret that wasn’t a secret. Shiho you’re too obvious for your own good.